Do you want to avoid the hassle of traveling with your printed poster? IAPHS2026 is pleased to make poster printing available to you through our supplier PosterSessionOnline. Your poster will be professionally reviewed, printed and shipped directly to Portland and you will be able to pick it up from the Poster desk. Click here to learn more.
Primary Submission Category: Health equity
Co-Creating Trustworthy Research: An Undergraduate Community-Engaged Research Partnership to Examine Institutional Trustworthiness in Breast Cancer Equity
Authors: Quinn Valier, Kimani Cooper, Nick Costilla, Karley McComas, Nancy Le, Nomita Bajwa,
Presenting Author: Quinn Valier*
Black women in Harris County, Texas — home to Houston, one of the nation’s most populous and racially diverse cities — face significantly higher breast cancer mortality than White women, mirroring a national disparity (27.6 vs. 19.7 per 100,000; USPSTF, 2024) driven by systemic barriers, delayed screening, and eroded institutional trust. Building that trust is complex and non-linear, requiring sustained partnerships beyond any single research cycle. This project embeds an undergraduate research team into an existing, trust-based community partnership — offering a meaningful entry point into community-engaged research (CEnR) without navigating the full arc of trust development.
Research Question: How can undergraduate researchers engage meaningfully within established community partnerships — and what can that engagement reveal about how organizations like the Texas Health Equity Alliance for Breast Cancer (THEAL) produce and sustain institutional trustworthiness to advance breast cancer equity?
Methods: A faculty-supervised undergraduate research team at UH Population Health is embedded into the existing partnership infrastructure of THEAL, engaging member organizations as thought partners and co-investigators — not research subjects. Using CEnR principles (co-learning, mutual respect, transparency) and Conversation Café methodology, students co-develop research questions, perform qualitative analysis, and produce policy briefs immediately useful to THEAL. Steering Committee guidance ensures community-centered continuity across cohorts.
Preliminary Findings/Implications: This model reframes undergraduate education as a site for building population health science capacity with communities. Early engagement reveals that centering community expertise reshapes research design, student professional identity, and the relationship between academic institutions and the communities they serve — offering a replicable model for trustworthy, co-created population health research.