NYU Langone’s Section for Health Equity forms partnerships and coalitions with a variety of not-for-profit health advocacy organizations and community-based organizations that provide services. With these groups, we further our goal of ensuring that racial and ethnic minorities receive high-quality and culturally tailored healthcare.

Since 2020, the NYU Center for the Study of Asian American Health (CSAAH) has engaged in several coalition efforts with local and national partners to collaboratively address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our recent initiatives aim to directly support Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AA and NH/PI) communities in response to the pandemic and further our goal of ensuring that underserved racial and ethnic communities receive high-quality and culturally tailored healthcare. Learn more about our COVID-19 partnerships and projects.

National Advisory Council

In 2009, CSAAH received supplemental funding with the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities to develop strategies that enhance the conduct of health disparities research in AA and NH/PI communities. The partnership formalized a National Advisory Council, composed of leaders and champions of community-based organizations across the United States working to eliminate health disparities in these populations.

The role of the council is to strengthen AA and NH/PI community capacity and health equity and to foster community-initiated research. The council also helped develop the Research Capacity Assessment, an instrument to measure organizational capacity, resources, assets, barriers, and interests for conducting research. This instrument and the resulting assessments led to the development of the Community Empowered Research Training program.

Insight from the council has also helped to shape CSAAH’s educational tools and trainings, including development of an AA & NH/PI Health Central hub, which promotes greater community engagement and interest in health disparities research and advocacy.

The council was actively engaged via key informant interviews clarifying community knowledge, resources, and needs related to Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias and a consensus building modified Delphi process to shape and inform the Healthy Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease Research Track of CSAAH.

National Advisory Committee Membership

Organization	Location	Contact
Apicha Community Health Center	New York, NY	Therese R. Rodriguez, CEO
Asian Pacific Community in Action	Phoenix, AZ	Layal Rabat, MA, Programs Director
Center for Pan Asian Community Services	Atlanta, GA	Chaiwon Kim, President and CEO
Council of Peoples Organization (COPO)	New York, NY	Mujtaba Ali, Programs Director
Chinese American Medical Society	New York, NY	Warren W. Chin, MD, Executive Director
HOPE Clinic	Houston, TX	Andrea Caracostis, MD, MPH, CEO
India Home	New York, NY	Vasundhara Kalasapudi, Executive Director
Kalusugan Coalition	New York, NY	Emerson Ea, PhD, DNP, APRN, CNE, Chair
Papa Ola Lokahi	Honolulu, HI	Sheri-Ann Daniels, EdD, Executive Director
Korean Community Services of Metropolitan New York	New York, NY	Linda Lee, MSW, Executive Director
National Tongan American Society	Salt Lake City, UT	O. Fahina Tavake-Pasi, MS, Executive Director
Orange County Asian Pacific Islander Community Alliance (OCAPICA)	Garden Grove, CA	Mary Anne Foo, MPH, Executive Director
South Asian Council for Social Services (SACSS)	New York, NY	Sudha Acharya, Executive Director
UNITED SIKHS	New York, NY	Hardayal Singh, Executive Director

Scientific Steering Committee

Since 2017, a Scientific Steering Committee has collaborated with our National Advisory Council to inform and advise the work of the Section for Health Equity and CSAAH to advance AA and NH/PI community capacity and health equity.

This committee was established to adhere to requirements outlined for CSAAH’s fourth continuous cycle of National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities funding. The committee formally reviews and evaluates research-related scientific agendas and contributions to advancing the science of health disparities in AA and NH/PI communities, while also providing overall scientific direction for greater sustainability. These efforts increase the national scope of research, community engagement, and training efforts in the Section for Health Equity and CSAAH.

Scientific Steering Committee Members

Nia Aitaoto, PhD, MS, MPH, Research Associate Professor, Nutrition, and Integrative Physiology, University of Utah, Utah Center for Pacific Islander Health

Tina J. Kauh, PhD, Senior Program Officer, Research-Evaluation-Learning Unit at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Daphne Kwok, Vice President of Multicultural Markets and Engagement, Asian American and Pacific Islander Audience at AARP

Scarlett Lin‐Gomez, PhD, MPH, Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco

Dorothy Castille, PhD, Project Officer for the U54 grant, Division of Scientific Programs, Community Health, and Population Sciences, National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities

Benyam Hailu, MD, MPH, Project Research Scientist for the U54 grant, Division of Scientific Programs, Community Health, and Population Sciences, National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities

Cancer Organization Collaborations

The Section for Health Equity also works with several health organizations whose mission is to reduce cancer burden and cancer risk factors.

New York City Cancer Collaborative

The New York City Cancer Collaborative is a voluntary network of more than 200 individuals and organizations from the public and private sectors working to reduce cancer burden, incidence, and mortality. The collaborative is guided by a five-year strategic plan, the New York State Comprehensive Cancer Control Plan, which outlines objectives and suggested strategies for cancer prevention and control. One priority of the strategic plan is early detection of colorectal cancer, spearheaded by the New York State Cancer Consortium Colorectal Cancer Action Team.

New York State HPV Coalition

The mission of the New York State HPV Coalition is to increase human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination rates and decrease HPV-related disease through education, coordination, advocacy, and leadership.

NYC Hep B Coalition

The NYC Hep B Coalition is a city-wide network of community-based organizations, healthcare organizations, providers, and other groups interested in preventing and managing hepatitis B and related issues.

NYC Smoke Free

NYC Smoke Free partners with community members, legislators, and health advocates to support local efforts to end the tobacco epidemic throughout New York City where close to 1 million residents smoke.

Borough of Brooklyn Interfaith Advisory Group Cancer Task Force

The Borough of Brooklyn Interfaith Advisory Group Cancer Task Force, a partner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Office of Faith Based Initiatives, serves as an advocate and conduit to eliminate and prevent disparities in cancer. The task force also promotes the health of Brooklyn residents through education and outreach and broadens healthcare access and services in partnership with faith-based institutions and faith-based organizations.