Collaborative Center for Health Equity (CCHE)

Suite 4230-4240, Health Sciences Learning Center

About CCHE

Our Mission

The Collaborative Center for Health Equity (CCHE) will build lasting partnerships and engage university and community partners in collaborative teaching, research, and service initiatives to improve health equity in underserved communities of Wisconsin.

Our Vision

The Center will address and enhance health equity across underserved Wisconsin communities. The Center will be a known, respected and trusted entity where partners from rural, urban, tribal and other communities within Wisconsin can engage with academic partners (faculty, research staff and students) to utilize or develop education, training and research resources to improve the health and wellness of diverse Wisconsin communities. To maximize the combined resources, talents, and expertise of the leadership and investigative teams of the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR), the Center is nested within and operates across all ICTR cores.

What We Are

The Center is part of the NIH-funded UW Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. We have relationships with tribal, urban, and rural partners throughout the state of Wisconsin, in addition to state and local government collaborations. Our staged partnership approach allows us to create and nourish long-term, mutually respectful, and trusting partnerships with underserved communities. CCHE works to promote underserved, minority, and immigrant health; to increase health equity and improve health outcomes; and to assist in the development of health-care providers’ and researchers’ skills in intercultural communication.

Who We Are

The Center Director is Alexandra Adams, MD, PhD, an ICTR Assistant Director and Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine. Dr. Adams has conducted health disparity research for over 10 years. Her focus is on the prevention of obesity and related chronic diseases using a Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) approach. Dr. Adams has ongoing collaborations with multiple tribal partners across the state including the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council. Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council, Healthy Children, Strong Families, and WINGS: Obesity Prevention in American Indian Children

Center Director
Email:
Phone number: (608) 263-6982
HSLC Room Number: 4238

The Center Associate Director is Christine Sorkness, PharmD, who also serves as Senior Associate Director for the ICTR. Dr. Sorkness is a Professor of Pharmacy and Medicine and her background includes clinical and translational research, clinical trials, and community-based clinical research. Her partnerships include work with the Inner City Asthma Consortium and with the Childhood Asthma Research and Education Network.

Center Associate Director
Email:
Phone number: (608) 263-2285
HSLC Room Number: 4245

The Center Administrative Director, Sarah Esmond, MS, provides administrative oversight and project management to CCHE’s many community-academic partnerships, collaborations and initiatives. She brings significant background in qualitative research methodologies and urban community-academic partnership building. Ms. Esmond serves as an academic partner to several Milwaukee-based partnerships, including the Birthing Project, the House of Peace Hmong Health Consortium, and the Urban Indian Wellness Consortium. She also served as Project Manager for the School of Medicine and Public Health’s Center for the Study of Cultural Diversity in Healthcare (CDH) for five years.

Center Administrative Director
Email:
Phone number: (608) 263-9401
HSLC Room Number: 4231

Lisa Tiger (Muscogee), MA, serves as a Research Ambassador with the Center. She serves as a point of contact for accessing research resources to support community- or campus-based investigators who want to pursue health disparity/health equity research initiatives. Trained as a medical anthropologist, Ms. Tiger also has expert knowledge specific to academic, government, and community partnerships with Tribes.

Research Ambassador
Email:
Phone number: (608) 265-2005
HSLC Room Number: 4168

(Please note: A second Research Ambassador with expertise on Type I translational research resources available through ICTR is Peggy Hatfield, PhD, located in the ICTR Client Services Center, , (608) 265-1982.)

Administrative support for the Center is provided by Robbi Strandemo, our newest team member. Ms. Strandemo joined us in February 2009, and will serve as a first point of contact for the Center in the Health Sciences Learning Center.

Administrative Assistant
Email:
Phone number: (608) 263-6982
HSLC Room Number: 4230A

What We Do

The Center is initially targeting two research resource areas that heavily influence the ultimate establishment and sustainability of successful health equity research collaboratives involving community and university partners:

1. Campus oversight systems and processes that regulate translational research
2. Community engagement resources that reflect a targeted, phased-in approach

Our efforts will occur through four Cores of programming:

Our Administrative Core will work to:

• Reduce university barriers to community engagement
• Incorporate community perspectives in our Advisory Board and Core structures
• Strengthen our Minority Health/Disparity Investigator Affiliate membership
• Facilitate the Center’s partnerships with diverse Wisconsin communities

Our Education Core will enhance many of the existing UW ICTR educational initiatives:

• Ensure outreach to diverse students and trainees
• Establish training initiatives for students from underserved communities

A Research Core will:

• Include core research projects focusing on chronic disease prevention (obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease)
• Facilitate the utilization of ICTR and other UW investigator resources necessary for ongoing and future health disparities/health equity focused research

Our Community Engagement Core will:

• Use a staged engagement approach to establish long-term, mutually respectful, beneficial, and trusting partnerships with underserved communities (see Model below)
• Contribute to building capacity of emerging community leaders and community-engaged faculty and scholars

Our Community Engagement Model
Click here for an explanation of each step