Paul A. Godley Health Equity Research Week - UNC Center for Health Equity Research

Submit an abstract for HERW 2025. Submissions are open until February 2, 2025.

The Paul A. Godley Health Equity Research Week (HERW), hosted by the Center for Health Equity Research, brings faculty, staff, students and community members together to share health equity research at UNC. HERW is an opportunity to facilitate collaboration, innovation and equity in the UNC School of Medicine, across Carolina’s communities and beyond. All sessions are open to the entire Carolina community and the general public.

In 2020, the UNC School of Medicine collaborated with CHER to host the first Paul A. Godley Health Equity Symposium. In 2023, the symposium expanded into a week dedicated to highlighting health equity research at Carolina. HERW 2025 will include research presentations, panel discussions and more.

🆕 Ada Adimora Student Research Award

We are excited to announce the Ada Adimora Student Research Award!

We established this award in memory of the late Ada Adimora, Sarah Graham Kenan Distinguished Professor of Medicine and professor of epidemiology. Dr. Adimora was a trailblazer in the area of HIV and STIs epidemiological research among African Americans, “shedding light on the epidemiology of heterosexual HIV transmission among African Americans, emphasizing the role of sexual network patterns and addressing the impact of macroeconomic and social forces on racial disparities in the US HIV epidemic.”

We are proud to honor her legacy with this student award. The Ada Adimora Student Research Award aims to inspire and promote student research. It recognizes a student who demonstrates dedication to impactful research advancing healthy communities. It also highlights Dr. Adimora’s commitment to student-faculty mentorship and the development of future researchers.

A UNC student will be selected from the HERW abstracts submissions for this award. The selected student awardee will present their research project during a featured session of HERW. They will receive a $300 monetary award.

Award applications require a timely submission to the HERW call of abstracts and the name of a faculty mentor.

2025 HERW call for abstracts

HERW 2025 submissions are open until February 2, 2025.

We invite UNC faculty, staff, partners and/or students to submit abstracts reflecting their health equity work in and beyond North Carolina communities. Proposed abstracts should reflect community-based research projects that are working to eliminate health disparities.

Areas of focus

Understanding, addressing and/or improving social determinants of health (SDOH).
Addressing and/or improving health outcomes in one or more marginalized populations.
Understanding, addressing and/or improving disparities for specific health concerns.
Epidemiological work.
Diagnostics and treatment outcomes.
Interdisciplinary and/or intersectional research approaches.

Presentation format & timing

If your abstract is accepted, we’ll invite you to present your research in a 60-minute session during HERW. All sessions will be virtual via Zoom.

In the 60-minute session, 45 minutes will cover the research presentation and 5-10 minutes will be held for audience Q&A. The presentation should emphasize impacts, outcomes and/or novel methods. Successful presentations will address the following elements:

The context in which your research was conducted.
Relevant partners and methods of collaboration.
A brief overview of research methods.
Any findings you’re able to share.
How your work contributes to creating more equitable healthcare delivery, systems or outcomes.

The final 5 minutes is reserved by the planning team to close the session and provide the session feedback form.

How to submit an abstract

Please include the following information in your submission:

1. Presenter Information

For each presenter and co-author(s), please include:
- Name, title, department/organization, email address, and phone number.
- We ask each research team to submit only one abstract. You can list a team member on more than one abstract if they are involved in multiple projects.

2. Abstract/Summary

In your abstract/summary, please include:
- Your presentation title.
- Three key words/phrases that best describe your work. For example, “chronic disease,” “healthcare access” or “Hispanic/Latino populations.” (The conference team will use keywords to categorize proposals.)
- A summary of up to 300 words describing your proposed presentation content.
- Other places you’ve shared your results. For example, at other conferences or in a publication.

SUBMIT A HERW 2025 ABSTRACT

Process and timeline

Submit abstracts by Sunday, February 2, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern.
Decision notifications will be sent by February 28, 2025.
Participation confirmation required (if accepted) by March 5, 2025.

2024 HERW Highlights

Sessions and presenters

9 sessions

24 presenters

5 student presenters

Registration and attendance

167 unique registrations

123 unique attendees

47 student attendees

Feedback

Very well organized presentation with helpful graphics and charts. I also enjoyed the videos.

The presenters were really excellent. They are enthusiastic about their work and their findings are really interesting.

The voice recordings directly from participants and breaking up the presentation into sections for background and project info [made the session engaging].

98% would recommend

4.2/5 overall content rating

4.5/5 overall engagement rating

.95 knowledge gain

About Dr. Paul A. Godley

HERW is named in honor of the late Dr. Paul A. Godley, Rush S. Dickson Professor of Hematology/Oncology in the UNC Department of Medicine and Vice Dean for Diversity and Inclusion in the UNC School of Medicine.

Dr. Godley directed the Ethnicity, Culture, and Health Outcomes (ECHO) program from its founding in 2001. His research and leadership helped improve identification, understanding and elimination of racial health disparities.

We are proud to honor his legacy through HERW to inspire impactful research on advancing access to quality healthcare for all.

Learn more about Dr. Godley at this page maintained by Victor J. Schoenbach, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor, UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.

About Dr. Ada Adimora

The Ada Adimora Student Research Award is named in honor of the late Ada Adimora, Sarah Graham Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Professor of Epidemiology in the UNC School of Medicine.

Dr. Adimora dedicated her career to patients with HIV disease and was a research leader in the areas of HIV/STI epidemiology. Her groundbreaking work informed evidence-based policy solutions to prevent the spread of HIV.

She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2019.

We are proud to honor her legacy through HERW with this award. The award is intended to inspire and promote student research and the importance of student-faculty mentorship and development of future researchers.

Learn more about Dr. Adimora (page maintained by Victor J. Schoenbach, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor, UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health).

Steering Committee

This program is made possible in part because of generous donations from our supporters.

We’re working with the 2025 Paul A. Godley Steering Committee to plan this year’s program.

Monique C. Bethell, Ph.D., MPH
Stephan Constante, medical student (UNC-Chapel Hill)
Giselle Corbie, M.D., M.Sc.
Michelle Floris-Moore, M.D., M.S.
Tasseli McKay, Ph.D.
Raúl Necochea, Ph.D., M.Sc.
E. Nate Thomas III, Ph.D.
Essie Torres, Ph.D., MPH
Jonina Stith Wrenn, medical student (UNC-Chapel Hill)