Click here to view the recording.

Dr. Adrian Aguilera
University of California, Berkley
Project Title: Automated text messaging to improve depression treatment in low-income communities

Dr. Margo Brooks Carthon
University of Pennsylvania
Project Title: The Diversity Imperative: A National Survey of Pipeline Initiatives to Increase Minority Representation in Nursing

Dr. Ashley Butler
Baylor College of Medicine
Project Title: Systematic Review of Culturally Adapted Interventions to Address Early Childhood Prosocial Behavioral Functioning: Focus on Parent Engagement

Dr. Henry J. Carretta
Florida State University
Project Title: Provision of Community Benefits by Not-for-Profit Hospitals

Dr. Kimberly M. Cassie
University of Tennessee
Project Title: An Evaluation of Pipeline Programs for Certified Nursing Assistants

Dr. Ebbin Dotson
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Project Title: The Pipeline Effect: Recruitment, Retention, and Best Practices of Health Career Programs

Dr. Erualdo R. Gonzalez
California State University, Fullerton
Project Title: Engaging Public Policymakers in the Adoption of Built-Environment Policies to Increase Physical Activity in Latino Communities

Dr. Marionette Charisse Holmes
Spelman College
Project Title: Examining the Health and Economic Impact of Policy Mandated Supportive Housing Program for Formerly Incarcerated Homeless Individuals in New York

Dr. Antwan Jones
The George Washington University
Project Title: Residential Instability and Adolescent Obesity: The Role of the Built Environment

Dr. Myra Elizabeth Parker
University of Washington
Project Title: Alcohol Policies and Alcohol-Related Deaths and Injuries in Tribal Communities

Dr. Kimani Paul-Emile
Fordham University
Project Title: Public Health Law Approach to Evaluating and Addressing the Effects of Criminal Background Checks on Drug Offenders

Dr. Jacqueline Pezzulo
Board of Cooperative Educational Services
Project Title: A Critical Examination of the Implementation Drivers in the Delivery of Therapeutic Crisis Interventions Across Non-Residential Special Ed Settings.

Dr. Brisa N. Sanchez
The University of Michigan
Project Title: Methodologies for Mapping Childhood Obesity Trends and Disparities

Dr. Maria Rosa Solorio
University of Washington
Project Title: An Initial Evaluation of a Culturally-Adapted Dating Violence Prevention Program for Hispanic Adolescent Girls

Dr. Amanda Sullivan
University of Minnesota
Project Title: School Mental health Services for Adolescents with Emotional Disturbance: Problem, Prevalence, Related Practices, and Adaptations’ Effects on Outcomes

Dr. Dnika J. Travis
The University of Texas at Austin
Project Title: Effective Communication Practices as the Building Blocks for Diversity, Engagement, and Quality: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Dr. Jacqueline C. Wiltshire
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University
Project Title: Mechanisms and Consequences of Medical Debt among Older Adults

Critical Leadership Pathways Among the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Rural Community Health Leaders
Alberto Cardelle, East Stroudsburg University

The paper presents the results of an evaluation of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Community Health Leaders (CHL) program. Specifically it identifies the critical life pathways taken by the leaders working on rural health issues. The evaluation used a mixed method approach. It used social network analysis to identify the paths that the leaders took to their positions and it developed and analyzed in-depth cases studies of 12 leaders. The evaluation integrated both analyzes to identify the pathways and the common factors across the different leadership experiences. The results show that the critical components of rural leaders' pathways included: early exposure to social injustice and an activist family member; a passion for an ideal; experience with networks, that gave them exposure to government entities and other leaders in their community; skills that allowed them to be problem solvers; and a history of seeking positions of leadership.

The Powerful Pathways of Diverse San Francisco Bay Area Community Health Leaders
Hanh Cao Yu, Social Policy Research Associates

This presentation highlights the results of a qualitative study that drew from leadership dialogue circles, and biographical interviews of 9 San Francisco Community Health Leaders (CHLs). The evaluation analyzed the influential forces and defining events that shaped CHLs' paths to leadership and employed a framework for analysis that incorporated "critical life maps." CHLs' identities and philosophies were shaped by their families, living abroad, immigration to the USA, various mentors, coming of age during the Civil Rights Movement, and catalytic experiences to overcome adversity and find inner strength. CHLs' achieved breakthroughs despite struggles to staying true to self and community needs; maintaining organizational focus and cutting edge; collaborating effectively, and negotiating political processes. The leaders' arrival into legitimate power and greatness was meaningfully punctuated by the RWJF leadership award which further impacted their leadership trajectory, supported their networking, and enabled them to leverage the award in organizational development and programmatic work.

 

Dr. Mulvaney-Day is a Senior Scientist at the Center for Multicultural Mental Health Research at the Cambridge Health Alliance and Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School where she focuses on applying mixed methods to understand sources of health and mental health disparities. Please visit http://www.multiculturalmentalhealth.org/ for further details on Dr. Mulvaney-Day's work.

