Leadership
Message from the Director
The OCTRI Community Research Hub was established in Central Oregon in 2015 and today supports staff in Central Oregon, in Portland and a team of community research liaisons, students and volunteers across the state. Over the past few years, I have often been asked by colleagues at our institution to explain what we do at the Community Research Hub so I would like to take this opportunity to describe our rationale and vision for this program.
We work to identify and understand the gaps and barriers for communities to engage in research and use data driven decision-making and evaluation to improve health in their communities. Concurrently, we are committed to support researchers at OHSU in bringing their research to the community, through offering training, facilitating partnerships and providing local implementation support. As can be seen by perusing our website, we have a robust Community Project Assistance Program, have established trusting relationships with community partners through the state and have successfully assisted investigators in the implementation of projects in the community.
Together with Knight Cancer Institute, Community Outreach and Engagement and OCTRI Community Research Hub, we provide community and investigator support and services through OHSU Community Outreach, Research and Engagement (CORE). My hope is that you will find benefit to our work and share your thoughts on how we may best support our colleagues and work toward an ultimate vision of supporting the entire state of Oregon, including rural, urban and frontier communities, as a unified, broadly recognized, respected and coordinated program of community research at OHSU.
Jackilen Shannon, PhD, MPH, Director
Dr. Shannon brings a unique and valuable perspective to her work in community outreach and engagement as is apparent from her combined leadership roles with both the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute and the Oregon Clinical and Translational Research Institute. Trained as a nutritional epidemiologist with a focus on cancer prevention, and a specialization in health behavior, Dr. Shannon has contributed significantly as a leader in cancer prevention research. But, Dr. Shannon’s work is distinguished from others by her purposeful extension beyond the academic environment to engage with community. Through her work following established principles for community engagement, Dr. Shannon and her team work to build trusting and meaningful relationships with community partners that ensure opportunities for bidirectional engagement and an environment that promotes the implementation of research that is relevant to and reflective of the community.
If you would like to contact Dr. Shannon, please email.
Melinda M. Davis, PhD, MCR, Co-Director
Melinda Davis, PhD, is Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and OHSU-PSU School of Public Health, Interim Director of the Oregon Rural Practice-based Research Network and Co-Director of the OCTRI Community and Collaboration Core at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). Dr. Davis is a participatory implementation scientist who collaborates with patient, community, and health system partners to adapt and implement interventions to improve health equity in rural and low resourced settings. Dr. Davis conducts her work in ORPRN, often in partnership with the Community Health Advocacy and Research Alliance (CHARA), Oregon's Coordinated Care Organizations (CCOs), and other state and national partners. Dr. Davis leads a portfolio of research and technical assistance contracts funded by the National Cancer Institute, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, American Cancer Society, and National Institute of Minority Health & Health Disparities.
If you would like to contact Dr. Davis, please email.
Paige Farris, MSW, Program Administrator
Paige is the Program Administrator for the OCTRI Community Research Hub, joining OHSU in2004. She has over 14 years of experience protecting human subjects in research; managing clinical trials, co-writing grants, implementing research projects in both university and Veteran Hospital settings and managing budgets. Her research interests focus on building community capacity for research in a few different ways; first, by conducting trainings in community settings with the goal of familiarizing individuals and research teams to the research process so community researchers can begin their own research studies more quickly, efficiently and ethically. She also conducts trainings around the use of Evidence-Based Approaches and the importance of protecting human subjects participating in research. Secondly, by working closely with community researchers, Ms. Farris is interested in providing technical assistance to community researchers in the design of research projects; assuring project outcomes are – sometimes creatively – met based on novel data collection tools or recruitment techniques (i.e.: Let's Get Healthy) She has a commitment to improving health policy through research and values collaboration and research partnerships in order to improve healthcare for all people.
If you would like to contact Paige, please email.
Laura Campbell, MBA, MPH, Community Research Program Manager
Laura is the Community Research Program Manager for the OCTRI Community Research Hub. She joined OHSU in 2018 as the Community Research Liaison for Central Oregon. She now leads the Community Research Liaison Team and is responsible for the Community Project Assistance Program. Her team connects and provides community organizations with resources, technical assistance, and expertise to support research-based practices and data-driven decision-making. They work to build the capacity of communities to participate in and conduct community engaged research.
Laura’s research interests are in Maternal and Child Health and Implementation Science. Her research experience includes implementing and evaluating an evidence-based intervention to prevent postpartum depression, implementing and evaluating coordinated community models to identify and respond to children who have been exposed to violence, and assessing community conceptualization of resilience, trauma, and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Laura is also developing knowledge in the field diversity, equity and inclusion. She is a social justice advocate and works to bring diverse perspectives to her team, support the work of oppressed communities and individuals, and address health disparities.
If you would like to contact Laura, please email.