The Fourth Annual CHER Chicago (Center for Health Equity Research Chicago) Town Hall meeting was held last week to provide community members with a forum to drive the organization’s research agenda. CHER Chicago’s mission is to make transformative contributions toward the elimination of structural violence through collaborative community partnerships, innovative research, and the development of researchers.
Held at the Akarama Foundation in Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood, the event began with Robert Winn, MD, director of the University of Illinois Cancer Center, introducing Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, a former member of the Illinois House of Representatives who became the state’s first African-American woman to be elected lieutenant governor.
Nicole Robinson, vice president of community impact at the Greater Chicago Food Depository, served as keynote speaker.
Researchers who were awarded 2019-2020 pilot grants also provided an account of their projects. This year’s recipients were:
Rohan Jeremiah, PhD, MPH
Project: “Quad Cities Refugee Men’s Health Initiative Pilot Study.”
Angelica Scanzera, OD
Project: Telemedicine Diabetic Retinopathy Screening in an Urban Setting: Population Characteristics
Jyotsna Jagai, MS, MPH, PhD and Molly Scannell Bryan, MPP, PhD
Project: Breast cancer risk: The intersection of structural violence, environmental inequalities, and family history
Each project receives $50,000 and must be completed within one year. The closing date for submitting an application (https://www.cherchicago.org/2019/09/23/request-for-research-proposals-due-january-22-2019-at-1159pm-cdt/) is January 21, 2020.
Researchers who are conducting additional projects also provided an update on their
Rosalba Hernandez, PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Project: Obesity in Hispanic/Latino Youth: Integenerational Effects of Parents’ Stress
UI Cancer Center members Lisa Tussing-Humphreys, PhD, MS, RD, and Paul Grippo, PhD
Project: The Influence of Structural Violence and Individual Behavior and Health on the Gut Microbiome and Colorectal Cancer Risk
Karen Kim, MD, University of Chicago
Project: The Intergenerational Impact of Structural Violence in the South East Asian American Immigrant Population
Photos of the event can be viewed here.