Click here to view the recorded event
 

From Wednesday, September 14, 2011 from 2-3 p.m. Eastern

New Connections alum Shawn Bediako, Ph.D., and others discussed how they worked to create state-funded sickle cell anemia programs in Arkansas and Maryland.

Topics covered in this session included:

• learning to increase the policy relevance of your work;
• finding opportunities to interact with policy makers and influencers;
• presenting your data so it connects with policy people; and
• gaining visibility for your work beyond research journals

The presenters were:

• Shawn Bediako, Ph.D., New Connections alum, associate professor in the department of psychology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
• Idonia L. Trotter, Ph.D., M.P.S., executive director of the Arkansas Minority Health Commission
• Rep. Reginald Murdock of the Arkansas Legislature
• Sophie Lanzkron, M.D., director of the Sickle Cell Center for Adults at Johns Hopkins
• Edith Arrington, Ph.D., deputy director of RWJF's New Connections program

To view a recording of this live event click here.

 

To view select presentations by Dr. Jones and others click here.

For more information click here.

As a reminder, those invited to submit a full proposal will have the opportunity to attend a second applicant conference call that will be held June 29, 2011 from 3:00–4:30 p.m. ET.

Junior Investigator Applicant Web Conference
March 16, 2011
Click here to see the recorded event.

Midcareer Consultant Applicant Web Conference
March 17, 2011
Click here to see the recorded event.

For more information and to apply, please visit:

Junior Investigators: www.rwjf.org/cfp/ncji
Mid-Career Consultants: http://www.rwjf.org/cfp/ncmc

In this sixth round of call for proposals, New Connections seeks Junior Investigators and Mid-Career Consultants who:

* have been underrepresented in RWJF research and evaluation programming activities and would be first-time grantees to RWJF.
* are historically underrepresented ethnic or racial minorities, first-generation college graduates (i.e., first in their immediate family to receive a college degree), or individuals from low-income communities.

Junior investigators are no more than ten years from the receipt of their doctorate. Junior Investigators are eligible for a two-year grant of up to $75,000.

Mid-Career Consultants are those who have at least ten and no more than fifteen years of experience in research and/or evaluation. Mid-Career Consultants are eligible for a one-year grant of up to $75,000.

Key Dates:
Wednesday, February 23, 2011 - CFP is released
Wednesday, March 16 & 17, 2011 from 3-4:30pm ET- Optional applicant web conference for junior investigators and mid-career consultants. This is an opportunity to answer applicants' questions, and is highly encouraged.
Thursday, May 5, 2011 by 3pm ET- Brief Proposal is due

We've made some changes to the CFP process. For example, we extended the junior investigator eligibility from up to seven years postdoctorate to ten years (as noted above). We also now allow a range of methods for projects from secondary data analysis to mixed methods and even original data collection (if appropriate).

The three types of funding opportunities included in this CFP are:
• Round 6 grants;
• Rapid-response grants; and
• RWJF New Connections grants awarded through Healthy Eating Research.

This round of funding supports strategic, rigorous, policy-relevant research on a wide range of policy and environmental changes. Target populations include children and adolescents ages 3 to 18 and their families. The Foundation places special emphasis on reaching the children at greatest risk for obesity: Black, Latino, American Indian, Asian/Pacific Islander children, and children who live in lower-income communities.

RWJF New Connections grants through Healthy Eating Research are for new investigators who are from a group that has been historically disadvantaged or underrepresented in research disciplines supported by RWJF, such as people from ethnic or racial minority groups, first-generation college graduates and people from lower-income communities. For the purposes of this CFP, in order to be eligible for the RWJF New Connections grants through Healthy Eating Research, investigators must have completed a doctorate or terminal degree (e.g., Ph.D., M.D., J.D.) within seven years prior to the award date for the grant (after September 1, 2004). Please refer to the CFP for complete eligibility criteria.

Grantees who are awarded RWJF New Connections grants through Healthy Eating Research will become part of a broader network of researchers representing both of these RWJF programs. Grantees will be eligible to participate in all RWJF New Connections and Healthy Eating Research meetings, training and networking events, and technical assistance offerings.

Up to three RWJF New Connections grants will be awarded through the Healthy Eating Research program in this round of funding. Awards will be for 12- to 24-month grants of up to $75,000 each.

Concept papers for RWJF New Connections grants awarded through Healthy Eating Research are due March 10, 2011 at 3 p.m. ET.

To learn more about this funding opportunity and to apply for a grant, please visit the Healthy Eating Research program Web site at www.healthyeatingresearch.org.
 

To view photos from the awards banquet, please click here.
 

In addition to her publications, Watkins has used her New Connections work on black men and depression to develop two proposals that were successfully funded. She received research support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the University of Michigan (UM) Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG) small grant awards program. The RWJF project involves developing age-specific depression awareness materials for black men and the IRWG project complements this work by collecting qualitative data from black women on depression and help seeking behaviors of the black men in their lives. Additionally, she is currently developing two NIH applications that involve gender-specific depression diagnosis and testing a depression awareness intervention for black men. Both projects build on the secondary data analysis accomplished during her New Connections award period. According to Watkins the “mentoring and momentum” she was able to gain as a New Connections grantee contributed to her success.

