To improve health outcomes, it’s essential that research and care respond to real-world community needs. That work requires a deep level of trust between health organizations and community members. That’s where frontline community health workers come in, empowering community members with health resources and advocating for their needs.
UF Health Cancer Institute member Carolyn M. Tucker, Ph.D., has dedicated her career to using the community-based participatory research and intervention approach to implement health programs that have changed the way hundreds of people think about their health. Now, she has been elected chair of the Board of Directors of the Florida Community Health Worker Coalition.
“We are all about getting up and doing something to positively impact the quality of life of the members of the communities we serve,” said Tucker, the UF Florida Blue Endowed Chair in Health Disparities Research.
“We are all about getting up and doing something to positively impact the quality of life of the members of the communities we serve.”
Carolyn M. Tucker, Ph.D.
The coalition’s mission is to promote and strengthen community health workers through education, advocacy and multisector partnerships to ensure the profession is recognized, integrated and supported as essential members of Florida’s health workforce. It was established in 2010 as part of a Policy, Environmental, and Systems Change grant awarded to the Florida Department of Health.
Tucker, who has been a member of the coalition for 13 years and its board of directors for 10 years, focuses on developing, implementing and demonstrating the long-term impact of programs to promote health equity, mental well-being, physical health and food security in low-income communities in Gainesville and Jacksonville. Her research aims to alleviate health inequity, promote patient-centered culturally sensitive health care, and fight obesity, hypertension and obesity-related cancers.
She founded the Health-Smart Behavior Program to promote healthy eating, physical activity, and stress and depression management, and to fight social drivers of poor health like social isolation, food insecurity and financial insecurity.
As director of the UF Health Cancer Institute’s Community-Partnered Cancer Disparities Research Collaborative (CDRC), Tucker leads a team of faith leaders and researchers working to prevent or reduce cancers among Black adults and others who live in Alachua County, particularly in East Gainesville and rural communities.
Through the CDRC, she has organized the Power Over Cancer Gatherings, a series of well-attended gatherings that allow the Cancer Institute to engage in a dialogue about cancer prevention, care and research with the East Gainesville community. The next gathering in the series, focused on empowering people to overcome barriers to healthy eating, physical activity, weight loss and cancer survivorship, will be held May 16 at Springhill Church.
Community health workers serve in a wide variety of settings, including clinics, hospitals, schools, food pantries, libraries, government agencies and community organizations. Last year, community health workers delivered an array of services across the state, from nutritional health education to housing and maternal health services.
Tucker said she is thrilled to take on the new leadership role with the coalition, in part because of her personal motivation for engaging in the work. Growing up in a rural, poor Black community in Virginia, she witnessed health disparities firsthand.
“The work of the Florida Community Health Worker Coalition and its Board of Directors is not easy; however, as my grandfather has always told me, ‘anything worth doing ain’t easy,’” Tucker said. “Clearly, the work of the Community Health Worker Coalition and its Board of Directors is ‘worth doing.’ I am extremely proud to say that we do this work ‘with an ear for the beats of different hearts.’”
Learn more about Dr. Tucker’s research in the video below:
