About

Dr. Dave is an Assistant Professor in the School of Medicine and the Associate Director of the Center for Health Equity Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). Dr. Dave is an expert in the field of formative and summative evaluation research, specializing in evaluating multi-level, complex initiatives, programs and interventions. He has over 15 years of clinical and public health practice and evaluation experience. The overall goal of his research is to engage diverse stakeholders from academic institutions, healthcare systems, and the community to address health disparities related to chronic diseases, specifically cardiovascular disease. The goals of my longitudinal research trajectory are threefold: (1) Build a strong foundation for participatory evaluation and collaborative cardiovascular disease research at our institution; (2) Foster the development and dissemination of innovative evaluation methods, tools and research approaches that address the health priorities of our state and nation and; (3) Provide mentorship, training, and experiential learning to undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate students by providing opportunities to engage in research projects. His area of research focuses primarily on hypertension and chronic diseases, integrating systems thinking in evaluation research. He is the Director of Evaluation of the NIH-funded North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute (TraCS) at UNC, which aims at to accelerate clinical and translational research from health science to discovery to dissemination to patients and communities. He also co-directs the Systems Science and Evaluation Lab at UNC to foster the integration systems thinking and evaluation in biomedical, clinical and public health research. He also serves as the Evaluation chair for HRSA’s Southeast Regional Genetics Network at Emory University to improve health equity and health outcomes in individuals with genetic conditions, reduce morbidity and mortality caused by genetic conditions As the principal evaluator and investigator, Dr. Dave has worked on various federally and foundation-funded projects all over the U.S., including the Newborn Screening and Sickle Cell Disease Program, Heart Matters and Community Initiative to Eliminate Stroke. Dr. Dave has a medical degree from the University of Pune, India and worked as an emergency room physician in Mumbai, before coming to the U.S. in 2004. He attended the UNC at Greensboro and completed a Masters and a Doctorate in Public Health in 2006 and 2011 respectively, with a concentration in public health, community-based prevention research and evaluation. Dr. Dave’s research interests include evaluation, systems science, and methods research to reduce disparities associated with chronic diseases and hypertension.
My research foci are two-pronged – 1) mitigating adverse social determinants of health associated with cardiovascular diseases to foster health equity and 2) evaluating multi-level, multi-component, complex programs and initiatives. I employ community-engaged research methods in my research and leverage the lived experience and expertise of my community partners to inform strategies and systems-based solutions to address health priorities in rural minoritized communities.