The University of Maryland School of Pharmacy (UMSOP) received nearly $10 million in federal funding to work in partnership — both with other schools at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), including the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) and the University of Maryland School of Social Work (UMSSW), as well as external community organizations — to improve health equity in Baltimore and beyond.

Through the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Common Fund Community Partnerships to Advance Science for Society (ComPASS) program, the PATIENTS Program has been awarded $9.4 million to serve as a Health Equity Research Hub.

The hub, using the extensive expertise at and resources from UMB, will provide technical assistance and scientific support to several NIH-funded Community-Led, Health Equity Structural Interventions (CHESIs) nationwide. The grant is led by C. Daniel Mullins, PhD, executive director of the PATIENTS Program and a professor of practice, sciences, and health outcomes research at UMSOP.

The goal of the Health Equity Research Hub at UMB is to provide resources and expertise to help the CHESIs achieve the goals of their ComPASS funded awards. The hub also will guide the evaluation and reporting of community-led health equity research.

“This is a wonderful opportunity to support CHESIs while modeling our longstanding community-academic partnership approaches,” says Mullins. “We can simultaneously achieve the overarching goal to serve as a catalyst for CHESIs to complete their ComPASS projects in a rigorously scientific manner, while supporting community-led health equity research. All CHESI projects address social determinants of health to advance health equity.”

Rev. Franklin Lance, DMin, senior pastor at Mount Lebanon Baptist Church and community co-lead for the award, added, “We are the right team at the right place because we do this work already. We believe in this work and know how to let communities take the lead. We believe in equity and the shifting of power that needs to take place, and how, with authentic collaboration, research is better.”

The hub structure consists of three units. Each of these units is co-led and supported by a community partner and a UMB expert:

• Research Capacity Building and Training Unit
  • Community Co-Lead: Dwyan Monroe, training manager, Institute for Public Health Innovation
  • UMB Co-Lead: Hillary Edwards, PhD, MPH, director of methodological research and evaluation, PATIENTS Program, UMSOP
  • Support team members: Dan Frye, JD, director of employment and professional development and patient advocate, National Federation of the Blind; and Jay Unick, MSW, PhD, professor, UMSSW
    
    
• Research Methods and Data Management Unit
  • Community Co-Lead: Randal Pinkett, PhD, founder, chairman, CEO, and managing partner, BCT Partners
  • UMB Co-Lead: Brad Maron, MD, executive co-director, University of Maryland Institute for Health Computing, and professor of medicine, UMSOM
  • Support team members: DeJuan Patterson, MPA, CEO, Bridge Advisory Group, LLC, and Timothy O’Connor, PhD, co-director, Program in Health Equity and Population Health, UMSOM
    
    
• Community Engagement and Health Equity Practice Unit
  • Community Co-Lead: Frances "Toni" Draper, MBA, MEd, DMin, CEO and publisher, The AFRO American Newspapers
  • UMB Co-Lead: Claudia Baquet, MD, MPH, affiliate professor of practice, sciences, and health outcomes research, UMSOP
  • Support team members: Joy Bramble, owner and publisher, The Baltimore Times, and Esa Davis, MD, MPH, associate vice president for community health and lead strategist for health equity, UM Institute of Health Computing, UMSOM

All three units work with the co-leads in the Administrative and Coordinating Unit:

• • Community Co-Lead: Rev. Franklin Lance, DMin, senior pastor, Mount Lebanon Baptist Church
  • UMB Co-Lead: C. Daniel Mullins, PhD, executive director, The PATIENTS Program, UMSOP

The CHESIs served by UMB’s Health Equity Research Hub will be named this fall.