Interdisciplinary Research Leaders Messenger
March 2019
Toben Nelson, IRL Senior Advisor
I am excited to introduce myself to the Interdisciplinary Research Leader community. My name is Toben Nelson and I am a faculty member in the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health at the University of Minnesota. I am a social epidemiologist trained in research on community-based interventions. My research focuses on substance use policies. I currently have a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to study local-level alcohol control policies and law enforcement efforts to proactively enforce those policies.
My IRL work is to enhance Research Rigor. Our philosophy on the IRL Research Rigor team is that research improves in the context of strong support and critical review. Our intention is to create a community of scholars who can both encourage and challenge each other to make a difference for the communities you serve. I am energized by the breadth of research topics and designs you are pursuing in the IRL program and the passion that each of you bring to your work. I am also excited about the opportunity to work with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Foundation supported my early work in this field and was instrumental in my development and understanding of community-based research.
I look forward to working with each of you and getting to know you. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you would like to chat about research or ideas to better serve your communities.
Toben Nelson is a Social Epidemiologist who works on community-based health promotion and evaluation of strategies to improve population health. He is an Associate Professor in the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health and works with the Alcohol Epidemiology Program and Minnesota Population Center.
Cohort Webinars + Deadlines
Cohort specific calendars, updated regularly to keep track of IRL webinars, milestones, meeting dates and curriculum deadlines. Email IRL staff at researchleaders@umn.edu with questions.
Cohort 1- Webinars and Deadlines
Cohort 2- Webinars and Deadlines
Cohort 3- Webinars and Deadlines
- Have you come completed your profile on NovoED? Remember your login is your primary email and you can reset the password yourself at any time.
- Are looking for a way to have discussions with all of the IRL fellows? By posting in the IRL social space you can have cross cohort conversation or send any fellow in the IRL program a direct message.
- Need to catch up on missed webinars? Webinar recordings are posted on NovoED one week after the live webinar.
Where Mental Health and Social Justice meet
March 11, 2019 RWJF Culture of Health Blog Posted by Dwayne Proctor
A leader committed to the mental health and healing of black communities shares his insights.
A few years ago, I read a painfully insightful account in the New York Times of what it means to be a black American struggling with mental health. The author vividly describes how socio-historical “trauma lives in our blood,” materializing in our daily lives, and ultimately affecting our mental health.
A groundbreaking 2017 poll that the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) supported offers more insight into how discrimination fuels persistent stress. This stress leads to physiological responses that raise the risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Trauma and violence are also more likely to affect the lives of boys and young men of color, often leaving them with unresolved psychological wounds.
Compounding these problems are the many barriers that prevent African-Americans from receiving adequate mental health services. These include stigma, and a lack of representation among and trust of providers.
An inspiring leader I recently met—Mr. Yolo Akili Robinson—is dedicated to addressing this very problem. Robinson received a 2018 RWJF Award for Health Equity, which honors leaders who are changing systems and showing how solutions at the community level can lead to health equity. He is the executive director of BEAM, which stands for Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective. BEAM trains health care providers and community activists to be sensitive to the issues that plague black communities. BEAM has many programs that focus on men, boys, and nongender-conforming people.
Research Leaders Publications, Media and News
- Kudos: Congratulations to Sara Goodkind whose IRL partnership and broader work with Black Girls Equity Alliance that it encompasses, has been selected as a recipient of the Senior Vice Chancellor for Engagement’s Partnerships of Distinction award at the University of Pittsburg. This partnership will also be featured in the University’s application to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teachings Community Engagement Classification as one of the University's exemplary partnerships.
