Alexandra Lightfoot, EdD

In her roles as director of the Community Engagement and Training Cores at the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and co-director of Patient and Community Engagement at NC TraCS, Dr. Lightfoot provides consultation and technical assistance to investigators and their partners to promote CBPR and build sustainable and equitable research partnerships. She has extensive experience using participatory and arts-based approaches, including photovoice, to engage partners (with an emphasis on youth) in the research process and inform community-driven intervention development, implementation, and evaluation.

Dr. Lightfoot is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Behavior at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at UNC-Chapel Hill where she utilizes community-based participatory research (CBPR) to address health disparities and advance health equity.

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Michael Kappelman, MD, MPH

Michael Kappelman is a pediatric gastroenterologist, clinical epidemiologist, and health services researcher. His career focuses on real world evidence and comparativeness effectiveness research (CER) in digestive diseases. Additionally, Dr. Kappelman has been very active in patient/participant engaged research and serves as co-director of the Patient and Community Engagement program within NC TraCS.

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Alicia Bilheimer, MPH

As Director of Engaged Science at NC TraCS, Alicia Bilheimer oversees programming and operations related to community and patient engagement in research. She works alongside those in the Patient and Community Engagement and Inclusive Science Programs to ensure that the research conducted at UNC is informed by the diverse communities and patients that UNC aims to impact.

With over 15 years of experience in community engaged clinical research and public health, Alicia is passionate about centering community voice and perspectives in research design and implementation and supporting community-academic partnerships that advance health equity. Alicia received her Master of Public Health in Health Behavior at UNC-Chapel Hill. She lives in Carrboro and in her free time enjoys seeing live music, exploring new places, and hunting for shark teeth at Topsail Beach with her two young kiddos.

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Simone Frank, MPH

Simone Frank serves as the Senior Project Manager for Community Engagement in Research within the Patient and Community Engagement program at NC TraCS. In this role, she leads community engagement initiatives, supports community-engaged research projects, and manages engagement-focused training and capacity-building programs. Simone's experience and training are focused in community engagement, participatory and qualitative methods, and health equity.

She received her Master of Public Health in Health Behavior at UNC-Chapel Hill. In her free time, you can find Simone biking, running, and hiking all around Durham, playing in her women's soccer league, trying every coffee and ice cream shop in town, and seeking out live music and dancing.

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MaryBeth Grewe, MPH

MaryBeth Grewe serves as the Program Manager for the Qualitative Research Service within the Patient and Community Engagement program at NC TraCS. In this role, she supports researchers, community partners, and other research partners conducting qualitative and engaged research and evaluation projects, leads internal research and evaluation projects, and develops and delivers trainings and capacity building activities related to qualitative and engaged research. MaryBeth received her Master of Public Health in Health Behavior at UNC-Chapel Hill.

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Nisha Datta, MS

Nisha Datta serves as the Senior Project Manager for Patient and Clinical Engagement in Research within the Patient and Community Engagement program at NC TraCS. In this role, she develops resources and trainings to enhance the capacity of research teams and patients to engage in patient-centered research, manages UNC's engagement for the multi-site STAR Clinical Research Network (CRN), and facilitates promotion of research opportunities to patients, alongside clinical care. Nisha has experience engaging diverse adult and pediatric populations ranging from acute to chronically ill in clinical trial design and conduct.

She received her Master of Science in Demography at Florida State University. In her free time, Nisha likes spending time outdoors with her chihuahua, Manny, cooking Mexican food for her family, and swapping movie recommendations with her friends.

Ese Aikhuele, MPH

Ese Aikhuele serves as a Project Manager within the Patient and Community Engagement in Research program at NC TraCS. In this role, she supports community-engaged research and capacity-building efforts by providing guidance to researchers who want to learn more about engagement and helping research teams implement various engagement activities. Ese's training is primarily comprised of experiences in qualitative research, community engagement, and design thinking.

Ese has a Master of Public Health in Health Behavior from UNC-Chapel Hill. In her free time, she enjoys thrifting, reading, expanding her music tastes, and visiting the Carrboro and Durham farmers markets.

Khadeejat Lawal, BS

Khadeejat Lawal received her Bachelors of Science in Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise Science from Virginia Tech in May 2023, where she gained experience in community engagement in clinical trials and health programs evaluation. She is a current first-year Master of Public Health student in the Health Policy and Management Department where she is focused on reforming health policies and systems to advance health equity, access, and literacy for marginalized communities.

Khadeejat supports the evaluation work done by the Patient and Community Engagement team, as well as project/program-specific support. She assists with developing training materials, facilitation, and documentation for contracted services, development of recruitment materials, and more. Her favorite book right now is Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi.

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