A New Title, a New Focus: Community Health Equity Research and Policy.

Abstract

As the journal’s new Co-Editors in Chief, we are pleased to announce that with the October 2021 issue, the journal is renamed Community Health Equity Research and Policy (CHERP). Here we want to share with you a little about our backgrounds and reasons for the title change and our vision for the journal going forward. We are both Professors in the Community Health Education Program in the Department of Health Promotion and Policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass). One of us (Aline) has wide-ranging experience using innovative and collaborative research methodologies, including narrative and arts-based approaches, with expertise in sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice. She is a trained and experienced facilitator of digital storytelling workshops and uses the process in public health research, intervention, and advocacy contexts, working in diverse communities both nationally and internationally. The other (Kate) brings extensive mixed-methods (quantitative and qualitive) research experience focusing on understanding and addressing health inequalities, with particular expertise on the social determinants of health, faithbased organizations, community-based participatory research, immigrants’ healthcare access, Latino populations, and Latin America. Prior to joining UMass in 2020, she was Senior Policy Researcher at the RAND Corporation and Professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School, where she retains adjunct affiliations. As we assume our roles as Co-Editors in Chief, we express gratitude to our colleagues from UMass, Professors Emeriti George Cernada and David Buchanan, who preceded us as editors of the journal from 1981–2015 (George) and 2016– 2021 (David). Through their leadership, the journal became known for its emphasis on the systematic application of social science and health education theories and methodologies to address pressing public health concerns, particularly in countries outside the United States (U.S.). We build on this foundation and are excited to take the journal in some important new directions. First, we reorient the journal around the concept of health equity, being inclusive of community health, health policy, and public health and health care systems. We believe this broader focus attends to the need for new and creative thinking to identify multi-sectoral solutions to persistent health inequities. It also leverages the unique combination of our respective expertise as editors, as well as that of our department at UMass, Health Promotion and Policy, which combines programs in Community Health Education and Health Policy and Management. Usually, these foci are distinct departments within Schools of Public Health. Having them in the same department means that we can more synergistically collaborate to advance community health equity. The Center for Community Health Equity Research, housed within our School of Public Health and Health Sciences at UMass and where we both are core faculty, is a prime example of how we do this. The Center seeks to address the gap between academic research and practice by diversifying the healthcare workforce and engaging in community-partnered, culture centered, and multidisciplinary research to investigate the social production of health disparities. Supported by the Center, we will bring this same integrated vision to the journal. Second, we aim to increase submissions about research with communities in the U.S. experiencing health inequalities. Certainly, there are important contextual differences to consider when addressing health equity in the U.S. However, there is much to be learned through crossfertilization of ideas and experiences that can contribute to a better understanding of how to achieve global health equity. Third, we will emphasize environmental and structural changes as long-lasting solutions to inequities and will highlight community-partnered and participatory approaches to understanding and addressing health inequities. Since the journal’s inception, partnership approaches in community health have grown and generated best practices for more community-driven health research agendas. We welcome