Community Health Practice Unit

Unit leads: Borsika Rabin, PhD, PharmD, MPH, professor, Amy Sitapati, MD, chief medical information officer of the population health, UC San Diego Health, and Eric Hekler, PhD, professor

Unit Coordinator: Karemi Alvarez, MPH, community partnerships outreach coordinator

The Community Health Practice Unit brings together Federally Qualified Health Centers and tribal health programs from San Diego, Imperial and Riverside counties, as well as researchers and faculty from multiple UC San Diego Health Sciences affiliated schools and departments including the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science, UC San Diego School of Medicine Division of Biomedical Informatics, UC San Diego Department of Psychiatry, the Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute and others. 

The focus of this practice unit is to strengthen partnerships and explore ways to advance the work of health centers through meaningful collaboration with academic partners while recognizing the current environment. 

The practice unit has the following objectives:

• Build longitudinal collaborative relationships that are mutually beneficial.
• Center the priorities and needs of health centers in current and future academic partnerships.
• Share successful models of partnership from past collaborations.
• Identify funding opportunities that support shared goals and explore realistic ways in which academic partners can support funding efforts.
• Offer a grant writing panel with practical insights, funding guidance and a conversation about the limitations and possibilities of federal support.
• Explore opportunities for prevention-focused and community-rooted research.