Congratulations to Amanda R. Mathew, PhD, on receiving a Joyce Chapman Community Grant for the project “Building Community Partnerships Through the Practice Quitting Project”! Mathew is an associate professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at Rush University Medical Center. She is a licensed clinical psychologist as well as a certified Tobacco Treatment Specialist. She received her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Houston and completed predoctoral training in cancer prevention at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. She completed postdoctoral training in behavioral medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. 

In partnership with Phalanx Family Services, Mathew is convening a community advisory board to co-develop and pilot test a novel behavioral program to increase cessation readiness among African American smokers not yet ready to quit. 

How did you become interested in health equity? 

I’m a tobacco cessation researcher, and the health disparities in tobacco-related morbidity and mortality are really striking. I would encourage the C3EN community to check out a brief documentary from the Truth Initiative, called Black Lives/Black Lungs. The more I learned about how the tobacco industry has targeted the African American community, the more I started to think about smoking as not just a health issue, but a social justice issue.

How did you become interested in your C3EN minigrant research topic? 

I have the Respiratory Health Association as a fantastic research partner, and I wanted to identify how my work with engaging unmotivated smokers could boost the reach and engagement of their tobacco cessation programming, specifically in the African American community. I was lucky enough to partner with Phalanx Family Services for my community advisory board, and I learned so much from the community members about quitting smoking themselves and helping loved ones quit.

How does your C3EN project fit into your broader research? 

My C3EN project has been a great opportunity to incorporate community-engaged research methods and a health equity lens into my overall research program. Going forward, I will definitely incorporate a community advisory board into my treatment research studies, because I’ve seen how incorporating the community members’ perspectives enhances the overall quality and impact of the work.

Interested in joining the project? Take this survey to see if you are eligible: https://redcap.link/stepstostop

Read more about C3EN’s Joyce Chapman Community Grant projects and apply for a grant HERE.