Our Team

CHDR Leadership

Our research and outreach activities focus on improving access to quality health care for underserved populations and reducing health disparities between groups. We work with African American, Hispanic, and other low-income populations in the Charleston metropolitan area to address the growing burden of diabetes and hypertension among ethnic minorities by providing education, training, and novel health care innovations. We partner with Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) and other community-based practices in the Lowcountry and across South Carolina to improve health outcomes. 

As we look to the future and continue to push for progress, we are also developing the next generation of researchers through residency education, mentoring health professions students, and outreach activities to middle school, high school, and college students, who will carry on the work of investigating, understanding, and developing approaches to eliminating health disparities. We welcome your interest and invite you to join us.

Sincerely,

William Moran, M.D.
Interim Director, MUSC Center for Health Disparities Research (CHDR)

CHDR Research Staff

Dawn Dericke, RN, BSN, CCRC (Research Nurse Coordinator)
Dawn joined MUSC as a registered nurse for the MUSC Center for Health Disparities Research (CHDR) in September 2014. Dawn was born in Massachusetts and raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia. She studied life sciences at Penn State University and went to nursing school at Horry Georgetown Technical College. Her clinical research interests include health behavior and health disparities research with special emphasis on integrative health and vulnerable populations.

Caroline Wallinger, RN, BSN (Research Nurse Coordinator)
A Charleston native, Caroline received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from MUSC in 2012. Nursing is a second career for her after working in the publishing industry for a decade. She enjoys educating diabetes patients, and believes preventive health and managing chronic disease are the keys to controlling the ever-increasing costs of health care, while enabling more people to enjoy a better quality of life.