Recorded presentation

Commission on Community-Engaged Scholarship in the Health Professions c/o Sarena Seifer, MD, Community-Campus Partnerships for Health, University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UW Box 354809, Seattle, WA 98195-4809, 206-616-4305, sarena@u.washington.edu

Many prominent national organizations, including the Institute of Medicine in its 2002 reports on the future of public health, are calling upon health professional schools to be more responsive to their communities. A frequently cited barrier, however, to sustained faculty involvement in participatory approaches to community-based teaching, research and service is the challenge of achieving promotion and tenure. The Commission on Community-Engaged Scholarship in the Health Professions was convened by Community-Campus Partnerships for Health in October 2003 to take a leadership role in advancing the characteristics of supportive institutional environments that will facilitate the ability of faculty to demonstrate excellence in generating new knowledge about the social and ecologic determinants of health, and to educate a new generation of public health professionals who are prepared to engage communities in ensuring the conditions necessary for good health.

Funded by the WK Kellogg Foundation, the Commission is comprised of a diverse group of leaders from academic institutions, professional associations, community-based organizations, philanthropy and government that is elevating discussion and action around the issue of community-engaged scholarship. This presentation will report on the Commission's major activities and outcomes. The Commission has, thus far, examined three critical issues that will be discussed in this presentation: the role of community and practice partners in the faculty promotion and tenure process, the role of scholarly products that are not peer-reviewed journal articles in the faculty promotion and tenure process, and tools that faculty can use to better document their community-engaged scholarship for promotion and tenure reviews.

Learning Objectives: Through this interactive oral presentation, participants will be able to

• Describe the barriers presented by the current promotion and tenure system for community-engaged scholars.
• Identify strategies to create a more supportive culture and reward system for health professional faculty involved in community-based participatory research, service-learning and other forms of "community-engaged scholarship."

Keywords: Community-Based Partnership, Professional Development

Related Web page: futurehealth.ucsf.edu/ccph/kellogg3.html

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Recorded presentation