Watkins received a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and a Ph.D. in Health Education from Texas A&M University. Prior to joining the School of Social Work as an Assistant Professor, Watkins completed a NIMH postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Social Research and a Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (BIRCWH) career development award at the University of Michigan Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
 

Dr. William Vega, Provost Professor at the University of Southern California, and Co-Director of the Network for Multicultural Research on Health and Healthcare at UCLA served as symposium chairperson. The symposium featured panel discussions; presentations from prominent published scholars; career development sessions; and a speed mentoring event. More than 100 junior and mid-career researchers attended. Streaming videos from selected sessions can be found here.

Approximately $900,000 will be awarded for rapid-response grants of up to $150,000 each, for a maximum funding period of 18 months. Funding for approved studies may be initiated as early as four months after invited full proposals are submitted. Grants will be awarded on a rolling basis.

 
A concept paper may be submitted at any time until September 1, 2010 (3 p.m. ET).

For more information and to apply for a grant, please visit www.healthyeatingresearch.org.
 

Healthy Eating Research is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). The program supports research on environmental and policy strategies with strong potential to promote healthy eating among children to prevent childhood obesity, especially among lower-income and racial and ethnic populations at highest risk for obesity. Findings are expected to advance RWJF's efforts to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic by 2015.

The New York State Department of Health, Office of Minority Health, formed a Minority Health Council in1992. Fourteen members are appointed by the governor to a six-year term. The minority health council’s mission is to consider any matter relating to the preservation and improvement of minority health, and it may, from time to time, submit to the commissioner any recommendations relating to the preservation and improvement of minority health.

In an April 2010 congratulatory letter, Governor Patterson stated, “I am pleased that you are willing to accept this appointment as a member of the Minority Health Council for a term to expire on August 1, 2015. I am confident that you will serve the people of our state with dedication and distinction.”

Melody says, “I am honored to be selected for such a position. It is my hope that in my role on the council I will be able to speak to the needs and concerns of minority communities across the state so they can obtain the support and resources necessary to create the type of social change that improves public health and well being.”

Melody, who received her Ph.D. in Biostatistics from Harvard University in 2006, has taught biostatistics at the Harvard School for Public Health, and worked as a statistical consultant at the Center for Community Based Research, Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. She graduated from Stony Brook University with a B.S. in Applied Mathematics and Statistics/Economics (Summa Cum Laude) in 1999.

One of her objectives has been to uncover the reasons for the health disparities that exist in area communities. She works with community health centers, churches, and other community based organizations within African-American and undeserved communities on Long Island. Her main areas of interest are cancer incidence in minorities, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, asthma and behavioral changes that can reduce the risk of preventable diseases.

“My goal is to bridge the gap between community health needs and public health research by working directly with communities to better understand the health issues, problems or shortcomings they are experiencing, then develop research based on that,” says Melody. “Community-based research is a tool that helps us target needed areas of health research for specific populations.”

Melody is a 2007-2008 New Connections awardee. 

In this fifth round of call for proposals, New Connections seeks Junior Investigators and Mid-Career Consultants who:
• have been underrepresented in RWJF research and evaluation programming activities and would be first-time grantees to RWJF.
• are historically underrepresented ethnic or racial minorities, first-generation college graduates, or individuals from low-income communities.

Junior investigators are no more than seven years from the receipt of their doctorate. Junior Investigators are eligible for a two-year grant of up to $75,000.

Mid-Career Consultants are those who have at least ten and no more than fifteen years of experience in research and/or evaluation. Mid-Career Consultants are eligible for a one-year grant of up to $75,000.

Key Dates:
* Wednesday, February 24, 2010 - CFP is released
* Wednesday, March 10, 2010 from 3-4:30pm ET- Optional applicant web conference
This is an opportunity to answer applicant questions, and is highly encouraged.  The web conference audio and PowerPoint slides can be found here. 
* Wednesday, April 7, 2010 by 3pm ET- Brief Proposal is due

The application period for the current Junior Investigator and Mid-Career Consultant CFPs closed on April 7, 2010.

All proposals must be submitted through The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Grantmaking Online system. The full proposal submission deadline is April 14, 2010, 1:00 p.m. PT. For more information and to link to the RWJF Grantmaking Online system, visit our website here.

Active Living Research also will host three conference calls for potential applicants to ask questions about the program, as well as the proposal and selection process. Dates for the conference calls are:

For applicants interested in grants on specified research topics or dissertation awards:
February 22, 2010 at 12pm PT
March 23, 2010 at 12pm PT

For applicants interested in New Connections grants made available through Active Living Research:
March 1, 2010 at 12pm PT

Those who wish to participate in these calls must register on our Web site. Please be sure that you are registering for the appropriate conference call depending on which grant opportunity you are interested in.

For more information on Active Living Research, please visit www.activelivingresearch.org.   If you have any questions about the proposal submission process, please contact Amanda Wilson, Research Coordinator, at awilson@projects.sdsu.edu or 619-260-5538.