Conducting meetings and seminars to discuss the unique considerations for advancing community-engaged research aimed at dismantling structural racism

The Foundation's Change Leadership Program was designed to support the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Leadership for Better Health's four National Program Centers; the cross-program Leadership Institute; and the RWJF Coordinating Center for the Change Leadership Programs authorization. This funding supports a learning expansion of the Interdisciplinary Research Leaders (IRL) program, one of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Change Leadership Programs. This cohort-driven leadership development program supports teams of researchers and community partners in applying community-engaged, action-oriented, equity-focused health research to support community health. Selection of cohorts 6 and 7 of the IRL program provided a clear illustration of the challenges in advancing and the progress needed to advance new knowledge addressing structural racism. Many applicants focused on individual and personal-level changes to navigate systems and did not define a structure for eliminating or ways to eliminate racist practices in a system. This project will invoke a group of leaders focused on the common goal of eliminating structural racism, with an emphasis on community-engaged research, and on informing later generations of structural racism research. Deliverables will include presentations to RWJF, related grantees, and the field, and dismantling structural-racism-related case studies and infographics.