Abstract B031: Florida-California CaRE2 Health Equity Center Citizen Scientist Training Program: Results from pilot program
Authors: Askins Nissa , Odedina Folakemi T , Wilkie Diana , Scroggins Mary , Behar-Horentstein Linda , Stern Mariana , Conde Lourdes Baez , Reams R. Renee 
Published: September 2020

INTRODUCTION: Citizen Science is the engagement of lay people in the process of scientific research. From IRB membership to the formation of programs like CitizenScience.gov, citizen scientists are an increasingly essential part of every type of research study teams. The formation of the Florida-California Cancer Research Education and Engagement (CaRE2) Health Equity Center through the NCI PACHE funding in 2018, created unique resources to develop a cadre of citizen scientists to drive cancer health disparity research in Black and Latinx communities. The program is open to cancer survivors and advocates. METHODS: The CaRE2 Cancer Citizen Scientist training program builds on our previous experience training cancer advocates and Community Health Workers. Trainee selection was through a competitive application process. Training techniques employed include independent learning, lectures and experiential learning. The CaRE2 Center Planning and Evaluation Core conducted the program evaluation to foster continuous improvement. RESULTS: From five applications, four citizen scientists were accepted to the program. One accepted applicant was unable to continue due to illness. The training program focused on Research Advocacy; Research Ethics; Internal Review Board (IRB); Social Determinants of Health; Clinical Trials; Omics; Epidemiology; Bioinformatics and Biobanking. The three trainees participated in a three-part curriculum: (1) one week of independent learning with expert mentors, which included virtual office hours; (2) one week of lectures by expert mentors; and (3) 2-Day experiential training at the University of Florida CaRE2 Labs, which is ongoing. Trainees are also working with student ambassadors who are part of a summer research training program, the C-ReTOOL Program, funded by NCI. The final part of the curriculum is the teach-back component on August 1, 2019, which includes poster presentation of a proposal for an advocacy project focused on addressing cancer disparities. Upon completion of the program, CaRE2 Citizen Scientists will be able to: (1) Discuss three ways that research advocacy is important to improving cancer health equity; (2) Illustrate two examples of ethical cancer research activities that were observed during the experiential training; (3) Determine the relevance of experience sharing and communications between advocates, students, and scientists to the quality of cancer research; and (4) Disseminate research advocacy experiences through presentations CONCLUSION: The collaborative infrastructure and resources of NCI CPACHE programs, such as the CaRE2 Health Equity Center, is unique for the training of Citizen Scientists. This includes access to outstanding cancer scientists and advocates, who are well experienced in developing research education programs as well as mentoring minority trainees. Potential barriers include onboarding of trainees in academic setting and ensuring that citizen scientists maintain institutional compliance.

Citation Format: Nissa Askins, Folakemi T Odedina, Diana Wilkie, Mary Scroggins, Linda Behar-Horentstein, Mariana Stern, Lourdes Baez Conde, R. Renee Reams. Florida-California CaRE2 Health Equity Center Citizen Scientist Training Program: Results from pilot program [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Twelfth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2019 Sep 20-23; San Francisco, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2020;29(6 Suppl_2):Abstract nr B031.