Dr. Lance Okeke, CFAR Associate Director and Director of the Health Services Research (HSR) SWG, leads a novel program called Evidence2Practice (E2P) with collaborators Drs. Corneli, Muiruri, and Bosworth (Faculty, Duke Department of Population Health Sciences). He received consecutive funding, 2021-2023, for the three phases of the E2P program in Implementation Science to promote careers in HIV research among historically black college and university (HBCU) students. Since the program’s inception in November 2023, E2P’s three-day interactive workshops on HIV prevention and implementation science have reached >180 HBCU undergraduates and graduate students at 15 HBCUs in 6 states. E2P has successfully increased interest in careers in HIV among student participants.
As a result of the program, the Duke CFAR has established new relationships with faculty leaders and health professions offices at six partner HBCUs (North Carolina Central University, North Carolina A&T, Norfolk State, Virginia State, Florida A&M, and Xavier University of Louisiana). These partnerships have led to several emerging collaborations including a successful CFAR Administrative Supplement with Florida A&M School of Pharmacy. The E2P-Duke CFAR HBCU network also is the basis for an R01 application on integrating instruction on HIV prevention into minority-serving pharmacy schools, in response to NIH’s “Advancing HIV service delivery through pharmacies and pharmacists” RFA (RFA-MH-25-185).