At the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco Annual Meeting, researchers from across the globe are gathering for a pre-conference workshop on using Co-design as a community-engaged tool for developing culturally relevant tobacco interventions.
Using experiential training and case studies from work with priority populations , ten scholar and practitioners will introduce attendees to co-design principles and approaches. Culturally relevant interventions hold promise for improving tobacco health equity for populations that experience disparities by helping scientists understand the end-user experience when developing accessible, inclusive, usable, and sustainable interventions. Co-design offers a novel approach to intervention design because it requires researchers and community members to work as equals. Through co-design researchers must view problems from new angles, consider unconventional solutions, and get comfortable taking risks.
Learn more about our presenters and their work:
Nupsius E. Benjamin-Robinson, DrHSc, Louisiana Public Health Institute
Dr. Earl “Nupsius” Benjamin-Robinson, is the director of the Louisiana Cancer Research Center’s Office of Community Outreach & Engagement. This position encompasses him also being the Senior Director of Louisiana Public Health Institute’s Community Engagement Department and The Louisiana Campaign For Tobacco-Free Living. Prior to this, Dr. Benjamin-Robinson served as the inaugural director of The Louisiana Department of Health’s (LDH) health equity office – Office of Community Partnerships & Health Equity. As the leader of this office, he led the development of LDH’s first agency-wide health equity plan.
Dr. Benjamin-Robinson is faculty at Xavier University’s Public Health Science Program and has taught as an Adjunct Associate Professor at Tulane University School of Public Health. He has over 20 years of public health experience working in tobacco and cancer prevention control, with extensive expertise in HIV/AIDS care and prevention. Lastly, Dr. Benjamin-Robinson is a board-certified public health practitioner – National Board of Public Health Examiners.
Francisco Cartujano Barrera, MD, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Rochester Medical Center
Dr. Francisco Cartujano-Barrera, (he/él), is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC). Moreover, he is an Assistant Director of the Office of Community Outreach & Engagement at the Wilmot Cancer Institute, part of the URMC. Cartujano-Barrera (he/él) conducts community-based participatory research for cancer prevention and control (e.g., tobacco cessation) among underrepresented minorities. Particularly, he has focused on the development and implementation of culturally and linguistically appropriate mobile interventions among Latinos. Cartujano-Barrera also serves as the Director of the Wilmot Cancer Institute Tobacco Cessation Program.
Joanne G Patterson, PhD, College of Public Health, The Ohio State University
Joanne Patterson (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Health Behavior and Health Promotion at the Ohio State University College of Public Health. Her research aims to reduce behavioral cancer inequities among LGBTQ+ populations. She applies community-engaged and mixed methods to explore how context and culture affect participant engagement with and the effectiveness of culturally tailored behavioral interventions, including health communications. Her work is funded by a National Cancer Institute (NCI) Career Development Award (R00CA260718), and she is Co-I on The Ohio State University Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science (U54CA287392; MPIs: Wagener and Shields; Role: Co-I Project 4). Locally, Dr. Patters is co-leading an LGBTQ+ health needs assessment with Columbus Public Health, Franklin County Public Health, and the Ohio State University Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Evaluation Studies.
Wyatt Pickner, MPH, American Indian Cancer Foundation (or Dana Mowls Carroll, PhD, Minnesota Population Center)
Wyatt Pickner is an enrolled member of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe (Hunkpati Dakota) in South Dakota. He received his undergraduate degree in American Indian Studies and Health Sciences from the University of South Dakota and earned an MPH in Community-Oriented Public Health Practice from the University of Washington. He has over 14 of experience working with tribes, tribal organizations, and American Indian serving organizations at local, regional and national levels on research projects, capacity building, training and community engagement. Wyatt is currently the Research Manager at the American Indian Cancer Foundation. In this role he works with Indigenous communities through culturally-rigorous methods to design and implement research projects that assess the burden of cancer and potential contributing factors with the aim to identify culturally relevant solutions.
Sebastien Proulx, PhD, Department of Design, College of Arts & Sciences, The Ohio State University
Dr. Sébastien Proulx is Associate Professor of Design, in the Department of Design, at the Montreal Higher School for Technology (University of Québec) and in the Department of Design at The Ohio State University. He holds a PhD in Design and a Master of Applied Science in Design and Complexity from the University of Montreal (Canada). He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in public health at the University of Montreal Public Health Research Center (IRSPUM). During his graduate studies he completed a doctoral fellowship in political and moral sociology at the Paris School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS). His research program revolves around the role of designers in the development of public services and policies. His approach draws on moral sociology and care ethics providing designers with conceptual framework to cope with the complexity of contemporary social and political realities.
Tamara Stimatze, MS, PhD, Department of Public Health Sciences, New Mexico State University
Tamara Stimatze (she/they), MS, PhD, is an assistant professor in Public Health Sciences at New Mexico State University. Professionally, Tamara is a social scientist whose research focuses on the lived experiences of intersectionality for LGBTQIA+ individuals and how these experiences impact health, particularly around tobacco use and cessation. Her goal is to identify and target barriers to health and wellbeing for LGBTQIA+ communities through culturally adapted, inclusive, and representative programming. https://tamarastimatze.com/
Christina Sun, PhD, College of Nursing, University of Colorado
Dr. Christina Sun earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of California, Davis, her master’s in clinical psychology from California State University, Fullerton, and PhD in public health from Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Sun’s research is focused on reducing health inequities through community-based approaches and interventions. Since 2013, she has been working with transgender and gender expansive (TGE) populations locally and globally. She is currently PI of an NIH-funded project to develop and pilot test the first tobacco cessation mobile-optimized website tailored to TGE adults (R34DA058191). Christina is also a Fulbright Global Scholar and through this grant, recently finished conducting photo-elicitation interviews with TGE adults in Taiwan and is conducting a photovoice project with TGE adults in Botswana.
Erika Trapl, PhD, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University
Dr. Erika Trapl is Professor of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences and has served as the Associate Director of Community Outreach and Engagement at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center since 2020. She also directs the Prevention Research Center for Healthy Neighborhoods at CWRU. Dr. Trapl is trained as a behavioral epidemiologist and has led a community-partnered research program for over 15 years. Dr. Trapl’s research has focused on tobacco control, dietary interventions, and cancer screening behaviors among marginalized populations, as well as examining implementation of individual, systems, and policy interventions to increase reach, broaden impact, and improve health.
Nina Wolf, BA, Department of Design, College of Arts & Sciences, The Ohio State University
Nina Wolf is a Master of Fine Arts candidate in Design at The Ohio State University, specializing in Design Research and Development. She is also pursuing a Graduate Minor in Public Health Behavior and Promotion. Nina serves as the research team lead for the Co-Designing Health project in Dr. Joanne Patterson’s Practice & Science for LGBTQ+ Health Equity lab and is a graduate teaching associate for first-year design students. Her thesis investigates how discursive design can contribute to the problematization of culturally tailored and targeted strategies to envision innovative solutions for public health disparities.
Shannon Lea Watkins, PhD, College of Public Health, University of Iowa
Dr. Shannon Lea Watkins is a scholar of public health whose work aims to illuminate social and structural barriers that individuals face in achieving their full health potential in order to inform efforts that promote health equity. Her current work investigates patterns of tobacco initiation, progression, product switching, and cessation, with specific interests in adolescent and young adults, non-cigarette tobacco products (e.g. e-cigarettes), characterizing flavors, and co-use with cannabis. This work informs interventions to promote cancer prevention and reduce tobacco-related health disparities.
