By Dina Weinstein

Impactful work being pursued at Virginia Commonwealth University and VCU Health was honored at the yearly Recognition for Excellence in Community Engagement ceremony at the Health Hub at 25th, a center that helps people living in Richmond’s East End connect with health, transportation, housing, legal, and other resources.

“What you're doing really matters. This is not easy work. This requires thoughtful, intentional work,” said Maghboeba Mosavel, Ph.D., associate vice president of community partnerships in the Division of Community Engagement, at the event.

Mosavel, along with Misti Mueller, Ed.D., executive director of the Mary and Frances Youth Center, and Lydia Klinger, director of VCU Strategic Collaboration, recognized 18 honorees from across numerous VCU divisions, acknowledging outstanding research, training, outreach, and partnerships. The grants and awards committee members include Jose Alcaine, Ariana Bracalente, Glenny Esotto, and Logan Vetrovec.

“We need to say thank you because we regard ourselves at VCU as a community engaged university, but you are the people who make that possible. So we're here to thank you, to celebrate you,” Mosavel said.

It means everything to have the work, our community engagement, and our community partners recognized. This is a job that never ends. It's continuous and it's about building those relationships.

Lana Sargent, Ph.D., associate dean in the Office of Practice and Community Engagement in the VCU School of Nursing

Honoree Sangeeta Shah, M.D., is an associate professor of cardiology in the VCU School of Medicine and director of VCU Health Pauley Heart Center’s adult congenital heart disease and cardio-obstetrics programs. She leads the Teach BP© (blood pressure) program with Jennifer Hundley and Cheryl Rocha, a week-long course designed to promote hypertension awareness by educating fourth graders about heart health. The program’s goal is to spark intergenerational change in communities with high rates of hypertension.

“As a cardiologist, we see the effects of hypertension on young families and patients. A parent who develops a weak heart from untreated hypertension is in the hospital instead of being home taking care of their children,” Shah said. “Hypertension can go unrecognized for years as it has no symptoms initially. This program allows children to be the changemaker in communities by helping to increase the awareness of hypertension.”

Research has shown how children can positively influence and inform their parents’ health and health care decisions. A Hopewell student in the program was credited with saving his teacher’s life after taking her blood pressure and notifying her of the high readings.

“It has been amazing. They got it and they understood it and they were able to pick up on it. We've taken that to another level in the school system,” Shah said.

Students at Patrick Copeland Elementary School in Hopewell recently took part in the Teach BP program. (Daniel Sangjib Min, MCV Foundation) 

Identifying paths to connect community members to resources is the focus of another honoree, Alisa Brewer. As the director of community engagement at the VCU Center on Health Disparities, she oversees the center's efforts to work collaboratively to identify community strengths and areas for enhancement.

Brewer described her work as “listening to the community partners and hearing what the priorities are for them and meeting their needs with the resources that are available. if we don't have them, we navigate pipelines to get it.”

Brewer has a wide variety of partners including health literacy advocates, child literacy advocates, faith-based liaisons, family workforce champions, as well as the Health Equity & Disparities Research (HEDR) Shared Resource at Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Hydrate RPS, a National Institutes of Health funded collaboration with the Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU in Richmond Public Schools.

Mobile health and wellness initiatives are another route to bring critical services directly to the community. Two honorees from the School of Nursing – Kimberly Battle, Ph.D. interim assistant dean of Inclusive Excellence and Belonging, and Lana Sargent, Ph.D., associate dean in the Office of Practice and Community Engagement – were highlighted for their work in this area.

Battle works at the Health Hub at 25th with interprofessional students and brings health care services to Tappahannock and the Southwood apartments in Richmond.

“It's wonderful seeing students’ eyes light up or seeing them learn clinically when they're engaged in clinical practice with me,” Battle said. “They see real world situations, real life obstacles and real challenges that the participants have to face, as well as the nurses’ role, and how they all work together to promote, improve and fix the system.”

Sargent works to bring quality health care to underserved communities through the Mobile Health and Wellness Program across Central Virginia.

“There's a lot of need,” Sargent said. “It means everything to have the work, our community engagement, and our community partners recognized. This is a job that never ends. It's continuous and it's about building those relationships.”

The other awardees were:

• Chris Cynn, Ph.D., director of the Health Humanities Lab at the VCU Humanities Research Center.
• Torey Edmunds, community outreach coordinator at the Clark Hill Institute for Positive Youth Development, who is connected to the School of Public Health, was honored for their work on Youth Violence Reduction.
• Veronica Hicks, Ph.D., assistant professor of art education.
• John Jones, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Center for Environmental Studies.
• Kimberly McKnight, VCU Center for Teacher Leadership director and Richmond Teacher Residency executive director.
• Maureen Moslow-Benway, Ph.D., associate professor and program chair for homeland security and emergency preparedness.
• Bernard Means, Ph.D., teaching associate professor and founder and head of VCU’s Virtual Curation laboratory.
• Anita Nadal, assistant professor of Spanish.
• David Naff, Ph.D., VCU Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium director.
• Michael Paarlberg, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Political Science.
• VCU Partnership for People with Disabilities staff – Seb Prone, assistant director of research and Evaluation, Angela West, disability engagement specialist, and Sarah Lineberry, evaluation associate – who run the Healing Narratives Project, which aims to improve patient doctor communications for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities who serve as co-researchers.
• Taryn Traylor, Ph.D., assistant professor at the VCU School of Education and autism program coordinator.

Learn more about VCU Health’s community impact