As I’m prepping syllabi for the upcoming semester, I’ve been thinking a lot about generative AI (GenAI). While I’ve only starting using it often recently, I know our students have been using it to clean up writing, complete literature searches, compose emails, and maybe (sometimes) writing up entire assignments. This hadn’t really been bothering me, but my perspective has evolved some recently.

I asked LinkedIn research friends last week for their biggest research productivity barriers. Two comments stuck out to me. These comments didn’t stick out because they were weird, but because they were so mundane. Slow collaborators and slow journal responses.

Making friends with communities is hard, and I can promise you the chance of a community partner waiting to meet you outside your office door, or even sending you a cold email, is very small.

So, if community members aren’t tracking us down, how can we get in touch with them to share about how our work could help improve their lives?

I think one of the things that folks struggle with around CBPR and community driven research design is the idea that we will end up having to do “bad” research. Patients and community members don’t know the research literature, haven’t studied like we have, and don’t possess the skills needed to interpret and contextualize findings. Of course, these things are true. But that’s not really the point of partnering with communities, is it? If the community knew how to do research, they wouldn’t need us, would they 😜.

A key component of redesigning your research program for impact is connecting with the community you wish to impact. But connecting with communities can feel daunting if you haven’t done it before. Read on for some important first steps!

In today’s post I’m sharing the first step I take anytime I’ve made a pivot in my career (and it involves a spreadsheet)…

Welcome to my series entitled, “Designing an Academic Career for Impact”. In these articles I will share stories and experiences of building a multimillion-dollar research portfolio across two research centers and a wide variety of content areas, all the while continuing to teach, perform service, and getting tenured and promoted. The objective of these articles is to convey tips, tricks, and pearls of wisdom I’ve often learned the hard way.