University of Kansas Medical Center Research Institute Receives a $245,000 Award for Project on Engaging Women in Research Post-Incarceration to be Led by Frontiers KL2 Scholar
By Kelly Hale, Communications Coordinator
Jan 07, 2025
The University of Kansas Medical Center recently received funding through the Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Award, an initiative of the Patient- Centered Outcomes Research Institute® (PCORI®) (EACB-34382). The award will support a project led by former KL2 scholar, Amanda Emerson, Ph.D., RN, aimed at improving engagement of women in research to improve healthy aging among older women after incarceration
“It’s a huge boost to receive this funding,” said Emerson, an Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing who is leading the project. “This award is all about finding ways to get patients and researchers and the community together and talking about how to reach better outcomes, specifically through patient-centered comparative effectiveness research (CER). I am excited for the opportunity to be a catalyst, to create opportunities for reciprocal learning about CER with this patient group and the research community.”
As part of the project, Emerson will establish a network of older women with previous incarceration, clinician-researchers doing work in aging and health, and engaged community members. The OWLHART Network (or Older Women Leading Healthy Aging Research Together Network) will collaborate to design learning tools and hold community events to spread the word about comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) with this population. The Network will work with the KU Center for Excellence in Health Communications to develop three training videos and a website to engage formerly incarcerated women and researchers in future CER.
“The videos will focus on our three key groups—older women and their families, clinician-researchers working in health and aging, and the community. Each has a role to play, and the challenge will be to get the groups working together to create and then use the tools. OWLHART members will participate in scripting and acting in the videos so each can teach members of the other groups what they need to know about working meaningfully and respectfully together to advance healthy aging research,” Emerson said. “In our second year, we’ll host a Health and Aging Symposium in Kansas City. That event will focus on sharing what we learned and putting the groups around a table to plan a future path for CER for older people affected by incarceration.”
Emerson was also named a Fellow in the prestigious Betty Irene Moore Fellowship for Nurse Leaders and Innovators.