Partner Spotlight

Nicole Vaughn, PhD – PCVPC Communication and Dissemination (C&D) CoreMember and Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) of the Centerpiece Project. As a research health psychologist with a focus on reducing health disparities, Nicole has extensive experience in community-based participatory research (CBPR) with ethnic minority groups. She brings this expertise to her role as Co-PI of PCVPC’s Centerpiece Project. In this role, Nicole is integrally involved in the project by directing the Community Mobilization Team (CMT), which works to foster and build relationships with the intervention sites across West and Southwest Philadelphia. She further supports PCVPC’s community outreach workers through leadership development and skill-based training and workshops. In addition, Nicole’s work with PCVPC extends to the C&D Core, where she works with the community to develop dissemination strategies for PCVPC’s research results and relevant community events and news.

In September 2008 Nicole and Nicole Thomas, MBA, PCVPC Community Liaison Coordinator, presented CBPR: Listening, Hearing, Understanding, Respecting and Validating Voices from the Community at the 6th National Conference on Quality Health Care for Culturally Diverse Populations in Minneapolis, MN. A Learning Institute that Nicole developed with Tara Hayden, MHSA, PCVPC Administrative Core Co-Director, also will be featured during the pre-session of the American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting in Philadelphia in November 2009. The Learning Institute focus will be Building Bridges from Community-Based Participatory Research for Policy Change.

In addition to her efforts with PCVPC, Nicole is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Management and Policy at Drexel University’s School of Public Health. She also collaborates with researchers and communities across Philadelphia on health promotion, chronic disease management, and maternal and child health initiatives. Examples of these CBPR initiatives include an evaluation of a diabetes management intervention with a health center and a mother-daughter obesity prevention intervention with a recreation center, both in North Philadelphia.