GHUCCTS Programs & Resources

The health and well-being of any community are best addressed by engaging members and leaders of these communities who bring their own perspectives, experiences, and understanding of health in the development of research. GHUCCTS Community Engagement (CE) provides expertise to research teams on approaches to include patient, community, and other partner voices in the research development process. Inclusion assures that health research reflects the interests and needs of patients, their families, and the local communities. CE activities help reduce cultural, linguistic, and other barriers that may prevent many people from taking part in research. 

CE particularly focuses on engaging GHUCCTS priority populations who have been historically underrepresented in research including people of diverse racial, ethnic, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, people with disabilities, older adults, and veterans.

Visit our COMMUNITY page for more information 

For questions or to set up a no-cost consultation, contact Florencia Gonzalez at florencia.gonzalez@howard.edu or call 202-865-7743.

Director: Carla Williams, MD

Dr. Carla Williams received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Howard University. She is currently Associate Professor of Medicine and Public Health and Interim Director of the Howard University Cancer Center.   Her work centers around understanding and reducing cancer-related health disparities.  Her research activities emphasize engaging communities that have not been adequately represented in research.  Dr. Williams works with community health leaders to promote individual adoption of healthy lifestyle behaviors as well as population-level change in the environment, health policies, and health systems.

Additional Team Members

Finie Richardson, Ph.D., MPH, Practice Based Research Network Coordinator- DC PrimCare Practice Based Research Network Coordinator
Finie Hunter-Richardson, PhD, MPH is an Assistant Professor and Director of Research in the Department of Community and Family Medicine at the Howard University College of Medicine.  Dr. Richardson has a broad background in public health and a specialization in health communication.  Her professional background merges more than 15 years of translational and community-engaged research conducted in medically underserved communities. She has implemented projects that developed culturally and linguistically appropriate interventions using community-based participatory research (CBPR) to improve health outcomes among low-literacy minority populations.

She supports efforts to maintain liaisons with community practice research networks (PBRN). She also oversees the GHUCCTS Patient Advisory Board and Community Advisory Board for the Program.

Tawara Goode, MA, Cultural Competence Coordinator
Ms. Goode is an Associate Professor and Principal Investigator for the National Center for Cultural Competence at Georgetown University. She is nationally and internationally recognized as a thought leader in the area of cultural and linguistic competence. Her research focuses on cultural and linguistic competence and its role in addressing health and mental health care disparities including partnering with diverse communities to improve the health of their members. A particular area of interest is the health and mental health disparities experienced by people with lived experience of disability. Professor Goode currently conducts four national projects that focus on cultural and linguistic competence at the intersection of race, ethnicity, and disability.

Florencia Gonzalez, MPH, Community Networks Liaison
Florencia Gonzalez is an Adjunct Instructor for the Department of Medicine at the Georgetown University School of Medicine. She specializes in strategic planning for community & patient engagement and the inclusion of diverse populations in research. Through consultation support, she guides GHUCCTS institution study teams and students on community-engaged research best practices and building community-academic partnerships.  She also provides capacity building to community organizations for developing infrastructure around research and evaluation.  With over 20 years’ of experience, Professor Gonzalez has a history of overseeing public health projects, clinical trials, and disparity health research within community settings. 

Services
Our community engagement experts offer research teams no-cost consultations, services, and resources for meaningful engagement of communities or other partners in health research.  We also work closely with additional members of our GHUCCTS team to support efforts for the inclusion and recruitment of diverse populations.  Check out how we can Support Your Research.

Resources
We would like to share GHUCCTS developed tools and other recommended resources to support efforts for effective community engagement and inclusion of diverse populations in health research. 

• Ensuring Language Access and Linguistic Competence: A Guide for Researchers:   This guide is designed to provide researchers and study teams with practical information on enhancing the capacity for meaningful engagement of persons with limited English proficiency (LEP), those who have low literacy skills or are not literate, persons with disabilities, and those who are deaf or hard of hearing in health research. For more information go to Language Access and Linguistic Competence Page.
• Expanded Demographic Form (EDF):   A list of survey sample demographic questions to capture information not traditionally asked in medical research such as national origin, disability status, preferred language, and sexual orientation. Contact florencia.gonzalez@howard.edu to request access to the EDF.
• The Georgetown University National Center for Cultural Competence (NCCC) provides national leadership and contributes to the body of knowledge on cultural and linguistic competency within systems and organizations.  See their wide range of resources to support efforts for increasing cultural and linguistic competence in research. NCCC | Resources (georgetown.edu)
• For recommendations on community-engaged research tools and resources best suited for your study, please contact Florencia Gonzalez at florencia.gonzalez@howard.edu.