Last fall, the Cornell Center for Health Equity (CCHEq) was pleased to announce a funding opportunity for community partnership building grants. We committed to supporting projects that aim to establish or strengthen collaborative partnerships that would enable meaningful involvement of community stakeholders in health equity research. The purpose of this funding opportunity was to enhance capacity to develop innovative research practice partnerships broadly related to health equity. This year we were particularly interested in proposals that looked at health equity from a public health

perspective, including research related to systems and process improvements, and

proposals that explored the role of racial justice in achieving health equity. During this grant cycle, two projects were selected for funding. We are delighted to highlight this year's CCHEq Community Partnership Building grant recipients.

The Diversity Center of Excellence has had a busy month engaging pre-medical students, including Cornell University students and Weill Cornell trainees and faculty. Four project teams have met monthly as part of the Research Scholars in Health Equity program, which receives mentorship from Drs. Monika Safford and Martin Shapiro. In December, center members and principal investigators, Drs. Minerva Romero Arenas and Caitlin Hoffman, were selected to participate in the 2022 Research Scholars in Health Equity program. Visit their member profile on the CCHEq website.

A fourth cohort of the Covid-19 Community Education Empowerment and Internship Program (CEEIP), led by Dr. Susana Morales and a Steering Committee of faculty from New York City-based medical schools, began on October 27 and will conclude with student presentations in early January. To connect with the DCOE, email dcoe@med.cornell.edu.

Lastly, the Diversity Center of Excellence has launched about new website sharing access to resources

The Community Health Education and Research Program (CHERP) is a peer health educator training program. It is based out of the Office of Community Outreach and Engagement at the Meyer Cancer Center of New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell. We connect with community members from six (Bed-Stuy, Coney Island, Corona, Crown Heights, Flatbush, and Jamaica, Queens) high-priority New York City (NYC) neighborhoods. In these communities, there is a disproportionate burden of premature death from cardiovascular disease and cancer.

For more information on the Community Health Education and Research Program (CHERP), contact Francesse Antoine (fra4002@med.cornell.edu).

Neighborhood (or residential) food environments are vital contexts influencing diet-related behaviors and outcomes. Broadly, there are many challenges that persist in conceptualizing and operationalizing the food environment. This talk focuses on our recent study examining clustering properties of a residential urban food environment and associations with diet outcomes among adults in Brooklyn, NY. I underscore the importance of utilizing person-centered approaches to denote heterogeneity of the residential urban food environment, which could offer insights for prospective programming and policymaking.

Roger Figueroa, PhD, MPH, MSc is an Assistant Professor of Social and Behavioral Science in Nutrition in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University. Dr. Figueroa's research combines concepts and methods across disciplinary boundaries to examine interconnections between the social and behavioral determinants of health, with a particular focus on children’s energy-balance behaviors in the context of family systems, social services and policy. To date, Dr. Figueroa has developed a comprehensive skill foundation in research methods, including training in a broad range of quantitative (i.e., advanced linear modeling, structural equation modeling, psychometrics), qualitative methods (i.e., grounded theory, ethnography, qualitative GIS), evidence synthesis, implementation science, and mixed-methods. Dr. Figueroa has received training and research funding support from the USDA, NIH, and from other institutional-level grant programs.