North Carolina Central University has announced the establishment of an interdisciplinary health communications core to meet the growing demand for research and innovation in health information and communication.
A joint effort between the university’s Julius L. Chambers Biomedical Biotechnology Research Institute, the College of Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities, and the College of Health & Sciences, the core will focus on four key areas: improving health literacy in communities burdened with health disparities; identifying and testing innovative approaches to improve communication across various populations; supporting the university and community partners on research and practice around health communication, literacy and linguistics; and creating opportunities for students to share their passion for health equity and make an impact in their communities.
“Understanding cultural sensitivities of diverse communities is critical for development and dissemination of information to address health disparities,” explains Deepak Kumar, director of the Julius L. Chambers Biomedical Biotechnology Research Institute. “This new research program will add to NCCU’s capacity in health equity research and utilize scientific and evidence-based practices to implement culturally sensitive messaging in diverse communities.”
“The Health Communications Core creates a home for the information and communication-related work that we have already been doing in various projects and allows us to establish a research agenda,“ adds Tianduo Zhang, an assistant professor of mass communication at the university. “It also brings wonderful opportunities for community-based research and innovation between social science, humanities, and health.”
What the heck is going at North Carolina Central University (NCCU) from an upper administrative perspective. First, NCCU should be led by a native born Black American man or woman and not an African immigrant. Second, it’s downright shameful and even disrespectful that the BBRI is not ran by a native born Black American and not a guy from India along with having the majority of its staff from the PRC, India, Indonesia, Singapore, or South Korea, or Bangladesh.
For those who dissent, you need to fully recognize that HBCUs should not be in the business of providing perpetual employment opportunities to people who are not from “the community” and those who don’t “live in our community”. Not to mention these are the same groups of people who are mostly hostile and disrespectful to the collective Black American community. Also, somebody show some verified evidence where such groups provide some sort of employment reciprocity in “their communities”. I rest my case!
The first health disparity research project the BBRI should be is to compare and contrast the overall health outcomes for native born Black North Carolinians who receive medical care at Duke Health, UNC health, Cone Health, Wake Forest Baptist Hospital, and Sentara Albemarle Medical Center for starters. I will be looking for your findings.