Planning and Evaluation Core

In line with our long-term goal to reduce the cancer burden in Florida, California and nationally, the University of Florida (UF), Florida A&M University (FAMU) and University of Southern California (USC) have formed a triad partnership to establish the Florida-California Cancer Research, Education & Engagement (CaRE2) Health Center. The Planning and Evaluation Core (PEC) of the CARE2 Center will implement a systematic planning and assessment plan that guides program improvement and document accountability, and effectiveness. The specific aims of the PEC are to: (1) provide operative planning of internal and external partnership activities for CaRE2 Center’s cores and projects (2) prioritize and support three additional collaborative research projects to expand research on cancer morbidity and mortality nationally; (3) To foster continuous quality improvement and demonstrate the impact of the partnership, the PEC will continue to track, monitor, and evaluate all partnership activities; and (4) To provide independent assessment and guidance, the PEC will continue to foster the tracking, monitoring and evaluation of partnership activities by the Program Steering Committee (PSC). Using clear metrics to assess the outcomes of each core and project, PEC will support the aims of the CaRE2 Center by providing the guidance and oversight to ensure continuous quality improvement. The expected outcomes for the PEC are: (1) evidence documenting the success of scholarship activities and tracking processes among UF, FAMU, and USC scientists; (2) documentation of the effectiveness of the bi-monthly web-based partnership meetings and annual face-to-face retreat; (3) findings from the social network analysis that documents changes in scientific collaborations across the CaRE2 Center; and (4) assessment of the congruence between objectives, activities, and outcomes across the cores.