Session Abstract – PMWC 2018 Silicon Valley

Session Synopsis: Engaging volunteers of all economic levels, races and ethnicities, and communities will be vital to producing meaningful health outcomes for historically underrepresented communities. This panel will discuss approaches to develop, pilot, and refine protocols that will be successful in bringing underserved individuals, families, and communities into the program.

Session Chair Profile

M.D., Chief Engagement Officer and Scientific Executive, All of Us Research Program, NIH
Biography

Dr. Dara Richardson-Heron, as chief engagement officer of the All of Us Research Program, is leading outreach efforts to enroll and retain one million or more volunteers in a landmark effort to advance innovative health research that may lead to more precise treatments and prevention strategies. All of Us aims to build one of the largest biomedical data sets in the world, involving participants from diverse communities across the United States. She will forge partnerships with research participants, health care professionals, and national and community-based organizations to raise awareness of the program and engage members, with a special focus on populations that have been historically underrepresented in research. Richardson-Heron graduated from NYU School of Medicine (MD) where she also completed an internship and residency. Richardson-Heron has more than 20 years of leadership and management experience in the health care, corporate, and nonprofit sectors.

Speaker Profile

Ph.D., Lecturer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Biography

Karl Surkan has been teaching in the Program in Women’s and Gender Studies at MIT for the past 12 years. His research interests include new media activism and online social movements, intersections of bioethics and science and technology studies, feminist media studies, technology studies, queer/trans politics and representation, reproductive technologies, and most recently wearable technologies and epatient communities and health activism.

Speaker Profile

Ph.D., Associate Director, Weitzman Institute, Community Health Center Inc.
Biography

Dr. Wanda Montalvo is the Associate Director of the Weitzman Institute, a division of Community Health Center Inc. Dr. Montalvo has an extensive portfolio leading national research and performance improvement projects among federally qualified health centers. She oversees operations at the Weitzman Institute, which aims to improve primary care and its delivery to medically underserved and special populations through research, innovation, and the education and training of health professionals. As lead PI at Community Health Center, Inc. for the NIH Precision Medicine All of Us Research Program, she serves on the Executive Committee representing FQHCs. Her previous roles include: Northeast Director for the HRSA/Bureau of Primary Health Care National Health Disparities Collaborative, Chief Clinical Officer for the Community Health Care Association of New York, and Director of the NYSHealth Foundation Diabetes Campaign. Dr. Montalvo is an alumna of RWJF Executive Nurse Fellows and Jonas Center Nurse Leader Scholar.

Speaker Profile

M.D., MPH, Director, Research and Health Promotion, San Ysidro Health Center
Biography

Dr. Muñoz has extensive experience engaging a variety of public health issues and building strong bridges between public health leaders on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. Her research emphases include HIV prevention and treatment, chronic disease, cervical and breast cancer, tuberculosis, substance use, and the impact that bi-national access to care has on health policy. This research has involved the use of community-based participatory research (CBPR) models with a specific emphasis on marginalized populations and vulnerable groups. Muñoz has initiated research activities examining health services utilization and the potential of mobile health (mHealth) technology integration into existing health services to improve treatment adherence and reduce the burden of high priority diseases. Recently, SYHC was awarded a NIH pilot grant to develop and test infrastructure for the All of Us Research Program PMI and Muñoz is the Deputy Project Investigator for this project.

Speaker Profile

M.D., Associate Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs – Community-Based Practice; Director, University of Illinois Cancer Center; Professor of Medicine; Clinical Professor of Surgery University of Illinois at Chicago
Biography

An accomplished physician-scientist and proponent of the “bench to community” model, Dr. Winn works tirelessly to bridge the gap between basic science and community-based health care. He has received national and international acclaim for his innovative efforts to empower underserved patient populations, improve health care delivery, and develop meaningful research programs that can be integrated into the community. He is a principal investigator on several community-based NIH- and NCI-funded projects, including the All of Us Precision Medicine Initiative. His basic science research, which has been supported by multiple NIH and VA Merit awards, focuses on the translational aspects of the role the Wnt pathway plays in lung cancer.

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