WASHINGTON ― In partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine today announced awards totaling almost $7.5 million to support community-engaged research on the role that data on the social determinants of health could play in improving public health data systems to better address health disparities. These awards aim to support historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and other minority serving institutions (MSIs) located in the five Gulf states: Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. Funds for the awards were provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  

“Our partnership with the Gulf Research Program supports critical community-based health equity research led by minority serving institutions,” said George Hobor, senior program officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “Together, we will continue to support efforts to identify the data needs of communities and efforts to collect those data to ensure that change-makers have the information they need to address structural racism and achieve health equity.”  

The five awarded projects develop academic-community partnerships that use community-based participatory research to demonstrate how data on climate-specific, environmental, and social determinants of health could better inform health policies and services to promote health equity for at-risk communities that are disproportionately experiencing the impacts of climate change. 

“The projects supported by our partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation bring first-class science to communities often overlooked in the Gulf region,” said Lauren Alexander Augustine, executive director of the Gulf Research Program. “These projects take advantage of the wealth of expertise cultivated by the region’s HBCUs and MSIs to build trust in health data collection in ways that result in better public health data systems for all communities in the region.” 

The awarded projects are:  

A Right to Be Counted: Enhancing Syndromic Surveillance Capabilities for Vulnerable Gulf Communities
Project Director: William Sage, Texas A&M University  
Project Location: South Texas Colonias & Manchester (Houston), Texas   

Project Team:   

• Christine Blackburn, Texas A&M University   
• Benika Dixon, Texas A&M University   
• Hye-Chung Kum, Texas A&M University   
• Garett Sansom, Texas A&M University   
• Cason Schmit, Texas A&M University   
• Keegan Warren, Texas A&M University   

Award Amount: $1,494,462   

Project Summary: 
Enhancing existing public health data systems — to capture data on social determinants of health (SDoH) and vulnerable communities — offers advantages over creating new systems. Particularly promising, the National Syndromic Surveillance Program (NSSP) incorporates a national infrastructure of diverse datasets — including emergency room, laboratory, and environmental data. However, policy barriers often impede data justice. Existing policies prioritize individual over community interests, often suppressing data on small, at-risk communities. Policies supporting communities’ “right to be counted” are critical to identify and address health inequities.   

This proposal will enhance NSSP policies to better account for SDoH, health disparities, and environmental and climate-exacerbated health outcomes while supporting and empowering vulnerable Gulf communities by 1) collaborating with federal partners to identify opportunities for enhancing NSSP, through enhancing existing data streams, linking data, and incorporating new data sources ethically and equitably; 2) exploring community needs and concerns using community-based participatory research (CBPR) with two at-risk populations (South Texas Colonias and Houston’s Manchester neighborhood) and ultimately develop policies to support enhanced data collection; and 3) developing NSSP policy opportunities and strategies to support vulnerable communities as part of the ongoing Data Modernization Initiative (DMI), incorporating CBPR findings and preparing a report for federal policymakers.   

This project’s impact could be substantial. National public health surveillance policies are undergoing revision in the ongoing DMI. The project seeks to leverage close relationships with DMI policy decision-makers for maximum impact, and its use of CBPR empowers vulnerable communities in the DMI policymaking process and beyond.   

Health Equity and Public Health Data Systems in Nueces County, Texas, At-Risk Neighborhoods   
Project Director: James Gibeaut, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi  
Project Location: Corpus Christi, Texas 

Project Team:   

• Heather DeGrande, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi   
• Natalie Johnson, Texas A&M University   
• Ping Ma, Texas A&M University   
• Yang Ni, Texas A&M University   
• Denzel Otokunrin, Corpus Christi – Nueces County Public Health District   
• Miguel Perez, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi   
• V. Kelly Turner, University of California, Los Angeles   
• Bruce Wilson, Coastal Bend Neighborhood Empowerment   

