Community Liaison and Recruitment Core

REVISED ABSTRACT The Resource Center for Alzheimer’s and Dementia Research in Asian and Pacific Americans (RCASIA) has missions of 1) increasing early career scientists in AD/ADRD-related Behavioral, Social, and Economic Research biomedical research through innovative models of mentoring and community interaction; 2) advancing the rigor and impact of AD/ADRD pilot studies in older APAs through Common Data Elements and data-sharing; 3) serving as a national resource for linguistically/culturally tested and validated tools to assess cognition, function, and AD/ADRD care in APA populations. The Community Liaison and Recruitment Core (CLRC) – led by Chau Trinh-Shevrin, PhD and Cui Yang, PhD – will facilitate the outward engagement with community-based organizations, people with mild AD/ADRD, current/past care partners for people with AD/ADRD, R2 Universities in the NYC/NJ area, and other academic institutions hosting Early Stage Investigators (ESIs). The CLRC will convene the Community Steering Committee (CSC) consisting of Community Advisors (leaders and staff of community-based organizations serving APA populations) and Lived Advisors (those with mild AD/ADRD, current/former care partners of those with AD/ADRD) who will advise RCASIA Scientists on project-related linguistic/cultural relevance and appropriateness of subject matter, tools, findings, and interpretations. The sharing of CSC membership with other funded centers on APA health and intentional membership rotation will minimize the burden on local volunteers, and enhance the sustainable long-term partnership among older APA populations, APA-serving community-based organizations, and NYC/NJ-based institutions committed to APA brain health, health disparity research, and AD/ADRD-related behavioral, social, and economic research. The CLRC will further organize open crowdsourcing contests to excite the community in research participation, and to pilot community-derived ideas to diversify existing engagement approaches. Finally, CLRC will play a central role in identifying ESIs from the RCASIA parent/affiliated institutions, R2 Universities, and other academic organizations in the greater NYC/NJ area. In addition to introducing RCASIA to and soliciting pilot applications from ESIs, CLRC will encourage ESIs not experienced in submitting NIH-style pilot proposals to apply as RCASIA Interns. Through an iterative yet balanced engagement of both ESIs and specific APA communities in the NYC/NJ area, CLRC will help RCASIA reach its goals of enhancing the AD/ADRD-related behavioral, social, and economic research workforce while advancing linguistically/culturally appropriate research and care in disaggregated APA subgroups.