Center for Community Health Equity Research
Our Mission
The Center for Community Health Equity Research (CCHER) seeks to promote health equity by diversifying the health care workforce and authentically engaging in community-partnered and multidisciplinary research to investigate the social production of health disparities.
Our Vision
The center seeks to address the gap between academic research and practice by leveraging rigorous studies to drive public health policies toward health equity. It builds collective resilience by forging partnerships, both locally and globally, through participatory research with clinical and community-based organizations.
What We Do
CCHER brings together researchers with diverse disciplinary expertise to investigate health disparities and disseminate findings to promote health equity. CCHER aims to improve the recruitment and retention of students from underrepresented groups in health-related professions by building on and supporting existing pipeline initiatives for first-generation and minority students. Our culture-centered research aims to identify and implement novel interventions to improve mental health, manage chronic illness, and build community resilience.
CCHER is housed in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences, the only publicly-funded accredited school of public health in New England with departments of biostatistics and epidemiology, communication disorders, environmental health sciences, health promotion and policy, kinesiology, and nutrition.
Research areas
Featured faculty
Susan Shaw
Director, Center for Community Health Equity Research
Focus on racial and ethnic health disparities, structural racism and health, gender and sexuality, community-based and participatory research.
Kathryn Derose
Acting Director, Center for Community Health Equity Research
Focus on community partnerships, health inequalities, immigrants, Latin America, mixed methods.
Linnea Evans
Focus on racism; stress and coping; early-onset chronic health conditions among Black Americans; inequities in adolescence.
Daniel López-Cevallos
Focus on health equity, social determinants of health, Latinx immigrants, community-engaged research, Latin America
Megan Patton-Lopez
Focus on community nutrition, implementation science, child and adolescent health, healthy eating and active living, health equity.
Airín Denise Martínez
Focus on community-based participatory research; racial and ethnic health disparities; Latinx immigrants; mixed methods; health policy.
