Member Group: Choose to Change Research Project #1 – Team & Community Partners
Timothy Long
Organization: Near North Health Service Corporation & Alliance of Chicago Community Health Services
Alicia Matthews
ChicagoCHEC Role: Research Education Core Co-Leader, Research Project PI
Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago
Alicia Matthews is Associate Professor at UIC College of Nursing. Dr. Matthews is nationally known for health disparities research with underserved populations primarily focused on the development and evaluation of culturally targeted cancer risk reduction interventions. Dr. Matthews is a clinical psychologist with more than 15 years of experience in examining determinants of cancer-related health disparities with a particular focus on African American and LGBT populations. Alicia is the director of the Recruitment and Retention Core of the University of Illinois at Chicago Center for Clinical and Translational Science. At UIC, Alicia has successfully worked with underrepresented Hispanic students through the Hispanic Center of Excellence in Medicine, exposing them to cancer disparities research. Dr. Matthews was recognized with the Research Mentor of the Year Award by the Hispanic Center of Excellence in Medicine for leadership in mentorship and health disparities research.
Brian Hitsman
ChicagoCHEC Role: Planning & Evaluation Core Co-Leader, Research Project PI
Organization: Northwestern University
Brian Hitsman is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Brian is a clinical health psychologist by training. His research focuses on the causes and treatment of tobacco use and dependence, especially among underserved populations. Dr. Hitsman has been involved in smoking cessation treatment research since 1993, including large efficacy and effectiveness trials of combination behavior therapy and pharmacotherapy. He has been committed to the integration of primary care and telephone quitline services and theory-based and targeted population outreach as a potentially critical pathway to increase access to and utilization of affordable and effective treatment for underserved smokers, especially socioeconomically disadvantaged smokers.
Christina Ciecierski
ChicagoCHEC Role: Principal Investigator, Planning & Evaluation Core Co-Leader, Research Project PI
Organization: Northeastern Illinois University
Christina Ciecierski is a Professor of Economics at NEIU. Her research focuses on the impacts of price and policy variables on consumer lifestyles, particularly in the area of young adult substance use. The course of her career has centered on promoting health equity among young adults, immigrants, populations of low socio-economic status (SES) in the state of Illinois as well as populations native to less and mid-developed countries in the world. Christina’s expertise, leadership, and motivation stem from a productive university teaching career, a strong record of research in the areas of economics and public health and collaborations with local, state and international health organizations and agencies of policy planning. In 2013, she was elected President of the Illinois Economics Association. Since joining NEIU in 2007, she served as Academic Department Head (Coordinator, 2008-2011) for the Economics Department and received two Faculty Excellence Awards for Research (2009) and Service (2014). Christina received her PhD in economics from the University of Illinois at Chicago.