Roberta Logwood, Project Coordinator, C3EN Community-Based Research Network

What were you doing prior to joining C3EN? 

I recently became a first-time mom–I stayed with my daughter for a year, and then I came back to work. Before that, I was in the nonprofit sector for about 15 years, working with at-risk youth. The last two organizations I worked with were YourPassion1st and Westside Health Authority, one of C3EN’s partners.

How did your interest in health equity begin?

When I had my daughter, I experienced a high-risk pregnancy. At one point I had some bleeding, and I went to the ER. I was told to go ahead and take the pill to speed up the miscarriage. I was going to do it because I didn’t want to deal with the mental trauma of my first child not making it–but I decided not to. The very next day I felt her move for the first time. I had a moment and thought to myself, I’m going to research this, because this is not ok. My daughter was fine. It was me having all the symptoms, but every time something went wrong, they assumed it was the baby. I eventually switched hospitals–I ended up going to Rush–and they did everything they were supposed to do. I saw the difference, and I wanted to get involved.

What are you working on at C3EN? 

I am the liaison between community-based organizations and researchers. I’m currently conducting site visits with Christie Edwards to build relationships with the community-based organizations so they can receive researchers well and so I can help researchers reach out to CBOs. There are about 130 community-based organizations. I want to make sure that relationships are positive throughout the duration of the research and thereafter.

What are you most proud of in your career?

Over 15 years, I have touched and helped 500-600 at-risk youth through one-on-one mentorship. I’m most proud of that because coming up I didn’t have that–there was nobody to say, “Hey, I see some potential in you!” or “Hey, you’re going down a wrong path–let me help you!” Some of the youths were part of organizations I worked at, some of them came from the juvenile detention center, some of them were incarcerated and were reentering society, some of them may have had their parents reach out to me because they heard about me from school.

I was that youth before I turned my life around in 2008. I was doing some things that I shouldn’t have been doing, going down a wrong path. Something happened, and I decided, “You know what? I want to not do this anymore. I want to be somebody.” My brother mentored me through a lot of it.

Eventually I got into nonprofits and decided I liked it. I took a really huge pay cut to transition into the nonprofit sector, So I wasn’t happy about it, but I said, “You know, I’m going to just take this leap of faith, and if it happens, great–if not, I’ll just go back to what I know.” I never turned back.

Do you have any fun facts to share?

I’m a spoken word artist. I speak about my life, growing up and some of the things I’ve been through. I also share stories from victims who are afraid to tell their story. I get their story from them, I write it up in a story form, and I tell their story through my different pieces. These people are anonymous, but they are also helped and relieved that their story is out. It’s one of the ways that I help my friends, family members, and youth express themselves through poetry when they’re too afraid.

I was recently a part of the inaugural class of a leadership program called Community Leadership Fellows. I did a podcast with them and did one of my spoken word pieces. WATCH HERE.