Award Amount: $1,499,471   

Project Summary: 
In Texas, recent public health reports have called for action toward integrating health and social care by more holistically supporting systemic changes. While individualized care is necessary, community work is needed to create conditions that profoundly shape opportunities for health and well-being. A foundational step is understanding SDoH. This project will provide decision-makers and local communities with useful and integrated public health system and comprehensive data related to SDoH, environmental factors, and climate risk to engage in equitable urban planning and decision-making for at-risk coastal communities of color in South Texas. The project will ensure interventions and policies that address health disparities are responsive to the unique needs and challenges faced by at-risk communities in Nueces County, Texas, including by better informing public policy and community leaders with the data they need to drive evidence-based approaches. The interdisciplinary approach uses mixed-methods and community-based participatory research to co-develop a social well-being and equity logic model linking health disparities to SDoH, climate, and environmental factors; validate linkages through structural equation modeling; and contextualize findings with deep engagement and thematic and content analysis. 

The project will result in three products, including a data integration framework that public health organizations and hospitals can use to better integrate data on SDoH in health data systems, a comprehensive action strategy to advance progress on identified SDoH in need of action, and a geospatial Health Equity Tool that broader decision-makers can use to integrate SDoHs, climate, environment, and health into emerging policies, plans, and agendas.   

Community-Driven Geospatial Approach to Improving Public Health Data Systems in Beaumont-Port Arthur, Texas   
Project Director: Ayodeji Iyanda, Prairie View A&M University  
Project Location: Beaumont-Port Arthur, Texas  

Project Team:   

• John Beard, Port Arthur Community Action Network   
• Genny Carrillo, Texas A&M University   
• Chiung-Fang Chang, Lamar University, Beaumont   
• Daikwon Han, Texas A&M University College Station   
• Xiao Huang, University of Arkansas   
• Christopher Jones, South End Charlton-Pollard GHCA   
• Tianjun Lu, California State University Dominguez Hills   
• Yongmei Lu, Texas State University   
• Joyee Washington, Joyee Washington Consulting   
• Xinyue Ye, Texas A&M University College Station   

Award Amount: $1,488,160   

Project Summary: 
Human health, particularly among marginalized and vulnerable populations, is severely threatened by climate change and the social determinants of health that impede access to resources, opportunities, services, and health care, eroding quality of life. These communities face additional health risks and disparities due to environmental factors, including air pollution. To address these issues, we propose to investigate the environmental and social determinants of chronic health conditions (e.g., asthma and cancer risks) in the Beaumont-Port Arthur Region of Jefferson County, Texas.   

The project aims to identify important SDoH using community-based participatory research. The project will examine the impact of industrial pollution from petrochemical plants on the high cancer and asthma rates of the region. Community-driven research activities including data collection training on air monitoring and health needs assessment to identify SDoH affecting the health, health care needs, and access to preventive care of these at-risk communities. The project will employ a mixed-methodological approach that combines quantitative and qualitative data to inform socio-environmental policies addressing health disparities.   

The project’s interdisciplinary approach has the potential to develop innovative strategies for addressing the health disparities associated with climate change and environmental degradation that will result in enhanced health equity for vulnerable populations and the strengthening of existing public health data systems. Project outcomes will inform policy decisions and the design of interventions to mitigate and reduce environmental health burdens and risks, such as asthma and cancer, and contribute to global efforts to address environmental injustices as a structural public health issue.   

