Center for Healthy Communities & Research

Center for Healthy Communities & Research Faculty:

Name:  Syed Ahmed, MD, MPH

Position:  Director and Professor

Name:  Ken Schellhase, MD

Position:  Assistant Director and Associate Professor

Name:  Elaine Drew, PhD

Position:  Assistant Professor

    Grants: 

• Co-Investigator, Fighting Cancer in Wisconsin's American Indian Communities, funded by the Healthier Wisconsin Partnership Program, which strives to build the public health capacity of Wisconsin’s rural and urban American Indian communities and clinics to accurately target and culturally tailor specific cancer program and services.
• Principal Investigator, Developing a Novel Intervention to Improve Health Literacy among Wisconsin Latinos, funded by the Healthier Wisconsin Partnership Program, which strives to develop and evaluate the outcomes of a novel intervention to improve diabetes knowledge, knowledge retention, and screening behaviors among Latinos.
• Consultant, Investigating Barriers to Breast Cancer Screening for Latinas in Milwaukee, funded by the American Cancer Society.  The overall goals of this project are 1) to identify main barriers and facilitators related to breast cancer prevention, screening, and treatment among Latinas in Milwaukee and 2) to create and evaluate a pilot educational program about breast cancer prevention according to the needs and preferences of community participants using a CBPR approach.
• Consultant, Reducing Barriers to Early Detection of Breast Cancer in First-Degree Relatives of African American Women Diagnosed with Premenopausal Breast Cancer, funded by the American Cancer Society.  The overall goal of this project is to establish and facilitate a breast health-screening plan for first-degree relatives of Milwaukee African-American survivors of pre-menopausal breast cancer survivors that follow American Cancer Society and National Comprehensive Cancer Network Guidelines for high risk assessment screening and intervention. 
• Consultant, Reducing Clinical Breast Health Screening and Treatment Timelines for African American Women, funded by the American Cancer Society.  The overall goal of this project is to encourage African-American women to better adhere to American Cancer Society recommendations for early breast cancer detection.  Moreover, should an abnormal clinical examination or mammogram be noted, decrease time to follow-up and if indicated, to treatment.

     Activities:

• Faculty Advisor, Public Health Interest Group (PHIG); a student-run group at MCW made up of medical and graduate students interested in public health
• Advisory Committee, PhD Program in Public & Community Health
• CTSI Southeast WI, Community Engagement Key Function Leadership Team

     Teaching:

• Community Health Improvement I: Foundations of Public & Community Health, PhD Program in Public and Community Health
• Community Health Improvement V: Foundations of Public & Community Health, PhD Program in Public and Community Health
• Health Policy Course, M2 (Medical Student Curriculum, Clinical Continuum)

     Research Interests:

• Medical Anthropology & Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR)
• Role of Community Engaged Scholarship in Translational Science
• Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (Cancer, Diabetes)
• Ethnographic Research, Qualitative Methods
• American Indian/Alaska Natives, Latinos

Name:  David Nelson, PhD

Position:  Assistant Professor

   Grants:

• Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin’s (AHW) Advancing Community-Academic Partnership for Translational Research:  Scientific Citizens and Citizen’s Scientist, which strives to advance community engagement in translational research as a core programmatic area for both the Institute for Health and Society and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) of Southeast Wisconsin. 
• Principal Investigator of the Salud de la Mujer, funded by the Healthier Wisconsin Partnership Program, which strives to increase the health literacy and knowledge of health resources for women and families in a predominately Latino community.

   Activities:

• Milwaukee Food and Fitness Initiative
• Communicandonos Juntos:  Found in Translation:  Coordinated communication program in Waukesha County for Spanish speakers
• Transition Team for Milwaukee County Nutrition and Physical Activity Coalition

   Teaching:

• Family and Community Medicine M3 Clerkship
• M1 Clinical Continuum:  Medical Interviewing and Evidence Based Medicine

Name:  Zeno Franco, PhD

Position:  Assistant Professor

   Grants:

• Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin’s (AHW) Advancing Community-Academic Partnership for Translational Research:  Scientific Citizens and Citizen’s Scientist, which strives to advance community engagement in translational research as a core programmatic area for both the Institute for Health and Society and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) of Southeast Wisconsin.

Name:  Marie Wolff, PhD

Position:  Associate Professor

   Grants:

• Principal Investigator of the "Developing a School Health Services Assessment Tool and Related Resources", funded by the Healthier Wisconsin Partnership Program, which will assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the current health services infrastructure in Wisconsin public schools.
• Co-Principal Investigator of the "Kohl’s Conversations for the Cure", funded by the Southeast Wisconsin Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, which strives to increase screening rates and raise awareness about breast cancer in southeastern Wisconsin.

   Teaching:

• Course Director, Integrated Selective, "Promoting Health in Underserved Communities"

   Research Interests:

• Health Care Safety Net
• Access
• Health Policy
• Community-Academic Partnerships
• Medical Education Curriculum

Name:  Staci Young, PhD

Position:  Assistant Professor

   Grants:

• Principal Investigator of the "Kohl’s Conversations for the Cure", funded by the Southeast Wisconsin Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
• Co-Evaluation Coordinator for the " Raising the Bar Project", funded by the Faye McBeath Foundation.
• Medical College of Wisconsin/Columbia St. Mary's Saturday Clinic for the Uninsured.

   Teaching:

• M1 Clinical Continuum:  Medical Interviewing and Diversity Lecture Series
• M3 Patient Center Care Intersession
• Integrated Selective, "Promoting Health in Underserved Communities"