• Opportunities
• Community
• Faculty
• Partners
• Students
• Sub Projects
Tiered Mentoring Program
• Data Resources

Advisory Committee

The purpose of the administrative committee is to serve as the organizational oversight and “glue” of the RIMI program. We will support our programmatic goals of diversifying the workforce through faculty and student training and research related to culturally competent research and supporting ecologically valid research in the field and laboratory.
The specific aims of the administrative core are (a) to oversee the local RIMI program’s various functions, (b) to maintain ties with Advisory Board members, (c) to establish and maintain partnerships with community agencies and organizations, (d) to oversee and support curricular changes that enhance student interest in and preparation for health disparities research, (e) to coordinate the faculty, student, and community member training, (f) to organize, conduct, and follow through with RIMI meetings and community forums, (g) to oversee the progress of RIMI subprojects, (h) to facilitate program evaluation and implement suggestions for change, (i) oversee and manage the development and use of EcoLab, (j) to moderate disputes or suggestions for program improvement, and importantly, and (k) to market and promote the RIMI program among all constituencies to ensure the program’s growth and success.

Advisory Committee (Who?)

Member	Affiliation	Expertise
Provost Harold Hellenbrand	Principal Investigator, CSUN	Administration, research support and incentives, coordination of large projects
Carrie Saetermoe	Program Coordinator, CSUN	Health Disparities, disabilities international disabilities; faculty and student support
Juana Mora	CSUN, Director, Academic Personnel, Faculty Affairs	Health disparities in Latinas, adoption of unhealthy American practices (smoking, poor food choices, etc.)
Scott Plunkett	CSUN, Psychology	Evaluation, school violence, fathers and mental health of children
RIMI Student	CSUN	To be determined
Steven Lopez	University of Southern California, Psychology	Culture and schizophrenia, mental health disorders, Latino/as
Raymond Buriel	Pomona College, Psychology	Mental health and culture; language brokering by children and their mental health
Stephanie Saliger	Valley Child Guidance and Family Stress Center	Culture and service delivery to families, family-centered interventions, cultural competence in service delivery
Mayra Bamaca	Pennsylvania State University	Depression in adolescent Latina/os, measurement with Latina/os
Michele Cooley	UCLA Center for Culture and Health	Mental health of individuals in violent neighborhoods

Principal Investigator, Provost Hellenbrand will plan, in conjunction with PC Saetermoe, the biannual meetings that take place in September or October and then again in April or May, the beginning and end of each academic year. Whenever possible, Advisory Board members will meet in person; Dr. Bamaca may need to meet us by Skype (Penn State), but she regularly visits LA so whenever possible, we will meet when she is available in October and in April. The meetings will address issues of whether or not the program is meeting is specific aims and on time, will meet with any members of the faculty, students, or community agencies and organizations that may have innovative ideas or require changes in procedures. In addition, the agenda for each meeting will build as the year progresses, with the PC securing information about the daily progress of each core and area of emphasis.

Program Coordinator Carrie Saetermoe will support the PI in his oversight of the program and will be the hub of information for the RIMI community. The PC has had several administrative positions and will use these skills to coordinate the multiple activities of the RIMI program as proposed. Her role on the Advisory Board is communicative, organizational, and proactive.

Program Evaluator, Scott Plunkett, has conducted several program evaluations and will serve as an oversight and source of innovation for the RIMI program. Dr. Plunkett has been the primary evaluator for our COR program and has found innovative means of ensuring that COR has “valued added” by comparing COR students to control students with respect to their research interests and profiles as a result of the program. Dr. Plunkett will serve as oversight to the program’s progress and will report on formative evaluations at each meeting.

Juana Mora received her PhD in Education at Stanford and studies how acculturation has a negative impact on lifestyle choices such as tobacco use, excessive alcohol use, and other health-related factors that increase morbidity and mental health difficulties. Professor Mora has had extensive funding as a project evaluator and for her research. Her role on the Advisory Board will be to monitor the program’s progress and to work with the program evaluator, Scott Plunkett, to ensure that the program is being run in an optimal fashion.

RIMI student, TBA will serve the function of providing a voice to students who may have programmatic needs that are not otherwise apparent. In addition, the RIMI student will serve as a liaison with other RIMI students by consulting with them thoroughly before each Advisory Board meeting and will report on student satisfaction and complaints for each meeting.

Michele Cooley, formerly Associate Adjunct Professor at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, is joining the research faculty at UCLA’s Center for Culture and Health. Dr. Cooley showed an early interest in health disparities when she received an NIMH award to attend a short course on African American Mental Health Research at the University of Michigan while a graduate student. In 2001, Dr. Cooley received an OBSSR Award for an NIH Summer Training Institute on the Design and Conduct of Randomized Trials Involving Behavioral Interventions.  Her current research relates to the potential mental health effects of living in violent communities. Dr. Cooley’s role on the Advisory Board will be to comment on the health relevance and rigor of research proposed by researchers and to ensure the currency and quality of research on health disparities at CSUN.