Open Position: Northwestern University’s Center for Community Health, Institute for Public Health and Medicine is hiring an Assistant Professor who will be nested within our Center for Community Health. They are looking for an individual with expertise in community-engaged research. Discipline and content area is open. [Shared by Melissa Green- Program Manager, Clinical Scholars]
- Open Position: Associate Dean of Research at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health [Shared by Brianna Woods-Jaeger]
- Open Position: Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights (CPHHR), Executive Director
- Open Position: Associate Dean for Public Health and Community Engagement at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (Tenure Track or CHS Track) [Shared by Sarah Gollust]
- Call For Papers: Taylor and Francis Group are seeking manuscripts for a special issue of the Behavioral Medicine journal on Health and Resilience. Deadline to submit manuscripts is April 15th. 2019. [Relevant to cohort 2, shared by Sarah Gollust]
Call For Papers: Health Affairs requests article submissions for their Culture Of Health Article Clusters [Shared by Sarah Gollust]
Call For Papers: Summer conference June 6-7, 2019 at Monmouth University: Unveiling Inequality and Gender-Based Violence: A Global Public Policy Symposium. Deadline for Abstracts, Working Papers, Panels, Roundtables, & Workshop Proposals is April 5th, 2019 [Shared by Sarah Gollust]
“I Would Say It’s Almost Like a Crime Against, You Know, the Soul”: Building a Culture of Health in Low-Income Housing Communities Through Addressing Childhood Trauma [Irán Barrera, Sabrina Kelley & Yumiko Aratani]
- Is Congress about to make child care more affordable? 5 questions answered | Analysis [Taryn Morrissey]
- Why Congress needs to make child care more affordable – 5 questions answered [Taryn Morrissey, also picked up by San Francisco Chronicle, Pennsylvania Capital Star, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Idaho Press Tribune, WTOP, SF Gate]
- Stop locking up teen girls for nonviolent offenses [Ann Muno]
- Greatest Hits & Deep Cuts: San Antonio Activists Making A Difference [Robert Salcido]
- Medicaid work rule up for House vote [Simon Haeder]
- Sugary drink tax tied to drop in soda consumption [Kristine Madsen]
- Hurting sales: Here's how Berkley's soda tax significantly slashed sales over the years [Kristine Madsen]
- Do taxes reduce consumption of sugary drinks? [Kristine Madsen]
- Newly Created Open Access Journal Focused on Appalachian Health Now Accepting Article Submissions [Erin Haynes]
- California city reaping benefits of sugar tax [Kristine Madsen]
- Stabilizing Neighborhoods through Strategic Code Enforcement [Joe Schilling]
- New MU center hopes to push for criminal justice research and reform [Kelli Canada, Clark Peters]
- Trump's Title X changes would alter grant funding [Rachel Hardeman]
- Grant helps support area nonprofit group [Mysha Wynn]
- Local Group Marks Endometriosis Awareness Month With Documentary Screening [Sally Rafie]
- Researchers investigate the impact of the statewide opioid crisis on teachers [Sara Anderson, also picked up by The Herald-Dispatch and The Register-Herald]
- Most teachers surveyed say they feel burned out at their jobs [Sara Anderson]
- Pride Center of SA launches project to facilitate transgender document change process [Robert Salcido]
- LGBTQ+ Advocates Say Equality Remains 'Stubbornly Out Of Reach' In Texas [Robert Salcido]
- Local Gender Affirmation Project Will Assist with Updating of ID’s [Robert Salcido]
- The HQ2 divide [Derek Hyra]
Send updates for the next Messenger
If you have work being published or posted, send word to Stacy Kiven (kiven014@umn.edu), IRL Research and Communications Intern. Doing so will allow us to post the news to IRL social media and the next Messenger to raise the visibility your great work!
@IRLeaders on Social Media
A few moments captured on @IRLeaders social media this month.
Connect with the rest of your @RWJF change leadership network on social media: Clinical Scholars = teams of clinicians addressing complex health problems in their communities; Health Policy Research Scholars = investing in scholars from all disciplines as future leaders in shaping policy to support health and equity; and Culture of Health Leaders = supporting individuals from all sectors with good ideas to move communities toward a Culture of Health.
Interdisciplinary Research Leaders is a program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation administered by the University of Minnesota
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Minneapolis, Minnesota