Multisectoral Partnerships to Address Successive Disaster Events, Affordable Housing, and Mental Health   
Project Director: Omolola Adepoju, University of Houston 
Project Location: Greater Third Ward, Greater Fifth Ward, and Kashmere Gardens (Houston), Texas  

Project Team:   

• David Curtis, University of Houston Health Center   
• Linda Davis, Boynton Chapel   
• Lauren Gilbert, University of Houston   
• Ben Hirsh, West Street Recovery   
• Alicia Neal, Emancipation Economic Development Council   
• David Northern, Houston Housing Authority   
• Assata Richards, Sankofa Institute   
• Hanadi Rifai, University of Houston   
• Ken Rogers, Third Ward Cuney Homes Choice Neighborhoods   
• Marilyn White, Trinity East United Methodist Church   
• LeChauncy Woodard, University of Houston   

Award Amount: $1,499,058   

Project Summary: 
This proposal seeks to develop formal academic-community partnerships to build a geospatial-photoethnography dashboard, co-owned and co-developed by the community, to chronicle and assess the impact of successive disaster events on affordable housing and mental health outcomes in three historically medically underserved communities in Houston, Texas: Greater Third Ward, Greater Fifth Ward, and Kashmere Gardens. Earlier work in this space has been siloed, and while community partners are sometimes involved, most research partnerships are not structured to allow communities to co-own these projects from inception to project end. Given the increasing frequency of natural disasters precipitated by climate change, the importance of bottom-up, community-driven efforts — led by residents of communities affected by these disasters — is paramount to better understand and address the impacts of climate change on environmental health disparities. 

Using community-based participatory research principles, the project proposes to 1) build digital geospatial-longitudinal maps to display historic to present-day housing insecurity and mental illnesses in target communities between 1980-2022 at the census tract level, with projected layers for 2030, 2040, and 2050, and utilize the developed maps to co-produce with communities toward three sub-aims; 2) employ photoethnography concepts to assess the impact of successive disasters on the three local communities, including the use of community conversations and photovoice to collate a storyboard of people’s experiences; and 3) engage the community in developing a geospatial-photoethnography dashboard as a public health data system that is user-friendly and accessible to community members while building community mental health capacity.  

Project Step: Utilizing CBPR to Examine Social Determinates of Health Targeting Environmental Data with Underserved Populations  
Project Director: Dawn Bishop McLin, Jackson State University
Project Location: Mississippi Gulf Coast Region, Mississippi 

Project Team: 

• Robin Kelly, HBCU Emergency Preparedness Consortium 
• Sophia Leggett, Jackson State University 
• Suzanne Randolph, Maya Tech 
• Don Spann, Jackson State University 
• Min Qi Wang, EHDS Associates Inc. 
• Joan Wesley, Jackson State University 

Award Amount: $1,500,000 

Project Summary:
The project will employ a mixed-methods strategy utilizing an interdisciplinary, culturally competent community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach to engage affected communities in identifying existing data, data gaps, and assets that can be leveraged to address pernicious health problems for Gulf Coast communities through improved public health data systems. The project will convene and train constituents of and with our CBPR partners, conduct analyses of secondary data to present the SDoH, climate change and environmental factors, and asthma/respiratory illnesses rates, and where data exists for Black and Vietnamese people in the Gulf Coast region. The project will also conduct a community systems analysis that includes a one-time online survey and key informant interviews with community representatives (e.g., health departments, social service agencies, housing authorities, etc.) as well as convene groups for discussions of data and gaps. Our aim is to gather nontraditional perspectives on SDoH data, needs, and assets to address issues disproportionately affecting Black and Vietnamese people in their communities, and needs for data to better inform health agendas, planning, services, programs, and resource allocations. Community residents will be trained to provide photos that depict problems in their communities for which they need better data to document and use in planning, service delivery, and resource allocations. 

The National Academies’ Gulf Research Program is an independent, science-based program founded in 2013 as part of legal settlements with the companies involved in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. It seeks to enhance offshore energy system safety and protect human health and the environment by catalyzing advances in science, practice, and capacity to generate long-term benefits for the Gulf of Mexico region and the nation. The program has $500 million for use over 30 years to fund grants, fellowships, and other activities in the areas of research and development, education and training, and monitoring and synthesis.   

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, engineering, and medicine. They operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln. 

Contact:

Pete Nelson, Director of Public Engagement and Communications
Gulf Research Program
E-mail: pnelson@nas.edu