ARCC Dr. Virginia Bishop Community-Academic Research Partnership Award
The Alliance for Research with Chicagoland Communities established the Community Research Partnership Award to recognize to recognize exemplary partnerships that use a community-driven research approach to impact community health in Chicagoland. In 2020, the award was renamed to honor the leadership and partnerships of the late Dr. Virginia Bishop. Dr. “Gini” Bishop, who passed away in February 2020, co-founded ARCC and served as ARCC’s co-director from 2007 – 2010.
2026 Award
ARCC is please to honor the 2026 Partnership Award Winner: Breaking Barriers to Vision Care partnership. This community-academic partnership to improve eye health equity for children in historically excluded Chicago communities is between the Experiences That Matter Foundation (Lead: Dinai Yelverton) and Northwestern University Department of Ophthalmology (Lead: Dr. David Ramirez). Learn more about the partnership here.
Past Winners
2025: PrEP4teens Partnership
This award acknowledges the "PrEP4teens Partnership", a partnership between TaskForce Chicago (Lead: Christopher Balthazar, PhD), Jim Pickett Consulting (Lead: Jim Pickett), and Northwestern University (Lead: Kathryn Macapagal, PhD) to strengthen Chicago teens’ sexual health through an arts and advocacy-focused social marketing and community mobilization education campaign. Learn more about the partnership here.
2023: Teen Mental Health Services within Public Libraries Partnership
This award acknowledges "Teen Mental Health Services within Public Libraries Partnership", a partnership between the Oak Park Public Library (lead: Robert Simmons) and Northwestern University (lead: Ashley Knapp, PhD). Learn more about the partnership here2022: Partnership for a Better Roseland and Building Bridges to Connect Faith to Community Health
2019: BE-LUNG Initiative
This award acknowledges the efforts of the BE-LUNG Initiative: Building Capacity for a Community-Based Research Partnership to Optimize Physical Activity in Lung Cancer Survivors, an intervention to increase physical activity among lung cancer survivors in Chicago. This exemplary partnership between Gilda's Club Chicago, (led by Kathleen Boss, director of special initiatives) a community organization that supports individuals and their families and friends whose lives have been impacted by cancer, and Shirley Ryan AbilityLab (led by Prakash S. Jayabalan, MD, PhD). The partnership also included the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University (led by Victoria Villaflor, MD).
2018: Cooking Up Health
This award acknowledges Cooking Up Health: Docs & Kids in the Kitchen, a partnership between Common Threads, a community organization fighting childhood obesity, and Northwestern’s Osher Center for Integrative Health. This exemplary partnership teaches Northwestern medical students about nutrition through the lens of culinary medicine, community health and hands-on cooking. The medical students then deliver the healthy habit messages to Chicago Public Schools elementary school children in underserved communities.
2017: Pastors4PCOR
This award acknowledges the efforts of the Pastors4PCOR (Patient-Centered Outcomes Research), or P4P, engaging faith-based communities in health research, a collaborative partnership of 12 churches serving communities in Chicago and south suburban areas and their congregants, community health advocates, health system providers and academic health scientists.
2016: Reducing Cancer Health Disparities Among Chicago-Area Latinos/as
This exemplary partnership between ALAS-WINGS and David Victorson, PhD, and his team in Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine collaborates on research projects aimed at improving the health of and resources for Latino/a cancer survivors. This collaboration includes multiple projects on mobile health, one-to-one peer support and yoga therapy.
2015: Partnership to Advance LGBT Health and Wellness
This long-standing exemplary partnership between the Center on Halsted and the IMPACT LGBT Health & Development Program at Northwestern University collaborates on research projects aimed at improving lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender health. The collaboration has resulted in interventions proven to reduce HIV risk behaviors, as well as new initiatives in the building out of co-branded research space at the center, a groundbreaking LGBT psychology training program and an annual LGBT research conference.
2014: Collaboration to Improve Chronic Disease Outcomes for Chicago Public School Students
This long-standing exemplary partnership between Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Office of Student Health and Wellness and Ruchi Gupta, MD, MPH, and her team at Northwestern University has generated many successful projects and is leading to improved chronic disease reporting and verification for CPS students on asthma, food allergy and other health issues. CPS and Northwestern University are working together to accomplish mutually beneficial goals for their respective communities and the Chicago community at large.
2013: South Asian Healthy Lifestyle Initiative
The Second Annual Community-Engaged Research Partnership Award Award acknowledged the efforts of South Asian Healthy Lifestyle Initiative (SAHELI), which focused on engaging South Asian (SA) immigrants in research to understand multiple determinants of health through use of custom lifestyle interventions. This project is led by Santosh Kumar and Promila Mehta, Metropolitan ASian Family Services (MAFS) and Namratha Kandula and Swapna Dave, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics in the Department of Medicine.