Dissertation Title: Participatory Community-Academic Research Partnerships for Health Equity

Dissertation Chair: Dr. Jacque-Corey Cormier

Dissertation Abstract:

• Purpose: Community based participatory action research (CBPAR) is a key strategy to address persistent health inequities, which are rooted in complex social dynamics. CBPAR defines collaborative partnerships between professional researchers and affected communities to address these issues through research and interventions. Across metro Atlanta, a number of CBPAR initiatives have engaged local community members and/or community based organizations (CBOs), but few of these partnerships were sustained. Literature suggests that establishing effective, equitable community-academic partnerships using CBPAR principles is critical to successfully addressing health inequities. However, there are a number of factors that can influence the success of a community-academic partnership. 

• Methods: The Greater Atlanta Citizen Science Collaboratory (“Collaboratory”) was founded between community and academic collaborators in order to establish a formal partnership structure for multiple CBOs and academic institutions. In collaboration with the Collaboratory, this research engaged community and CBO representatives who had been involved in CBPAR initiatives in metropolitan Atlanta in order to better understand the factors that enable or impede a successful partnership. This research identified potential participants through network sampling with Collaboratory members and available literature, resulting in semi-structured interviews fifteen community partners. The interviews were analyzed through thematic coding and development of vignettes. 

• Results: The data affirmed the value of community-academic partnerships and CBPAR approaches to addressing community priorities. It emphasised the mutural benefits sought and achieved by such partnerships, as well as the ways that partnerships supported the capacity of both academic and community partners to work more effectively together. The interviews highlighted the importance of individual relationships between community and academic partners, and a number of factors to strengthen and sustain them. This research also revealed additional gaps that need to be addressed in order to achieve greater power-sharing and more significant outcomes for communities, and to reduce burdens on their time and resources.

• Conclusion: This research supports efforts to strengthen and sustain the capacity and infrastructure for partnerships between community representatives and academic researchers. Based on the data, recommendations have been developed that will support community and academic partnering capacity, increase partnership opportunities, and contribute to more successful collaboration. The results will be disseminated to inform Collaboratory members and other researchers.