Dr. Hawkins and Kate Kloss attended the 12th Annual MI Men’s Health Event at Ford Field in Detroit on October 8th. The event supports men and their families by providing free health screenings and community resources.

In November, Dr. Jamie Mitchell's community advisory board members went to the Gerontological Society of America’s Annual Conference to present a poster, “Preparing the Ground: Developing Community-Based Strategies to Engage Older Black Men in Health Research” to help guide more community outreach initiatives and increase recruitment efforts for 2023.

In October, the Curtis Center team volunteered at Food Gatherers.

In November, the Curtis Center team enjoyed a nice holiday lunch, hosted by the Curtis Center’s Acting Director, Dr. Jaclynn Hawkins.

Dr. Gretchen Piatt, Department Vice Chair of Learning Health Sciences, Associate Chair for Education Programs, Associate Professor of Learning Health Sciences, Associate Professor of Health Behavior and Health Education, Director of the Health Infrastructures and Learning Systems (HILS) Program, Director of Precision Health Graduate Certificate Program 

Dr. Natasha Johnson, Assistant Professor of Social Work, Columbia University  

Dr. Janelle Goodwill, Neubauer Family Assistant Professor, The University of Chicago

Katie Kurnick, MSW

Graduate Student Research Assistant

The University of Michigan

Srijani Sengupta, BS, Biology, Health, and Society

Undergraduate Research Assistant

The University of Michigan

Under Dr. Watkins’s leadership, the Curtis Center was selected, by the National Network of Public Health Institutes (NNPHI) and the CDC, to evaluate two state health departments, to examine the extent to which they have “improved capacity and services to address COVID-19 health disparities, and advance health equity among populations at higher risk, and that are underserved”. We are currently evaluating the Washington State Department of Health’s “Equitable Funding Allocation Methodology” – which has both quantitative and qualitative decision-making components to distribute grant funding equitably. And the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services' “Healthier Together Initiative” - a public-private partnership with NCCounts, to increase the number of individuals who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color and from other historically marginalized populations receiving COVID-19 vaccinations across the state of North Carolina.

The Delta Research and Educational Foundation (DREF), in collaboration with Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. (DST) and the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), is conducting a national health initiative entitled, “Research Matters: Creating Possibilities to Achieve Health and Wellness for All of Us.” The initiative is made possible by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) All of Us Research Program. The ultimate objective is to enroll African Americans in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) national registry, creating a database that significantly includes their engagement as potential participants for clinical trials. On November 10, Dr. Hawkins and Kate Kloss had the opportunity to present for this group on African American men and type 2 diabetes: lessons learned and the road ahead in program research!

Work continues on our Michigan Health Endowment Fund (MHEF) project, a Behavioral Health Collaborative for Young Black Men and Boys. Dr. Watkins’s YBMen team and Packard Health were funded to develop a network of community organizations committed to services and coordinated care models that address the behavioral health needs of young Black men and boys in Washtenaw County. We hired a Community Engagement Manager, Kiyoshi Shelton, and have been meeting with a core group of organizations that are now positioned to deliver programming to support Black boys and young men, and the village of support around them.

The Curtis Center partnered with the UM Cardiac Surgery Department Clothing Drive for House By the Side of the Road. It was a huge success, far surpassing the goal of 800 items of new clothes for our neighbors in need this year! Together with other partners, we helped to collect 1,046 items, including $11,939 through the Amazon wishlist.

Dr. Jamie Mitchell and her team tailored recruitment efforts in Flint, MI towards Black men by utilizing targeting recruitment events, creating tailored video promotions, and launching the EngageUS website to focus on recruiting older African Americans to a research registry for non-invasive health research. This was done through the Recruiting and Retaining Older African Americans into Research R24 grant along with the guidance of their community advisory board members.

GRANTS

Schultz, K. & Spencer, M. S. (2022, April). Centering Indigenous research & communities in advancing anti-racist research. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research. 

Ribeiro Brown, B., Williams, E.-D.G., Abelson, J.M., Chandrakapure, A., & Watkins, D.C. (2022, June). An Exploratory Case Study of the Types of Resources Black Boys Use to Support Their Mental Health. Healthcare.

Cascino, T.M., Somanchi, S., Colvin, M., Chung, G.S., Brescia, AA., Pienta, M., Thompson, M.P., Stewart, J.W., Sukul, D., Watkins, D. C., Pagani, F.D., Likosky, D.S., Aaronson, K.D., & McCullough, J.S.  (2022, July). Racial and gender inequities in the utilization of and outcomes after left ventricular assist devices among Medicare patients: A retrospective cohort study. JAMA Open.

Fedina, L., Shyrokonis, Y., Backes, B., Schultz, K., Ashwell, L., Hafner, S., & Rosay, A. (2022, September). Intimate partner violence, economic insecurity, and health outcomes among American Indian and Alaska Native men and women: findings from a national sample. Violence Against Women. 

Ivanich, J. D., & Schultz, K. A. (2022, September). A call for expansion and innovation in research on protective factors and suicide prevention among American Indian and Alaska Native populations. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice. 

