Welcome message from CHEER Director, Dr. Lovell Jones
Welcome to the Center for Health Equity & Evaluation Research (CHEER), a joint collaboration between the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Houston and the Office of the Vice President in the Division of Cancer Prevention & Population Sciences at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. CHEER is among the few comprehensive health and cancer research, education, and training sites in the country.
History
Beginning with the Biennial Symposium on Minorities and Cancer in 1987 and continuing with the creation of the Center for Research on Minority Health (CRMH), we began to develop successful programs to address the differences in health outcomes among minorities and the medically underserved. Now, the Biennial Symposium Series, entitled "Minorities, the Medically Underserved and Cancer," is the nation's largest multicultural conference which provides a forum for exchanging the latest scientific and cancer treatment information. This conference brings together people from all ethnic communities and social strata to share strategies for reducing the incidence of cancer among these populations. As an outgrowth of the Biennial Symposium Series, Dr. Armin Weinberg, formerly at the Baylor College of Medicine, and I founded the Intercultural Cancer Council, the nation's largest multicultural health policy group focused on minorities, the medically underserved and cancer. In 1999, Congress provided funds to create the CRMH, and in 2000, I became the founding director of the CRMH. In 2002, the CRMH and the Texas Program for Society & Health at Rice University created what is now referred to as the Health Disparities Education, Awareness, Research and Training (HDEART) Consortium comprised of 38 institutions.
Today
On November 1, 2011, the CRMH officially transitioned into the Center for Health Equity & Evaluation Research (CHEER), a joint venture between the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work and MD Anderson’s Division of Cancer Prevention. This joint partnership between two leading academic and research institutions offers CHEER staff and researchers the singular opportunity to fully engage our mission to synergistically conduct research in and promote social and health equity for all communities.
The uniqueness of CHEER lies partly in its guiding principles, which emphasize the related themes of advancing scientific research about health disparities, involving the affected populations in determining research priorities, communicating research findings to all stakeholders, and providing community based education and outreach. We are very interested in working with faculty, communities, and health professionals to address recruitment and retention issues pertaining to minorities and medically underserved. Several of CHEER’s researchers are members of The University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and participate in a number of graduate training programs. Current research within CHEER focuses on an array of studies, including cancer, survivorship, childhood obesity, diabetes, and gene-environment interaction. CHEER is devoted to training graduate students and postdoctoral fellows and providing support to faculty members interested in addressing health disparities.
As the only congressionally mandated center for research on minority health, we look forward to the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead. In the coming year, you will hear more about CHEER as we move to more formally addressing all chronic diseases that disproportionally impact the citizens of Houston; and our efforts to transform Houston into a population laboratory to better the health of its citizens and the health of the nation. We thank you for your continued support of the CHEER, and we invite you to continue with us as make great strides in eliminating health disparities in minority and underserved populations. The CHEER faculty, fellows, students and I appreciate your interest in this website. Again, thank you.
Lovell Allan Jones, Ph.D.
Director
Center for Health Equity & Evaluation Research (CHEER)
University of Houston/The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center