The Community Engagement Core is a centralized resource that helps investigators meaningfully engage trauma-affected communities and other constituents throughout the research process so that research is relevant, responsive, and positioned for real-world impact.
In practice, the Core helps trauma-focused investigators to:
- Identify who should have a voice in the research and when/how to engage them
- Obtain input from people with lived experience and other constituents through Participant Engagement Groups and Community Advisory Boards
- Incorporate community perspectives into research questions, study procedures, recruitment/retention strategies, interventions, and implementation
- Develop authentic, sustainable partnerships with trauma-affected communities
- Apply Community-Engaged Research principles across the research lifecycle
- Consider social and contextual factors that may influence trauma-related health outcomes
- Build investigators’ skills and capacity for high-quality community-engaged research
- Support self-care and burnout prevention
Personnel
| Name |
Academic Title / Affiliation |
Role |
| Marvella Elizabeth Ford, PhD |
Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences, College of Medicine, MUSC |
Director |
| Cristina M. López, PhD |
Professor, National Crime Victims Research & Treatment Center, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, College of Medicine, MUSC |
Associate Director |
| Colleen Halliday, PhD |
Associate Professor, National Crime Victims Research & Treatment Center, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, College of Medicine, MUSC |
Assistant Director |
| Tonya Hazelton, MS |
Program Manager, Office of the Dean, College of Nursing, MUSC |
CE Core Administrator; Community Partner Liaison |
