When graduate student Rana Damra joined an interdisciplinary student research project she couldn’t have imagined her team would gain national recognition for their work. But they did, and it resulted in an invitation to present the research at the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education 2022 NEXUS Summit held in Minneapolis.

The team consisted of Damra, a second-year master’s student in Speech Language Pathology and second-year medical students Christian Hecht and Scott Perkins. 

During their peer-reviewed presentation, “Engagement Plan for Increasing Representation in Biomedical Research: A Community Collaboration Between Case Western Reserve University Health Science Graduate Students, Cleveland Clinic BioRepository and the Fairfax Neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio,” they shared how the research focused on enhancing diverse participation in research, particularly in historically underrepresented populations. 

The research consisted of setting out to evaluate residents’ preferred engagement methods in Cleveland’s Fairfax neighborhood. This work is now helping the BioRepository develop tactics that cultivate trust and open communication with the residents in Fairfax. The team hopes the process will serve as a model for other communities as well.