Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #111251

Commission on Community-Engaged Scholarship in Health Profession c/o Sarena D. Seifer, MD, Community-Campus Partnerships for Health, University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UW Box 354809, 1107 NE 45th Street, Suite 345, Seattle, WA 98195-4809, 206-616-4305, sarena@u.washington.edu

Over the past two decades, a steady stream of national organizations have recommended the community engagement of health professional schools as an essential strategy for improving health professional education, achieving a diverse health workforce, increasing access to health care, and eliminating health disparities. Recruiting and retaining diverse community-engaged faculty members is essential to developing and sustaining the community partnerships that form the foundation for community-based teaching, research, and service. Despite the expansion of community engagement in the health professions, a troubling issue has arisen in many schools: Roles and expectations of faculty are changing, but the faculty review, promotion, and tenure system has not kept pace. Addressing this problem is the central focus of the Commission on Community-Engaged Scholarship in the Health Professions and its February 2005 report.

Convened by Community-Campus Partnerships for Health with funding from the WK Kellogg Foundation, the Commission has taken a leadership role in creating a more supportive culture and reward system for health professional faculty involved in community-based participatory research, service-learning and other forms of community-engaged scholarship in which faculty members connect their scholarship with community needs and concerns.

The report examines a number of critical issues and challenges that community-engaged scholarship poses to the predominant paradigm of faculty incentives in health professional schools. This presentation will describe the report's detailed recommendations for action by health professional schools and their national associations that can support community-engaged scholarship and cites promising practices that illustrate their implementation. For more information, visit the Commission website at http://depts.washington.edu/ccph/kellogg3.html

Learning Objectives: Through this interactive oral presentation, participants will

• Become informed of the findings and recommendations from the Report of the Commission on Community-Engaged Scholarship in the Health Professions;
• Define the basic framework and rationale for community-engaged scholarship;
• Describe the challenges presented by the current faculty promotion and tenure system for community-engaged scholars, and strategies for addressing these challenges.

Related Web page: depts.washington.edu/ccph/kellogg3.html

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation