Our Story
In January 2004, the Center for Health Equity Engagement Education and Research was created by Case Western Reserve University and the MetroHealth System. In 2007, the we received a P60 grant from the National Institutes of Health allowing the Center to pursue projects related to hypertension, kidney disease, and organ donation.
In 2017, we turned a new page, receiving a U54 grant from the National Institutes of Health to conduct research and community dissemination with several new projects. The grant, “Involving Communities in Delivering and Dissemination Health Disparity Interventions,” offers new opportunities for the Center to continue with its long-term goals of creating durable academic/community partnerships, promoting replicable interventions for measurable reductions in health disparities, and training a new generation of health activists committed to eliminating health disparities wherever they find them.
A new advisory body was created from this grant, the Community Research and Dissemination Think Tank. This group will advise the center on best practices for disseminating our research in the community, while also developing and launching their own ThinkTank project.
One of the first projects launched was the Pilot Awards for Community Engaged Approaches to Understand or Reduce Health Disparities. This project aims to develop investigators with a capacity to engage in partnerships with communities to conduct high-quality health disparities research. Our pilot award investigators meet monthly as part of our Community Based Research Network (CBRN), gaining valuable knowledge from a diverse group consisting of former CRSI Scholars, non-profit professionals and fellow academic researchers interested in community-based research.
Another project seeks to increase the input of health disparity populations into the dissemination of research findings by medical journals. The Community Journal Reviewers Project trained fifteen community members how to review manuscripts for two prominent journals, the Annals of Internal Medicine, and the Annals of Family Medicine. Journal editorial teams will then use these reviews in decisions to accept, revise, or reject manuscripts.
In March 2022, we kicked off our strategic plan by interviewing more than 35 internal and external stakeholders. A group comprised of members of the MetroHealth Research Institute, the Population Health and Equity Research Institute (PHERI), Center staff, and Center collaborators met to incorporate the findings from the interviews into the strategic planning process. This culminated with a virtual retreat in December that was extremely well attended. With a bit more work and discussion we are proud to present our new name, vision, mission, and logo.
Our Name is now the Center for Health Equity, Engagement, Education, and Research (CHEEER).
It reflects a more modern definition of our work while emphasizing our focus on education and research through close relationships with the communities we serve.
Our Vision & Mission
Our Vision | Be a trailblazer in achieving health communities through engaged research, education, and advocacy.
Our Mission | Partner with communities to:
- Conduct innovative health equity research,
- Develop a network of diverse health equity leaders, and
- Advocate for policies that promote well-being and health for all
Faculty
Susan De Luca, MSW, PhD
Vanessa P. Ho, MD
Sonal Patil, MD, MSPH
Center Staff
Collaborating Faculty
Don Allensworth-Davies, PhD, MSc, CPH
Assistant Professor, School of Health Sciences, Cleveland State University
Elizabeth Benninger, PhD
Pilot Awardee, CHEEER
Postdoctoral Fellow, The Center for Urban Education, Cleveland State University
CEO Healthy Minds Healthy Communities Consulting LLC
Darcy A. Freedman, PhD, MPH
Director, Mary Ann Swetland Center for Environmental Health, School of Medicine
Mary Ann Swetland Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, School of Medicine
Core Faculty, Prevention Research Center for Healthy Neighborhoods, School of Medicine
Aaron Goldenberg, PhD, MPH
Director of Research, Department of Bioethics, School of Medicine
Professor, Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences, School of Medicine
Member, Population and Cancer Prevention Program, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center
Heather K. Hardin, PhD, RN
Pilot Awardee, CHEEER
Assistant Professor, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing
Carolyn Harmon Still, PhD, RN, CNP, MSM, AGPCNP-BC, CCRP, FAAN
Pilot Awardee, CHEEER
Associate Professor, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing
Sonja Harris-Haywood, MD, MA
Associate Dean for Curriculum Integration, NEOMED
Professor, Department of Family Medicine, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center
Elliane Irani, PhD, RN
Pilot Awardee, CHEEER
Assistant Professor, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing
David Kaelber, MD, PhD, MPH
Chief Medical Informatics Office/Vice-President of Health Informatics, MetroHealth Medical System
Professor of Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, Case Western Reserve University
Erika Kelley, PhD
Pilot Awardee, CHEEER
Assistant Professor, Department of Reproductive Biology, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Cheryl M. Killion, PhD, RN, FAAN
Associate Professor, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing
