ISHAN WILLIAMS: I just did a presentation
at a church a couple of weeks ago
and a gentleman came up to me after the session
and he was like, "Did I hear you right?"
He said, "Did you say that African Americans are
2 times more likely to have Alzheimer's
disease than other groups?"
And I was like, "I did."
He said, "I have never heard that before."
It's those kinds of moments for me
that helps me understand why I need to be in the community.
It's like if I'm not going outside of these four walls
from the institution where I work and can build
those research programs around awareness,
it's not doing anybody any good if I just
write it in a journal.
You need to have conversations.
And I believe having those conversations helps
us to co-create the goals of what the community needs
as well as what our research goals are.
RANDY JONES: Oftentimes, when we see
that certain research and clinical trials
that part is left out.
The investigators develop the interventions
without really asking the community, or the members,
or the patients that are actually
receiving the care-- going to receive the care.
So having a community advisory board
is very important and valuable and-- so
that you can be able to hear what
is the priorities of that community,
how to address them, and then also have a listening ear.
And that-- I think growing those partnerships is quite valuable.
Right now we have a community advisory board
that's made of individuals and their stakeholders
from different sectors.
It's almost like a family almost where you talk with them,
and they give advice to what we should be doing
and what we should be looking at.
They're really the pulse of the community.
ISHAN WILLIAMS: I'm a community-engaged researcher.
I think it's disingenuous for us as researchers to continue
to go into communities to ask for things
but not be willing to offer things back.
So this whole-- my whole rationale, I think,
in importance and drive of why I do it is so that we can
co-create this continuous feedback loop so that they--
community members are really valued
as experts of what is important in their communities, how they
live with disease, how disease is expressed
in their communities, and how they take care of one another
and incorporating that into what we, as researchers, think
is important.