Consortium

SPHERE can only be successful in close collaboration with ethnic and racial minority populations that provide insights into the influences on disease disparities.


Who We Are

The Consortium Core is the Community Advisory Board for SPHERE and is represented by community partners as well as specific project partners. Project partners were selected due to their deep understanding of the cultural and ethnic considerations related to research engagement and specific conditions within the special population being studied. Consortium Core members represent diversity in:

  • Experience in addressing  health disparities in our target populations (African American, American Indian, Chinese, Latino, Vietnamese)
  • Expertise in health disparity topics (health care access, obesity prevention, heart disease, cancer, tobacco control, rheumatoid disease, mental health, chronic disease prevention)
  • Professions (Medicine, Public Health, Law, Public Policy, Nursing, Nonprofit Leadership, Health Education, Community Research, Genetics)
  • Locations in various organizations and areas throughout the U.S.

What We Do

The Consortium Core builds capacity among communities to incorporate precision health applications for the promotion of health equity. We do this by aligning, supporting, and expanding community partnerships at the local, regional, and state levels to address health disparities through innovative precision health research.

Model approaches employed by SPHERE for building capacity among consortium core members and community stakeholders for community-based Precision Health applications promoting health equity.

The Consortium Core is made up of collaborating partners outside of Stanford, representing several community organizations:

  • Lyle Best, MD, University of North Dakota
  • Ysabel Duron, National Latino Cancer Institute
  • Owen Garrick, MD, MBA, Bridge Clinical Research
  • Stephen Gruber, MD, PhD, MPH, University of Southern California
  • Jeff Henderson, MD, MPH, Black Hills Center for American Indian Health (BHCAIH)
  • Oliver Kim, JD, Asian & Pacific Islander Health Forum
  • Esther Lucero, MPP, Urban Indian Health Institute, a division of the Seattle Indian Health Board
  • Rocio Luna, MPH, Santa Clara County Public Health Department
  • Alden McDonald, MD, United HealthCare Alliance, American Heart Association, Sinkler Miller Medical Association
  • Hemel Mehta, MD, San Mateo County Health System
  • Marcia O’Leary, RN, Missouri Breaks Industries Research, Inc. (MBIRI)
  • Van Ta Park, PhD, MPH, University of California, San Francisco
  • Jan Vasquez, MPH, CHES, Pathways to American Indian & Alaska Native Wellness
  • Joseph Yracheta, MSPS, Missouri Breaks Industries Research, Inc. (MBIRI)

SPHERE Cores

There are five SPHERE "cores", representing expertise in social disparities research, analytic computing capabilities, laboratory assessment, and community engagement.

Research Initiatives

The three Research Initiatives are the heart of SPHERE's work.

About SPHERE

SPHERE brings together investigators from across the School of Medicine to address fundamental questions about health and disease among minority populations.