In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

  • A Decade of Postdoctoral Training in CBPR and Dedication to Thomas A. Bruce
  • Janice Bowie, PhD , Eugenia Eng, DrPH , and Richard Lichtenstein, PhD

As directors of the three postdoctoral training sites for the Kellogg Community Health Scholars Program (CHSP), we acknowledge our privilege to be serving as the lead Guest Editors for this special issue of PCHP. Since the inception of CHSP in 1998, 46 Scholars have completed postdoctoral training in community-based participatory research (CBPR) at: The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHU), University of Michigan School of Public Health (UM), or University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health (UNC). With their community and academic mentors, Scholars have co-authored over 180 publications from research conducted as part of the CHSP fellowship. Our Scholars now hold faculty positions in 20 academic institutions and professional positions in four government or private non-profit health agencies. Virtually all of their current research follows the principles of CBPR and addresses the following issues of racial and ethnic inequities in health outcomes: youth violence, childhood asthma, tobacco smoking, environmental justice, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, women’s health, mental health, obesity, sexual health, air quality, bilingual training of health workers, hypertension among African American males, genetics and disparities, stress, cancer, and adolescent substance abuse.

In this special issue, PCHP and CHSP showcase current original research by Scholars and their CBPR partners and highlight the unique experiences and outcomes of CHSP for PCHP readers to consider for their own work. As detailed in the overview article by Griffith et al.1, the increasing number of faculty in health sciences schools with expertise in and career commitment to CBPR is due to the vision and generosity of major funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF). The impetus came from the 1988 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, The Future of Public Health2, which stressed the need for health science faculty to connect their research, service, and teaching more closely to public health practitioners, and for public health leaders to develop skills in policy development. The 1988 report laid out the public health mission, ensuring the conditions for people to be in good health, and the paradigm of assessment, policy development, and assurance, which have become the accepted foundation for discussing and teaching the mission and essential services of public health. In 2002, the IOM published two reports, The Future of the Public’s Health in the 21st Century3 and Who Will Keep the Public Healthy4, that stressed the need for public health practitioners, researchers, and faculty to express an ecological view that recognizes the inter-related nature of multiple factors influencing health and illness. These 2002 reports broadened the definition of “public health professional” to include those trained in public health or similar fields, who use a population perspective in their work to improve health and prevent disease. The 2002 reports also highlighted the concept of “Inter-sectored public health” by identifying six major sectors (academia, governmental public health, the health care delivery system, employers and business, the media and communities) as constituting the “public health system.” In sum, to achieve significant gains in public health goals, these IOM reports stressed the need for leadership to acquire the skills necessary to: coordinate the activities of multiple sectors, design successful prevention strategies, strengthen the capacity of community-based organizations to carry out public health activities, and foster academic-community partnerships that share the strengths of each in conducting CBPR. [End Page 267]

At the same time, the IOM, WKKF, and CHSP are not the first to recognize the notion of academic faculty engaging in research and teaching with community and health agency partners. A systematic evidence review on the CBPR approach to improved health5, sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, was completed in 2004. The search generated 123 articles, constituting 60 studies, from as early as 1970. The review found little evidence that increased community involvement was associated with low research quality.

In 1990, WKKF advanced this approach to research by launching the Community-Based Public Health Initiative (CBPHI). Grantees were required to establish true partnerships among schools of public health, local...

pdf

Share