This proposal seeks funding for a diversity supplement to provide Ms. Carolina Cuevas, BS with a rigorous and focused mentored research training experience that will further enhance her professional and academic experience and skills and permit her to explore her research interests, while obtaining a master?s degree in public or global health. Ultimately, this supplement will move Ms. Cuevas toward her goal of obtaining a PhD in the public health sciences, with a concentration in oncology and human nutrition. Ms. Cuevas will participate in a range of research training and career development activities and benefit from focused mentorship, including her engagement with the parent study (R01CA214805) Racism, Residential Racial Segregation, and Breast Cancer Survival Disparities among Black, Hispanic and Non-Hispanic White Women. Dr. Beyer, the PI, will serve as her primary mentor and oversee her research training experience at the Medical College of Wisconsin. The parent study focuses on the significant, persistent, and geographically variable racial and ethnic disparities in breast cancer survival in the United States. Racism and racial residential segregation are widely considered to contribute to health disparities and may partially explain geographical variation in the size of breast cancer survival disparities. The parent study has three aims: (1) Construct new and existing metrics of racism and segregation at the local level for the largest US metropolitan areas, and determine (a) how measures co-vary, (b) whether segregation measures predict stressors, social resources and opportunities at the local level, and (c) whether relationships differ by metropolitan area, (2) Determine whether measures of segregation are related to breast cancer survival disparities among Black, Hispanic and Non-Hispanic White women, and whether relationships are mediated by local stressors, social resources, or opportunities, and (3) Explore the ways in which Black and Hispanic breast cancer survivors in a highly segregated metropolitan area navigate cancer survivorship in the context of segregation. Ms. Cuevas will participate in and expand the research for Aim 3. She will (1) undertake a series of interviews with women breast cancer survivors who identify as Hispanic/Latina and with Black/African American and/or indigenous ancestry and (2) undertake a focused analysis of those interviews with an emphasis on examining issues of colorism, immigration, and language barriers that may contribute to knowledge regarding relationships among discrimination, racial segregation, and breast cancer survival disparities.
This application is for a Research Supplement to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research to the parent NCI-funded project R01 R01CA214805 to support Carolina Cuevas to receive research training and mentorship in cancer disparities research through her involvement in the parent project and other activities. The supplemental project will investigate the role of colorism, immigration obstacles, and language barriers on women who identify as Hispanic/Latina, including women who additionally identify as Black/African American and/or with indigenous ancestry.
