Health Equity Scholars for Action
Health Equity Scholars for Action (HES4A), a program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, aids in the career development and academic advancement of researchers from historically underrepresented backgrounds who conduct health equity work. Partners for Advancing Health Equity provides support and management for HES4A by providing resources and fostering community necessary for participants to thrive professionally and personally. Scholars receive funding, supportive resources, and a structured community necessary to contribute to and expand health equity research for a two-year span. Building upon momentum from the first cohort of scholars, HES4A initiated a second cohort of scholars in early 2024.
Fostering Community
In addition to two years of research funding and individual mentorship, HES4A supports scholars through fostering community. Building community among peers, mentors, and coaches serves as a productive outlet for early-career researchers to grow their professional networks and discuss challenges, triumphs, and visions for research and academia informed by perspectives of historically underrepresented backgrounds. To build community among emerging health equity researchers, cohort 2 scholars were provided with 17 formal opportunities in 2024 to interact with fellow scholars, advanced career researchers, mentors, and coaches to exchange ideas about the state of health equity and learn from each other’s work. Organized by P4HE, these community-building supports included informal coffee hours, write-in Wednesdays, quarterly newsletters, writing retreats, and themed research talks with expert academics to advance professional development and leadership training.
HES4A fosters a community among early-career researchers to emphasize collaboration across disciplines and celebration of the impact scholars have in their respective fields. To sustain the collaborative nature of the cohort and ensure the efforts of scholars are recognized, P4HE highlights and shares scholar publications/media with cohort participants. Most recently, scholars Damian Chase-Begay and Laura Stamm were highlighted in a HES4A newsletter for their respective publications.
Cohort 2
In April 2024, 15 post-doctoral scholars conducting research in the area of health equity were inducted into the second cohort of HES4A to continue P4HE’s mission of expanding supports for researchers from historically underrepresented backgrounds. In line with the requirements of the scholarship, researchers in cohort 2 focus their funded projects on health equity-related research and evidence that aim dismantle systemic and structural barriers to health and wellbeing.
Acknowledging the many challenges facing systematically marginalized populations and their resulting impacts on health, HES4A proudly emphasizes the diversity of health topics cohort 2 scholars pursue. Scholars from the 2024 – 2026 cohort actively conduct research in areas such as immigrant-inclusive equitable cancer screenings, maternal morbidity inequity for Black birthing persons, nature-based culturally grounded programs for young Indigenous families, and many more. To learn about cohort 2 of HES4A, visit Health Equity Scholars for Action and the individual scholar sites listed below.
Cohort 2 Scholars
- Damian Chase-Begay, PhD, MS
- Rebekah Israel Cross, PhD
- Rochelle R. Davidson, MA, PhD
- Patricia Rodriguez Espinosa, PhD, MPH
- Yanica Faustin, PhD, MPH
- Tiffany N. Ford, MPH, PhD
- Jenny S. Guadamuz, MSPH, PhD
- Kaleea Lewis, PhD
- Lolita Moss, PhD, MSW
- Helen Russette, PhD, MPH
- Natalicio Serrano, PhD, MPH
- Gayle Shipp, PhD, RD
- Laura Stamm, PhD
- Henry Willis, PhD
- Laura Wolford, PhD, S CCC-SLP, CSE
Looking Ahead
As cohort 2 scholars continue their funded research through 2026, collaborative community building and mentorship will remain a constant to achieve the RWJF’s goal of supporting early-career researchers from historically underrepresented backgrounds who conduct health equity work. While this presence of support will remain constant, P4HE is dedicated to adapting to the evolving needs and priorities of HES4A scholars and mentors through responsive community event planning, communication, and resource provision. In the immediate future, the second cohort of HES4A will convene in Upstate New York for a 3-day writing retreat in Summer 2025. During this time, scholars and their mentors will have the opportunity to make considerable writing progress, continue to build community while, and nourish their minds and research with mindfulness exercises, career coaching sessions, and research coaching sessions.
Stay up to date on the Scholars’ Work
- Visit Scholar webpages linked on the HES4A webpage
- Sign up for the Partners for Advancing Health Equity newsletter
Learn more about Future Cohort Cycles
Learn more about the P4HE Collaborative
- Check out our P4HE Q&A and 2024 Year in Review blogs