National Academy of Medicine’s 2022-2023 Distinguished Nurse Scholar-in-Residence
Simon P. Kim, MD, MPH
Associate Program Urology Residency Director Colorado Hospital
Associate Professor, Site Director (Urology), UCHealth Highlands Ranch Hospital, University of Colorado Hospital
James Lalumandier, DDS, MPH
Chair, Department of Community Dentistry, School of Dental Medicine
Professor Emeritus, Department of Community Dentistry, School of Dental Medicine
Maeve MacMurdo, MBChB
Pilot Awardee, CHEEER
Occupational Pulmonologist, Cleveland Clinic
Vanessa F. Maier, MD, MPH
Pilot Awardee, CHEEER
Assistant Professor, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
David Margolius, MD
Director of Public Health, City of Cleveland
Vanessa Marshall, PhD, MA
Research Health Scientist, Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical
Brittany R. Myers, Ph.D
Pilot Awardee, CHEEER
Assistant Professor, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Anita D. Misra-Hebert, MD, MPH
Director of the Healthcare Delivery & Implementation Science Center, Cleveland Clinic
Associate Professor of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine
Carol Musil, PhD, RN, FAAN
Dean, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing
The Edward J. and Louise Mellen Professor of Nursing, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing
Suchitra Nelson, MSc, MS, PhD
Professor and Associate Dean, Clinical and Translational Research Department of Community Dentistry School of Dental Medicine
Professor, Department of Population & Quantitative Health Sciences School of Medicine
Henry Ng, MD, FAAP, FACP
Director – Transgender Surgery & Medicine Program, Cleveland Clinic
Director – Center for LGBTQ+ Care, Cleveland Clinic
General Medicine/Pediatrics, Cleveland Clinic
Adam T. Perzynski, PhD
Director, Patient-Centered Media Lab, Center for Health Care Research and Policy, MetroHealth Medical Center
Faculty, Center for Health Care Research and Policy, CWRU at MetroHealth System
Associate Professor, Department of Medicine
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology
Rachel Pope, MD, MPH
Pilot Awardee, CHEEER
Clinical Instructor, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Dana Prince, PhD
Pilot Awardee, CHEEER
Associate Professor, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences
Mahboob Rahman, MD
Division Chief, Nephrology and Hypertension, UH Cleveland Medical Center
Professor, CWRU School of Medicine
Dr. Johnie Rose, MD, PhD
Pilot Awardee, CHEEER
Program Director, Preventive Medicine Residency Program, School of Medicine
Assistant Professor, Center for Community Health Integration, School of Medicine
Member, Population and Cancer Prevention Program, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center
Assistant Professor, Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, School of Medicine
Jesse Schold, PhD
Professor, Department of Epidemiology, Colorado School of Public Health
Eileen Seeholzer, MD
Medical Director, Adult Weight Loss Surgery & Weight Management Center, MetroHealth System
Medical Director, MetroHealthy Employee Wellness Initiative, MetroHealth System
Medical Director, SkyWell Employee Wellness Solutions
Faculty, Center for Health Care Research and Policy, CWRU at MetroHealth System
Associate Professor of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Katherine Slain, DO
Pilot Awardee, CHEEER
Program Director, Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, UH Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital
Assistant Professor, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Kurt Stange, MD, PhD
Director, Center for Community Health Integration, School of Medicine
Distinguished University Professor
Dorothy Jones Weatherhead Professor of Medicine, School of Medicine
Professor, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, School of Medicine
Professor, Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, School of Medicine
Member, Population and Cancer Prevention Program, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center
James Werner, PhD
Director, Practice-Based Research Network Shared Resource, School of Medicine
Associate Professor, Center for Community Health Integration, School of Medicine
Associate Professor, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, School of Medicine
Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine
Secondary Faculty, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences
Member, Population and Cancer Prevention Program, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center
Kristi K. Westphaln, PhD, RN, CPNP-PC
Pilot Awardee, CHEEER
Assistant Professor, University California Los Angeles School of Nursing
Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
Jackson Wright, Jr., MD, PhD, FACP
Program Director, William T Dahms Clinical Research Unit, UH Cleveland Medical Center
Director, Clinical Hypertension Program, UH Cleveland Medical Center
Professor Emeritus, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Owusua Yamoah, PhD
Pilot Awardee, CHEEER
Research Scientist, Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, Mary Ann Swetland Center for Environmental Health, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Ruqaiijah Yearby, JD, MPH
Co-founder and executive director of the Institute for Healing Justice and Equity, Saint Louis University
Professor, Saint Louis University Law (SLU LAW)
Member, Center for Health Law Studies, SLU LAW