Presenting Author:

Principal Investigator:

Department:

Obstetrics and Gynecology

Keywords:

research, pipeline, minority, underserved, physician scientist, physician researcher, cancer disparities, health dispari... [Read full text] research, pipeline, minority, underserved, physician scientist, physician researcher, cancer disparities, health disparities, chicago health, cancer equity, health equity, first generation, disabled community, collaboration, multi-institutional program [Shorten text]

Location:

Third Floor, Feinberg Pavilion, Northwestern Memorial Hospital

E21 - Education

ChicagoCHEC Research Fellows Program

The Chicago Cancer Health Equity Collaborative (ChicagoCHEC) is a National Cancer Institute comprehensive cancer partnership led by the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, Northeastern Illinois University, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. The mission of ChicagoCHEC is to advance cancer health equity through meaningful scientific discovery, education, training, and community engagement. The ChicagoCHEC Research Fellows program is a comprehensive, paid eight week summer learning experience for 12 undergraduate and post-baccalaureate students from, Northwestern University, Northeastern Illinois University, University of Illinois at Chicago, and the City Colleges of Chicago. The Research Fellows program focused on the development of academic, technical and professional skills through immersion experiences, group projects, journal clubs, and mentoring in preparation for careers in social, behavioral and biomedical research and in health care. At the culmination of the eight weeks, Research Fellows learned fundamental research skills, practices and methodologies, pertinent research content topics (e.g. cancer inequity and recruitment of underserved minorities in clinical trials), social contexts for health inequity across the cancer continuum and critical professional development practices and networks. Research Fellows are poised to become researchers and health care professionals who can bring diverse perspectives and experiences to advance the nation’s work toward cancer health equity. The program leveraged the expertise of leading scholars and cancer researchers, health professionals, institutional leadership and community leaders across Chicago taking part as guest lecturers, project mentors and site visit hosts. The program served as an opportunity to move the needle on health by expanding opportunities to the next generation in a way that also changes the architecture of collaboration, community engagement and the culture of research education to address health inequities.