Rutgers Hosts Inaugural Conference Aimed at Advancing Health Equity Addiction Research

Researchers from Rutgers, Yale and The City College of New York organize event to share strategies in substance use research

Researchers and students from throughout the United States convened at Rutgers University on May 22 for the first annual Resilience Collective Conference, an event focused on sustaining addiction research addressing the needs of marginalized communities in a challenging sociopolitical environment.

Held at the Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research in New Brunswick, N.J., the conference brought together members of the Rutgers research community alongside external researchers and community partners to share insights, build partnerships and explore strategies to promote substance use research with health disparity populations. Attendees engaged in discussions aimed at advancing equity-driven approaches to addiction research.

Carolyn Sartor, principal investigator of the Resilience Collective and a core member of the Rutgers Center for Population Behavioral Health, presents at the conference.

"The present political landscape presents wide-ranging and fast-evolving challenges for health disparities research, including substance use research among racial, ethnic, sexual, and gender minoritized populations," said Carolyn Sartor, principal investigator of the Resilience Collective and a core member of the Rutgers Center for Population Behavioral Health. "This conference and the work of the Resilience Collective aims to meet those challenges head on to ensure that efforts addressing substance use-related needs in marginalized communities continue to move forward."

Titled "Advancing Health Equity Addiction Research in Challenging Times," the event was hosted by the Resilience Collective, a Mutual Mentoring Team Grant funded by the Rutgers University Faculty Diversity Collaborative. The collective consists of a diverse network of researchers from Rutgers University, Yale University and The City College of New York, working collaboratively to spur advancements in substance-use research.

Sarah Pedersen, a nationally recognized health equity-focused addiction researcher from the University of Pittsburgh presented the keynote address, "For the Communities Counting on Us: Addiction Research Moves Forward."

The conference featured a keynote address by Sarah Pedersen, a nationally recognized health equity-focused addiction researcher from the University of Pittsburgh. Her talk, "For the Communities Counting on Us: Addiction Research Moves Forward," highlighted the current threat to health equity-focused research in the U.S. and the importance of shifting from conducting research on to conducting research with communities. In her call to action, Pedersen shared active resistance and adaptive strategies for researchers that she has used in her own work.

Students and early-stage investigators gave talks and presented posters highlighting their emerging research across a range of topics and populations. Projects included improving treatment

Lizzie Powell, a student at Baylor University, presents a poster.

for Black adults with alcohol use disorder, the intersection of social support and socioeconomic status for understanding tobacco use, digital technology usage among people in treatment for opioid-use disorder, stigma and anxiety among sexual minority men living with HIV and the role of community health workers in tobacco cessation.

The Resilience Collective team includes Carolyn Sartor, Denise Hien, Alex Bauer and Kristina Jackson from Rutgers, Adriana Espinosa from The City College of New York and Angela Haeny from Yale University, with logistical and event support from Rutgers postdoctoral scholars María Eugenia Contreras-Pérez, Xiangyu Tao, and Emmanuel Thomas. Together, they are building a research infrastructure designed to expand opportunities for scholars and drive progress in addiction research.

"By bringing together leading experts, early career investigators and community partners, the inaugural conference underscored our commitment to advancing health equity-centered research and shaping the future of addiction prevention and treatment," said Sartor.

Explore more of the ways Rutgers research is shaping the future.