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A team of researchers from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity (JHCHE), led by Dr. Lisa Cooper, recently published a paper in Progress in Community Health Partnerships, entitled “Engagement Quality, Partnership Processes, and Network Characteristics of a Community-Academic Collaboration to Advance Health Equity.” In this article, the research team evaluated the collaboration between JHCHE and its community advisory board (CAB). The CAB is a core element of the Center’s community-based participatory research approach, which builds authentic relationships that promote trust and a shared vision of health equity among researchers and community members. Through surveys self-administered between December 2019 and June 2020, CAB members reported information on their backgrounds and experiences in the field of health equity, how well they knew other members of the CAB or had worked with them outside of CAB activities, and how well they thought the partnership worked. Twenty-four community members and 30 faculty/staff members (77% of those who were eligible) took part in the study.  

Key Findings 

1. An Experienced CAB: On average, CAB members had 10 years of experience doing health equity work. Over half of the community CAB members listed service delivery as their primary area of health equity work, whereas over half of the faculty and staff members reported research as their primary area of health equity work. 
2. Ratings of Engagement Quality: CAB members rated the quality of the collaboration as highest in its focus on local relevance and social determinants of health, acknowledgment of the community, and integration of all partners. They rated the collaboration’s dissemination of findings and knowledge to all partners and its efforts to build on strengths and resources within the community slightly lower.
3. Ratings of Partnership: Community members rated all aspects of partnership in the community-academic collaboration as good or very good; however, they rated inclusion in and support for decision-making lower than other aspects of partnership. 
4. Social Network Characteristics: On average, CAB members reported connections or “ties” with 16-17 other members. Academic CAB members had twice as many connections to other CAB members than community CAB members; however, the number of connections was not related to community members’ ratings of engagement or partnership within the CAB. 

“The insights provided by this paper have helped us identify ways to improve our community-academic collaboration by enhancing our decision-making processes and increasing community members’ influence and outreach within the network of the CAB. We hope these findings will also help other institutions organize and develop evaluation plans for their own community-academic collaborations,” said Dr. Cooper.  

In addition to Dr. Cooper, other authors on the paper include Katie Dietz, Christina Yuan, Kit Carson, Benjamin Meza, Christina Vincent, Chioma Onuoha, Jessica Yeh, Deidra Crews, Chidinma Ibe, Jill Marsteller, Michelle Simmons, Debra Hickman, and Lee Bone.

The full citation for the article is: 

Cooper LA, Dietz KB, Yuan CT, Carson KA, Meza BPL, Vincent C, Onuoha C, Yeh HC, Crews DC, Ibe CA, Marsteller JA, Simmons M, Hickman D, Bone LR. Engagement Quality, Partnership Processes, and Network Characteristics of a Community-Academic Collaboration to Advance Health Equity. Prog Community Health Partnersh. 2025;19(1):13-23. doi: 10.1353/cpr.2025.a956593. PMID: 40223624.