Steven Lopez is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Southern California. He holds a grant from the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities and has held several grants from the NIH. His specialization is in mental health and Latina/os, specifically schizophrenia, although Dr. Lopez’ work spans many mental illnesses and cultures. Dr. Lopez’ role on the Advisory Board will be to ensure that our goals remain consistent with those of the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, to make suggestions about program improvement, and to make suggestions about mentors and trainers in years 2-5.

Raymond Buriel, Professor of Psychology and Chicano Studies at Pomona College is considered to be a leader in cultural approaches to mental health. His decades of publications and presentations have had a profound impact on how language brokering contributes to difficulties of bilingual Spanish/English children who interpret for older adults in their family. Professor Buriel’s role on the Advisory Board will be to ensure that research on the subprojects and in pilot projects is consistent with current cultural models as well as to provide input as to the program’s cultural competence and efficacy.

Stephanie Saliger is Assistant Director of the Family Stress Center and has extensive training and experiences in supporting the community’s need to reduce child abuse. In addition to her BA in Psychology and her MS in Educational Psychology at CSUN, Stephanie has taken a program in Infant Mental Health at the Cedar-Sinai Early Childhood Center Foundation. Stephanie’s role on the Advisory Board is to serve as the voice of practitioners and the community and to ensure that our goals are realistic an in line with the community’s needs.

Mayra Bamaca is a new Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Pennsylvania State University. She studied with Adriana Umaña-Taylor at the University of Illinois and Arizona State University. She has several publications related to culture, depression, identity, and academics and has held or been offered support from the NIH, Ford Foundation, APA, and others. Mayra’s role on the Advisory Board will be to support newer faculty members who require support with respect to methods with Latina/os, and will provide the perspective of a newer faculty member to the board’s decision-making.

Advisory Committee (Specific Aims)




Specific Aim CORE 1	Foundation	Action	Measureable Outcome
Oversee the local RIMI program functions	Having a coherent sense of all aspects of the program will improve its integration and efficacy	Weekly PC meetings with staff, monthly one-on-one meetings with subproject faculty, monthly meetings with RIMI/COR scholars	Increase in all programmatic specific aims including faculty grants, publications, student entry into graduate school
Maintain ties with Advisory Board members	Collaboration with outside experts will keep our program relevant to the goal of reducing health disparities	Semi-annual meetings; at least monthly e-mail correspondence with advisory board members by PC	Report of programmatic changes suggested by Advisory Board members
Establish and maintain research partnerships with community agencies and organizations	Research that partners academic scholars with community agencies/organizations will identify and address issues of relevant to the community; research in the community will be more methodologically sound	Community activists invited to all training, especially grant-writing; community organizations sponsor RIMI students to be data interns; community forums with faculty and others will directly address community needs, collaborative research will reduce health disparities	Number of grants awarded to community agencies and organizations, collaborative research projects among agencies, faculty, and students
Oversee and support curricular changes that enhance student interest in and preparation for health disparities research	Enhancing the health aspect of survey and methods courses, including health disparity options in methods courses will increase student desire to pursue careers in health disparities research	Modification of existing courses to include greater health disparities content and examples; development of a course in health disparities to be taken by all RIMI students	Greater number of students applying to the RIMI and COR programs; greater measured interest in pursuing a career in health disparities research (survey)
Coordinate the faculty, student, and community member training	Training will provide greater breadth and relevance to research questions, prepare for grant-writing, and support students to graduate school	Summer Research Institute, off-campus faculty training, curriculum modification, courses, professional and methodological support, GRE and other workshops	Increase in relevant faculty grants, publications, presentations, student applications and entry into graduate programs, greater community grants
Organize, conduct, and follow through with RIMI meetings and community forums	Researcher-activist collaboration will increase relevance and rigor of research in health disparities	Monthly meetings with community agencies and organizations – group problem-solving	Greater relevance and rigor of community research publications, presentations, and grants
Oversee the progress of RIMI subprojects	Subprojects have mentors and support; administrative bodies can support by identifying needs and solutions for problems	Monthly meetings with subproject PIs as well as Advisory Board discussions of subproject progress	Subproject publications, presentations, and grants
Facilitate program evaluation and implement suggestions for change	Program evaluation can identify problems and correct them before they continue; programs can change to implement changes that were unanticipated	Survey, interview, observation of classes, noting numbers of publications, presentations, grants, and other outcome products	Increase in health-relevance of classes and research, cultural competence in research, increase in grants, publications, presentations
Oversee and manage the development and use of EcoLab	Providing researchers with a modifiable space that provides greater external validity will allow for more culturally relevant research in health disparities	Advisory Board will review whether there is an impact on the external validity of studies that utilize the EcoLab	Judgment of the Advisory Board, acceptance of publications and presentations to journals and conferences, grants
Improve dissemination and communication to lay public and policy makers about health disparities	Increasing the availability of information will reduce health disparities	Development of CSUN-SFV Center for the Reduction of Health Disparities	Development of web-based and paper-based materials from research findings
Moderate disputes or suggestions for program improvement	All  programs, particularly those of a complex nature are likely to generate disputes	Advisory Board and PC/PI together will support dispute resolutions	Satisfaction with RIMI program by all constituencies