This year has been an exceptionally busy and incredibly rewarding one for the Evidence for Action team. We have launched new funding opportunities, awarded sixteen grants, co-hosted and co-organized events across the country, launched a new technical assistance program, and so much more. All of these accomplishments were only possible because of the commitment and collaboration of our partners, who contributed not only physical capacity to our work, but unique experiences, creative ideas, and connection to their networks. They also brought trust, accountability, and humility to our way of working.
Below is a roadmap of 2024 along with all of those who helped us along the way.
March 2024
In March, we kicked off the Ways of Knowing Symposia, a series of five events across the country that brought together hundreds of people and their unique and valuable perspectives. This event, and the entire series, was co-hosted by Greta Cappelmann, Omar A. Dauhajre, and Dr. Thomas LaVeist of Partners for Advancing Health Equity at the Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University.
We also received over 250 brief proposals through the Indigenous-Led Solutions to Advance Health Equity and Wellbeing (ILS) Call for Proposals that launched in December 2023. This funding opportunity was developed in collaboration with the Center for Indigenous Health at Johns Hopkins University and with insights from dozens of Indigenous scholars and Peoples.
April 2024
In April, our ILS review team, consisting of Indigenous People (Keawe’aimoku Kaholokula, Helen Russette, Amber Finley, Lauren McLester-Davis, Alexis Merculief, Michelle Sarche, Hariata Tai Rakena, Tarajean Yazzie-Mintz, Brittany Hunt, Madison Anderson, Claudette Grinnell-Davis, Kerry Hawk Lessard, Paula Palmer, Daniel Calac, Naomi Lee, Meenakshi Richardson), RWJF representatives, and E4A National Advisory Committee members, invited 52 teams to submit full proposals through the ILS call.
May 2024
Drs. Melissa Walls and Joseph Gone co-organized and facilitated the Indigenous Ways of Knowing Symposium in Pray, Montana with an intimate group of Indigenous research scholars. Participants selected from a network of colleagues engaged in scholarship surrounding Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Indigenous research methodologies brought their unique perspectives and experiences to a discussion of the significance of Indigenous Ways of Knowing in addressing health inequities and promoting health.
July 2024
The same amazing group of ILS call for proposals reviewers gathered for a hybrid meeting on the Santa Ana Pueblo in New Mexico. During this meeting, they recommended eight projects for funding.
August 2024
Roughly 45 community members and advocates gathered in Greenville, North Carolina for the Transforming Community-Led Health Research Ways of Knowing Symposium. They engaged in peer networking and heartfelt conversations about overcoming the systemic barriers to developing and sustaining authentic and meaningful community-led health research partnerships. This symposium was co-organized by Joy Williams of Hope to Thrive and Paige Castro-Reyes, Charisse Iglesias, and Kunga Denzongpa of Community-Campus Partnerships for Health.
September 2024
September marked the launch of the Indigenous Led Solutions Technical Assistance Cohort with five research teams working together. The cohort is facilitated by Drs. Jeana Morrison, E4A’s Associate Director; Claudette Grinnell-Davis, Assistant Professor at The University of Oklahoma; and Dixie Blumenshine, a fourth-year medical student at the University of California, San Francisco.
October 2024
The eight exceptional teams funded through the ILS call for proposals launched their projects. Made up of Indigenous scholars, communities, and their partners using a mix of Indigenous and Western research methods, these teams are engaged in promoting and upholding traditional Indigenous practices, fostering community cohesion, and challenging and changing harmful narratives about Indigenous Peoples to uplift their health and wellbeing. Throughout what is now known as the United States, the project teams are serving Native Hawaiian, Alaska Native, Yakama Nation, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation, Anishinaabe, Yurok, and other First Nations and Urban American Indian communities.
Drs. Melody Goodman, Tongtan “Bert” Chantarat, and Adolfo Cuevas organized the Challenging the Norm: Redefining Rigor in Health Research Ways of Knowing Symposium. Thirty-five antiracist and anticolonial health research scholars, along with 10 “decision-makers” in the health sciences, convened in the DC metro area to explore the necessary steps to overcome systemic barriers to adopting and applying antiracist and anticolonial research approaches, practices, and methods in health research.
November 2024
At the beginning of November, we closed our racial equity call for proposals, as we worked on updates with the hope of releasing a new edition in 2025. In the course of the year, we have thus far funded eight innovative and action-oriented research projects. In the last week of the call being open, we received over 300 letters of intent and are looking forward to announcing additional new projects funded through the racial equity call in 2025.
On November 20th, we brought the symposia series to a close with a culminating event. We’re excited about the momentum we’ve built together and know there’s still a lot of work ahead. Our goal over the next year is to workshop the emerging themes from the symposia with different decision-makers in the health sciences (funders, publishers, journal editors, academic administrators, etc.) to hone in on real opportunities for change with the ultimate goal of creating an action plan. Together, we can collectively transform the health science knowledge system to support anticolonial, antiracist health research to cultivate more inclusive and equitable ways of knowing.
December 2024
As mentioned, during the last week of the racial equity call for proposals, we received over 300 letters of intent. Our review committee is continuing to review and discuss both letters of intent and full proposals.
The Work Continues in 2025
We will work together with our existing partners and forge new partnerships to shift the field, changing how research is conceived, carried out, and published; working to alter how knowledge is generated, valued, and disseminated; and working to create more inclusive spaces where power is shared and communities lead the research.
We will continue to fund research that advances health and racial equity.
We will continue to support our grantees and the members of our technical assistance cohort.
We hope you will join us in doing this work.
Additional Links & Resources
Indigenous-Led Solutions Call for Proposals:
- E4A Blog Post: Collaboratively Crafting an Indigenous-Led Solutions Health Equity Call for Proposals
- Inside Philanthropy Op-Ed co-authored by Erin Hagan, Amani Nuru-Jeter, and Claire Gibbons: Beyond the Binary of Trust-Based vs. Strategic Philanthropy