Current Projects

Community Voices for Health (PI: Rebekah Pratt)

The Community Voices for Health project explores novel methods of community engagement during COVID, and Somali community member priorities for COVID-related health research.

Family Matters (PI: Jerica Berge)

Family Matters seeks to identify how familial factors of racially/ethnically and socioeconomically diverse children act as risk or protective factors for predicting childhood obesity.

Family Matters Intervention (PI: Jerica Berge)

The Family Matters Intervention aims to change clinical practice by creating a new model of care for child weight-related health in primary care using community health workers (CHWs) as interventionists and mobile health technology to intervene in real-time on parental and family behavior.

The Isbaar Project (PI: Rebekah Pratt; Rachel Winer)

This study is focused on reducing cervical cancer screening disparities in Somali immigrant women through a primary care based HPV self-sampling intervention.

Kids EAT! (PI: Katie Loth)

The Kids EAT! research study utilizes novel Ecological Momentary Assessment methods to identify potentially salient momentary influences on the use and impact of specific food-related parenting practices among parents of preschool aged children.

Our body, Our health | Jirkeena Caafimaadkeena (PI: Bean Robinson; Jennifer Connor)

Our body, Our health investigates factors that may contribute to increased risk of developing chronic sexual pain among circumcised Somali American women living in Minnesota. The overall goal is to gather information that may be used by mental health and medical professionals to provide culturally-sensitive and empirically informed healthcare. 

Preschool Plates (PI: Katie Loth)

This innovative cohort study seeks to understand how the use of specific food parenting practices varies across time and context, and how various food parenting approaches impact children’s dietary intake and eating behaviors over the long term.

Project TRUST (PI: Michele Allen; Luis E. Ortega)

Project TRUST approaches school connectedness and achievement as key social determinants of health and addresses important protective factors contributing to positive youth development and decreased tobacco and other substance use.

UNITED (PI: Kevin Peterson; Caroline Carlin)

Understanding Infrastructure Transformation Effects on Diabetes (UNITED) uses multiple sources of rich, longitudinal data to discover causal links between primary care patient-centered medical home practice redesign and improvement in the delivery of optimal diabetes care and diabetes-related utilization.

WAGE$ (Site PI: Rebekah Pratt)

The WAGE$ study will evaluate how an increase in the local minimum wage affects the health and wellness of Minneapolis minimum-wage workers over 5 years.