Research Centers - University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing

Center for Health Disparities Research:
Care to Change the World for the Underserved
The goals for the Center for Health Disparities Research (CHDR) are to advance
knowledge of the determinants of health among racial/ethnic minorities,
marginalized, vulnerable, and/or underserved populations across the life span;
and to develop, evaluate, and disseminate multidisciplinary research methods and
behavioral interventions aimed at improving the health of vulnerable populations
and reducing health disparities. CHDR faculty members are involved in various
research projects aimed at improving the health of vulnerable populations as a
way to reduce health disparities. Our research goals are derived in collaboration
with the community and reflect our mutual perspectives.
This is the fundamental philosophy of the Center. This type of research and
commitment to the community requires a new set of strategies to guide research
that involves implementing a study with a community population versus
implementing a study on a community population. What this involves is
questioning, rethinking at every level, and reinforcing and developing culturally
competent research methodological strategies to reflect this partnership. We are
not novices; we are experts who are passionately committed to this philosophy
of research. The Center gives us a home for our collaborations and partnerships
that promotes and further develops our mission. Our challenge is to continue to
develop resources and methodologies so that we can accomplish our mission.
This Center is also very committed to mentoring members of the Center,
undergraduate, graduate, doctoral, and postdoctoral students, and special fellows
who join us from around the world. We meet and review grants-in-progress as
well as other activities pertinent to their growth. Seeking to improve the education
of nurse scholars from all over the world, this Center engages in pre- and post-doctoral training,
research institutes, visiting professorships and seminars, including our annual Summer Nursing
Research Institute to create the next generation of scholars. An institutional predoctoral and
postdoctoral training grant from the National Institute of Nursing Research, National Institutes of
Health (T32 NR007100) has supported 22 predoctoral and 21 postdoctoral trainees.
We have established strong interdisciplinary collaborations with faculty in the School of Medicine,
School of Arts and Sciences, School of Dental Medicine, and the School of Social Policy & Practice.
Various local, national, and international partners also work to support our partnerships with
organizations and institutions that serve our community.
LORETTA SWEET JEMMOTT, GNu ’82, GR ’87, HOM ’95, PhD, RN, FAAN, Center Director and the van Ameringen
Professor in Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing
JANET A. DEATRICK, HOM ’96, PhD, RN, FAAN, Associate Center Director, Associate Professor of Nursing, and
Program Director of Pediatric Acute-Chronic and Pediatric Oncology Nurse Practitioner Programs
ANNE M. TEITELMAN, PhD, CRNP, Assistant Professor of Nursing
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