The Ninth Annual Translational Research Institute Community Partner Celebration on Dec. 6 brought attendees from across Arkansas to recognize the pivotal role of community partnerships in advancing research and improving health.
Organized by the institute’s Community Engagement Core, the event at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center in Little Rock drew more than 80 attendees representing community and academic partnerships to address critical health challenges in Arkansas.
Laura James, M.D., institute director, recognized attendees for their dedication to helping UAMS improve health through research.
“I want to thank everybody for all of your contributions throughout the year to help us be successful as an institution,” said James, also associate vice chancellor for Clinical and Translational Research.
James and Tiffany Haynes, Ph.D., director of the Community Engagement Core, presented awards in five categories. The 2024 awardees are:
Research Partner of the Year: Olly Neal Community Health Center
The Olly Neal Community Health Center, based in Marianna, Arkansas, was celebrated for its work in the Mississippi Delta, one of the state’s most underserved regions. Cassandra Franklin and LaFay Broadway accepted the award on behalf of the center for their successful efforts recruiting Type 2 diabetes participants for the research project “Home Food Delivery for Diabetes Management in Patients of Rural Clinics.”
Franklin said the award is “amazing,” and she has been gratified to see the impact of her work.
“It’s been wonderful to meet the patients who need this service and to see their health improve through education and food delivery boxes,” Franklin said.
UAMS’ Kelsey Bounds, assistant director of research at the Institute for Community Health Innovation, which oversees the National Institutes of Health-funded study, nominated the center for the award.
“The work they do in the Delta and in Lee County is just outstanding,” Bounds said. “Their reach in the rural communities of the Delta is exemplary of how we should be working with our neighbors.”
Chancellor’s Community Engaged Research Partner of the Year: Boys, Girls, Adult Community Development Center
The Boys, Girls, Adult Community Development Center in Marvell was honored for its partnership with Tiffany Miles, Ph.D., an instructor in the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Pediatrics. Together, they are tackling obesity and diabetes prevention through a community-led research project developed during training in the Translational Research Institute’s yearlong Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) Scholars Program.
Miles and the center received a $25,000 pilot grant to support their project to develop a community-led obesity intervention program and to develop ideas for sustaining the intervention.
“We have been a partner of UAMS for a long time and it’s a great honor,” said Beatrice Shelby, the center’s executive director. “UAMS values our partnership, and we just really enjoy working with them. We’re so fortunate to be working with Dr. Tiffany Miles because she is so committed to our project and our goals.”
The research team will assess the community’s perceptions of obesity, maternal health, maternal nutrition and nutrition in general, as well as get the community’s input about potential interventions.
Miles said she has been impressed by the center’s commitment to its community and to the project.
“I’ve been in communication with them for about a year and a half, and they were proactive from the start in pursuing this project,” Miles said. “It’s been beautiful building that relationship.”
- Kate Stewart Community Engaged Researcher of the Year: Taren Massey-Swindle, Ph.D.
Taren Massey-Swindle, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the College of Medicine departments of Pediatrics and Family and Preventive Medicine. She has built strong partnerships with diverse communities across Arkansas and secured multiple national grants to help improve feeding practices in early childhood care and education settings.
“I couldn’t have received this award without incredible community partners and the dedication that they have every day to doing good work for child health. It’s because of those partnerships that I’m able to do community engaged research,” said Massey-Swindle.
Community Engaged Student/Trainee of the Year: Rachel Hale
Rachel Hale is a Ph.D. student in the UAMS Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health in the college’s Health Promotion and Prevention Research program. She is an instructor and co-director of the Climate, Rural, and Global Health Master of Public Health program. Her award stems in part from her research project “Climate Change and Health Risk Perceptions of Arkansas Small Farmers through the Application of the Health Belief Model.” Hale secured a pilot grant to support her project, and she has demonstrated to her peers and students that community is always at the forefront of her work.
Community Engaged Research Staff Member of the Year: Ason Mohammed
Ason Mohammed is a senior data analyst at the Institute for Community Health Innovation.
He was recognized for his exemplary work on the research project “Comparative Evaluation of Telehealth Multi-Component Optimal Model of Postpartum Care among Rural, Low-Income and Diverse Women.” Mohammed manages databases and performs data analysis for multiple community-based participatory research projects, providing invaluable support to the institute’s research staff and principal investigators. His technical expertise and attention to detail have greatly improved all of the institute’s research projects in his time at UAMS.
Naomi L. Cottoms Community Advisory Board of the Year: Barber Shop Talk Steering Committee
With a new name this year, the award honors the memory of Naomi Cottoms, who died March 5. She was executive director of the Tri-County Rural Health Network, based in Helena-West Helena, and a longtime UAMS community partner. Cottoms was well known for her passionate work on behalf of underserved communities in the Delta.
The Barber Shop Talk Steering Committee is providing guidance on the research project “Barbershop Talk: Reducing Excessive Alcohol Use among Black Men.” The project focuses on reducing unhealthy drinking habits by bringing treatment to a more accessible location for Black men. The steering committee helped shape the research project prior to its implementation and has been instrumental in the positive progress of the study.
The celebration included a keynote address by UAMS’ Nakita Lovelady, Ph.D., MPH, and Joyce Raynor, who leads the Center for Healing Hearts & Spirits. They discussed their NIH-funded
hospital-based violence intervention program, UAMS Project Heal. Lovelady is a recent graduate of TRI’s KL2 Mentored Research Career Development Award program, and she is an assistant professor in the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health. Their successful partnership led to Raynor winning the 2023 Chancellor’s Community Engaged Research Partner of the Year, and Lovelady winning the 2023 M. Kate Stewart Community Engaged Researcher of the Year.
UAMS Chancellor Cam Patterson, M.D., MBA, told the audience that their dedication embodies what UAMS is striving to achieve: a healthier, more equitable future for everyone in Arkansas.
“It’s only through partnerships like these that we can move the needle on health outcomes, particularly in the rural and underserved communities that need it most,” he said.