iCubed Commonwealth Scholars Program
Health and Wellness Across the Lifespan Transdisciplinary Core
Description of Core
The Health and Wellness Across the Lifespan Transdisciplinary Core has a focus on the development of an interprofessional education and collaborative care practice model that provides enhanced care coordination, education, medication, and chronic disease counseling for seniors living in the Richmond area.
The Core specifically addresses problems of older and disabled adults “aging in place” within low-income senior housing and surrounding neighborhoods in urban Richmond, Virginia. We aim to impact and create an increased diverse workforce, improved health and wellness across the lifespan, and improved community collective self-efficacy.
Our work aims to reduce unnecessary healthcare utilization at the economic and individual level. In particular, the core has interests in understanding the detrimental consequences of costs and undermined quality of life in vulnerable older adults. Our intervention strategies for reaching our aim are improved access to care and interventions that target mechanisms of health disparities and social determinants of health. The Core also aims to establish a city-wide Institute for Aging across the Lifespan to help develop livable communities that will include representatives from the community, community partners, and VCU academic resources.
Proposed Activities of Commonwealth Scholar Students
The CSP students with the Health and Wellness Across the Lifespan will work on research projects directly with Core Faculty: Drs. Elvin Price, Elizabeth Prom-Wormley, Lana Sargent and Faika Zanjani. The students will directly be involved in faculty-level research projects, as well as aid in the mission for a Core Collective.
Specifically, students with Dr. Price will work to enhance pharmacological and gene science. Dr. Prom-Wormley’s student will analyze data from an older adult subsample of a high-risk population of East End residents. Dr. Sargent’s student will gain clinical and bioinformatic experience towards understanding functional decline. Finally, with Dr. Zanjani, the student(s) will aid with project development toward creating community interventions for mental health/substance abuse prevention.
Consequently, CSP scholar academic performance and career development trajectories will benefit through engagement in hands-on experience offered by these faculty opportunities that can directly improve student success in employment searches and academic achievement.
Specifically, these opportunities will develop CSP scholar scientific problem solving, reading, and writing skills. Enhanced skills will be developed through scientific literature reviews, research team meeting attendance, grant proposal development, data collection, data management, and data analysis. CSP scholars will also be encouraged to develop publications and presentations with program mentor support.
Work Expectations for CSP Scholars
CSP Scholars with the Health and Wellness Across the Lifespan will work for 10 hours/week, on average. Dr. Price will accept 2-3 students, Dr. Prom-Wormley will accept 1 student, Dr. Sargent will accept 1 student, and Dr. Zanjani will accept 1-2 students. Preference is given to students who demonstrate a passion for the work of the Core and of specific faculty mentors. We also prefer students interested in gaining experience through active involvement in the scientific process.
Learn more about the Health and Wellness Across the Lifespan Core faculty mentors