The Duke Center for REsearch to Advance HealthCare Equity (REACH Equity) has selected the fourth cohort of Career Development Awardees—REACH Equity Scholars. Targeting junior faculty, these two-year awards support mentored research projects focusing on the REACH Equity theme: addressing racial and ethnic disparities in health by developing and testing interventions that improve the quality of patient-centered care in the clinical encounter—a setting in which racial and ethnic disparities are well-documented. Scholars are selected through an NIH-style peer review process.
Assistant professor Jennifer Plumb Vilardaga, PhD, was one of the three awardees. Her project is titled, "Improving Physical Activity through Values and Activity Pacing."
Plumb-Vilardaga’s long-term career goal is to mitigate persistent pain through behavioral and physical activity interventions for older adults, particularly for racial groups who bear a disproportionate burden of persistent pain. Her REACH Equity project will target modifiable barriers and facilitators for a physical activities intervention for older African Americans with osteoarthritis using culturally-sensitive motivational enhancement through values clarification. Her primary mentor is associate professor Tamara Somers, PhD.
Learn more about REACH Equity Career Development Award program and the other awardees.