CCHE is more than a research support infrastructure! Our faculty maintain active research projects pursuing interdisciplinary work around health equity.

CCHE Research

Stephanie Budge, PhD

Stephanie Budge (she/her), CCHE Assistant Director, is the Principal Investigator of the Trans CARE Collaborative. She primarily works with Two-spirit, trans, and nonbinary people with regard to research and clinical work. She is an associate professor in the Department of Counseling Psychology and the director of the Advancing Health Equity and Diversity program in the UW-SMPH. Her research focuses on improving of medical and psychotherapy treatments (and access to care) for Two-spirit, trans, and nonbinary (2STNB) clients. She provides clinical trainings nationally and internationally related to LGBTQ issues, focusing on practitioners’ self-efficacy, knowledge, awareness, and skills. At UW-Madison, she promotes 2STNB advocacy on campus by providing workshops to students, faculty, and staff related to navigating gender identity within a university environment. As a licensed psychologist, she provides pro-bono therapy to 2STNB youth and adults. Stephanie is currently an Associate Editor of two journals: Psychotherapy and Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity. She is also on the editorial board of the International Journal of Transgender Health. Read more about Dr. Budge.

Learn more about the Trans CARE Collaborative’s current research.

Angela Byars-Winston, PhD

Angela Byars-Winston

Angela Byars-Winston, CCHE Associate Director, is a tenured Professor in the UW Department of Medicine, Director of Research and Evaluation in the UW Center for Women’s Health Research, and Faculty Leader in the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research. Her research examines cultural influences on academic and career development, especially for historically minoritized groups in the sciences, engineering, and medicine with the aim of broadening their participation in STEMM (+M = medicine) fields. Dr. Byars-Winston was Principal Investigator on an NIH R01 grant to measure and test critical factors in research training interventions for mentors of ethnically diverse mentees in biological science and co-led a renewal of that R01 grant to investigate and intervene on research mentors’ cultural diversity awareness. She is currently Principal Investigator on a grant through the NIH National Research Mentoring Network leading the Culturally Aware Mentorship initiative.

Susan Passmore, PhD

Susan Passmore

Susan Passmore is the Just Research Faculty Lead. The Just Research program seeks to build the skills of researchers and research team members to promote research equity and diversity in study participation. Dr. Passmore has experience in leading community engaged, health equity research and projects in the science of research equity. This is the foundation of a recently awarded R21 from National Human Genome Research Institute, as well as a supplement award from the National Institute on Aging, Maximizing Components of Trustworthiness in the Decision to Participate Preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease Research Involving Lumbar Puncture. Each of these projects seek to apply innovation in community engagement using a methodology called the “research story deck.” Finally, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Passmore with Dr. Farrar-Edwards, lead CCHE collaborations with community and campus partners to understand and address COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in WI. She is an Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing.

Olayinka Shiyanbola, PhD

Olayinka Shiyanbola, CCHE Associate Director, lends to CCHE’s health equity workforce development portfolio and contributes to ICTR’s diversity, equity and inclusion goals.  She collaborates with other ICTR and CCHE faculty and staff to expand the career development portfolio for early stage investigators who are underrepresented in clinical and translational research.  Dr. Shiyanbola also shares her experiences in establishing Community Peer Partners in diabetes research to a developing segment of CCHE’s portfolio to advance the utilization of Community Health Workers in community engaged research teams.  She is an Associate Professor in the Social and Administrative Sciences Division of the School of Pharmacy.

Learn more about the Shiyanbola Research Group.

Dorothy Farrar-Edwards, PhD

Dorothy Farrar-Edwards, CCHE Director, has multiple lines of research inquiry. She studies the effects of stroke and Alzheimer’s Disease on function, community participation and quality of life using neurological, neuropsychological, occupational performance and outcomes research methods to explore the effects of cognitive impairment and racial disparities in adults with stroke and Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Edwards leads the Outreach, Recruitment & Educational Core and the Minority Recruitment Satellite Program for the UW Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and she is funded by the National Institutes on Aging to explore the needs and characteristics of cognitively impaired minority and medically underserved urban elders. She also has funding to study stroke treatment and outcomes and disparities in stroke recovery.

Learn more about these research lines.

Christine Sorkness, PharmD

Christine SorknessChristine Sorkness, CCHE Associate Director, has a special interest in health disparities in asthma, in which she has conducted both clinical efficacy and comparative effectiveness trials. Dr. Sorkness is affiliated with the UW SMPH Allergy, Pulmonary, and Critical Care Division, with more than 25 years of NHLBI-funding as a principal investigator for the asthma clinical research network trials. She has been a co-investigator with the NIAID Inner City Asthma Consortium since 2002. A long-standing member of the UW Health Sciences IRB, she has also served on several NHLBI-appointed Data and Safety Monitoring Boards for multi-center national trials. As part of her clinical investigator role, she has been committed to the career development of diverse post-doctoral fellows and junior faculty from varied biomedical backgrounds, focusing on pediatric and adult asthma, team science, and the responsible conduct of research. She is an investigator with the NIH Diversity Program Consortium National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN), and is a Master Facilitator for research mentor training programs.