Center for Health Equity Research (CHER)

ABSTRACT The NIMHD-funded Center for Health Equity Research (CHER) was established in 2017 at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), as a groundbreaking and inclusive hub of research and community partnerships to advance health equity and eliminate health inequalities among minority populations by addressing structural violence. Structural violence, one of the major root causes of health disparities, refers to the multiple ways in which social, economic, and political systems expose vulnerable populations to risks leading to increased morbidity and mortality. The Center is housed in the UIC Institute for Minority Health Research, and brings together multidisciplinary investigators from additional UIC units, i.e., the School of Public Health, College of Medicine, and the Office of Community Engagement and Neighborhood-Health Partnerships, to engage in transdisciplinary and multi-level research. CHER is led by under-represented minorities (URM) investigators with expertise on health disparities and community engagement. Since its inception, the Center has successfully strengthened institutional and investigators’ capacity to pursue health disparities research on structural violence, assembled talented scholars including early-stage investigators (ESI), promoted career development of ESI, and scholarly activities and submission of grant applications by CHER investigators, and fostered community engagement and collaborations. This application requests funds to support core operations for the Center (Administrative Core [AC], Investigator Development Core [IDC], and Community Engagement and Dissemination Core [CEDC]) for an additional (bridge) year (Year 6), to continue the ongoing work of our Center on structural violence in the Chicago area and disseminate widely the lessons learned over the past 5 years. The overall goal for the proposed Year 6 is to continue to advance the science of health disparities by examining in depth the mechanisms by which structural violence contributes to health disparities in racial/ethnic and gender minority populations and how structural violence and/or its pathways to health can be addressed. The overall specific aims are to: 1) Strengthen institutional and investigator capacity to pursue health disparities research on structural violence (AC); 2) Provide career development opportunities to junior faculty, post-doctoral trainees, and new investigators, especially those of URM backgrounds (AC and IDC); 3) Enhance the production of publications and grant applications in structural violence as a root cause of health inequalities (IDC); and 4) Facilitate and strengthen community partnerships for the support of engaged scholarship and the dissemination and translation of research (CEDC).