Susan Passmore

I am an Assistant Professor in the UW School of Nursing and hold a doctorate degree in medical anthropology. My area of expertise is promoting inclusive and engaged research practices as a critical step toward health equity. I have researched both “sides” of community/academic partnerships with a specific emphasis, most recently on barriers to engagement found among researchers and research teams. I have also explored innovation in the engagement of underrepresented for health research which is illustrated by an awarded R21 from National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI 1 R21 MD015130), Feasibility of an Innovative Method to Understand the Dynamics of Choice and Create Diversity in Genomics Research among Older African Americans as well as a supplement award from the National Institute on Aging (P30AG062715-02S1), Maximizing Components of Trustworthiness in the Decision to Participate Preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease Research Involving Lumbar Puncture. Each of these projects is an application of innovation in community engagement using a newly developed methodology called the “research story deck,” as well as explorations of trust and trust building. I have also explored service models and co-design as methods of innovative engagement. My work in researcher education began with the Building Trust Program at the Maryland Center for Health Equity (MCHE), University of Maryland, College Park. At MCHE, I also served as Project Director for the Center of Excellence in Race, Ethnicity and Health Disparities Research (P20 MD006737, NIMHD, completed 2017) and the Research Center of Excellence in Minority Health Disparities (P60 MD000207, NIMHD, completed 2012). In this capacity, I led, among other duties, the creation of a community-engaged infrastructure that included a network of African American barbershops and beauty salons, faith-based organizations, community-serving agencies, and direct service events (Mission of Mercy charitable temporary dental clinics). This infrastructure continues to support the community-engaged research of the MCHE and is the subject of a recent publication of a chapter in Minkler’s & Wakimoto’s (Eds.) Community Organization and Community Building for Health and Welfare titled Mobilizing Black Barbershops and Salons to Eliminate Health Disparities: Lessons Learned on the Road to Health Equity during a Global Pandemic.