Cuffee, Y. L., Wang, M., Geyer, N. R., Saxena, S., Akuley, S., Jones, L. & Wilson, R. T. (2022, September). Vitamin D and family history of hypertension in relation to hypertension status among college students. Journal of Human Hypertension. 

Zhang, A., Wang, K. Acquati, C., Kamat, A., & Walling, E. (2022, September). Age as a moderator for the association between depression and self-rated health among cancer survivors: a U.S. based population study. Journal of Psychosocial Oncology.  

Cascino, T. M., Colvin, M. M., Lanfear, D. E., Richards, B., Khalatbari, S., Mann, D. L., Taddei-Peters, W. C., Jeffries, N., Watkins, D. C., Stewart, G. C., Aaronson, K. D., & REVIVAL Investigators. (2022, October). Racial inequities in access to ventricular assist device and transplant persist after consideration for preferences for care: A report from the REVIVAL study. Circulation: Heart Failure.

Wang, K., Zhang, A., Cuevas, A. G., De Fries, C. M., Hinton, L., & Falcón, L. M. (2022, October). The association between post-traumatic stress and depressive symptoms among older Puerto Ricans in Boston: How does loneliness matter? Journal of Aging and Health. 

Weaver, A., Landry, C., Zhang, A., McQuown, L., Hahn, J., Harrington, M., Tucker, K. M., Holzworth, J., Buys, T., Smith, F. N., Grogan-Kaylor, A., Pfeiffer, P. N., Kilbourne, A. M., & Himle, J. A. (2022, October). Study protocol: A randomized controlled trial of Raising Our Spirits Together, an entertaining, group-based technology-assisted cognitive behavioral therapy for depression, tailored for rural adults and delivery by clergy. Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications.

Acquati, C., Hibbard, J. H., Miller-Sonet, E., Zhang, A., & Ionescu, E. (2022, October). Patient activation and treatment decision-making in the context of cancer: examining the contribution of informal caregivers’ involvement. Journal of Cancer Survivorship.  

Goodwill, J. R., & Yasui, M. (2022, October). Mental health service utilization, school experiences, and religious involvement among a national sample of Black adolescents who attempted suicide: Examining within and cross-race group differences. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal.

Lateef, H. A., Gale, A., Boyd, D., Arab, H., Amoako, E., & Williams, E. (2022, October). African-Centered Social Work in the 21st Century: A Content Analysis. Social Work.

Williams, E. G., Smith, M. J., & Boyd, B. (2022, November). Perspective: The role of diversity advisory boards in autism research. Autism.

Wang, K., Zhang, A., De Fries, C. M., & Hasche, L. K. (2022, December). Education moderates the association between depressive symptoms and self-rated health among older adults with cancer. Health & Social Work. 

Burns, J., Reeves, J., Adams, M., Darville-Sanders, G., Johnstone, K. A., Jr, Ozuna-Harrison, R., Johnson, K., Ware, D., Shade, G. H., Jr, & Bradley, W. W., Sr. (2022, December). Young Men's Health Matters: Implementing a community-academic partnership in an urban federally qualified health center. Inquiry: A Journal of Medical Care Organization, Provision and Financing.

Watkins, D. C., & Johnson, N. C. (2023, January). Advancing education research through mixed methods with existing data. Chapter in International Encyclopedia of Education (4th ed., vol. 12).

Fleming, P. J., Stone, L. C., Creary, M. S., Greene-Moton, E., Israel, B. A., Key, K. D., ... & Schulz, A. J. (2023, January). Antiracism and Community-Based Participatory Research: Synergies, Challenges, and Opportunities. American Journal of Public Health. For the University of Michigan School of Public Health’s article about Dr. Fleming’s essay, click here.

Tabb, K. M., Dalton, V. K., Tilea, A., Kolenic, G. E., Admon, L. K., Hall, S. V., ... & Zivin, K. (2023, January). Trends in antenatal depression and suicidal ideation diagnoses among commercially insured childbearing individuals in the United States, 2008–2018. Journal of Affective Disorders.

Cascino, T.M., Colvin, M., Lanfearb, D., Richards, B., Khalatbari, S., Mann, D. L., Taddei-Peters, W. C., Jeffriese, N., Watkins, D. C., Stewart, G. C., & Aaronson, K. D. (Accepted). Racial inequities in access to VAD and transplant persist after consideration for preferences for care: A report from the Registry Evaluation for Vital Information for VADs in Ambulatory Life (REVIVAL). Circulation: Heart Failure.

Spolum, M., Lopez, W., Watkins, D. C., & Fleming, P. J. (Accepted). Reducing the harms of policing through alternative unarmed response teams. American Journal of Public Health.

Varma, D.S., Samuels, E., Piatt, G., Watkins, D. C., Spiroff, M., Cottler, L., Gaxiola, S. A., & Murphy, S. L., (Accepted). Community health workers and promotoras’ perspectives of a research best practice course: A focus group study. Journal of Clinical and Translational Science.

Watkins, D. C., Brown, B.R., Abelson, J.M., & Ellis, J. (In Press). First-Generation Black College Men and the Value of Cohort-Based Programs: Addressing Inequities Through the YBMen Project. In Health promotion with adolescent boys and young men of colour: Global strategies for advancing research, policy and practice in context. Co-Edited Book. Springer: New York, NY.