Plenary 4: Community-Based Participatory Research: Its Social Justice Roots and Contribution to Anti-Racist Research and Practice

Dr. Gardner is an assistant professor of health promotion at Mississippi State University. He received his PhD in Health Education and Health Promotion (2016) from the University of Alabama, MS in General Human Environmental Sciences with a Specialization in Rural Community Health (2011) from the University of Alabama, and BS in Biology (2009) from Alabama A&M University. Furthermore, he possesses Certified Health Education Specialist credential through the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing, Inc. Gardner’s research interests are in health equity with a focus on rural and/or African American populations. His current research examines the risky sexual behaviors and readiness of rural African American men to participate in barbershop-based HIV prevention programs, and COVID-19 disclosure decisions among rural African Americans. Previous research examined the black church’s response to the Jackson Water Crisis. He is also a co-investigator on one study that examines older rural African American adults’ attachment to place and their perceptions of well-being in relation to place, and another study which examines high school students’ interest in food and health science careers based on the delivery of tailored curricula to expose them to the professions in the respective fields.

Viktor is on the Board of Directors of the James F and Sarah T Fries Foundation and is Professor of Epidemiology in the Oregon State University College of Public Health and Human Sciences.

Martha Katz is a health policy leader who is committed to the use of policy strategies to improve health and access to quality health care for all. Martha began her career in public health in the U. S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion where she was part of the team that developed the first Healthy People: Objectives for the Nation in 1980. She then joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) where she led development of CDC’s policy and budget strategies for 10 years and co-chaired Healthy People 2000, which reinforced the national commitment to addressing health disparities. She was instrumental in establishing the CDC Foundation and was its first program director. Martha then served as CDC’s Deputy Director for five years from 1998-2003, focused on policy, legislation, and communications. From 2003-2008, Martha was Director of Health Policy for Healthcare Georgia Foundation where she designed health policy and grantmaking strategies to promote better health and health care for all Georgians.Martha currently chairs the Board of Directors of the James F. and Sarah T. Fries Foundation which awards two prizes annually for improving health and for outstanding contributions to health education. She serves on the Board of the Georgia Health Foundation, the Logan Health System in northwest Montana, and chairs the Board of the Flying Carpet Theatre Company. Martha received a BA from the University of Texas at Austin and an MPA from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.

Barbara A. Israel, DrPH, MPH is a Professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. She obtained a MPH and a DrPH in Health Education at the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was the Associate Editor of Health Education Quarterly for six years and the Deputy Editor of Health Education & Behavior for eight years. She is the Director and a founding member of the Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center (Detroit URC), a community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnership now in its 26th year. The Detroit URC has fostered and supported the establishment of numerous CBPR partnerships affiliated with the Center, which are engaged in multiple NIH and Foundation-funded basic etiologic research, intervention and policy research and training projects aimed at increasing knowledge and addressing factors associated with health inequities. Dr. Israel has extensive experience conducting, evaluating, disseminating and translating findings from a number of these CBPR partnerships and projects, in collaboration with partners in diverse communities. These efforts have examined, for example, the: environmental triggers of childhood asthma and strategies for reducing them; social and physical environmental determinants of cardiovascular disease; impact of physical activity interventions on heart health; impact of air quality on health and strategies for mitigating that impact; translation of research findings into policy change; and capacity building for conducting CBPR and policy advocacy. She has published widely in the areas of: the development, implementation and evaluation of CBPR partnerships; the social and physical environmental determinants of health and health inequities; the relationship among stress, social support, control and physical and mental health; and evaluation research methodologies.