About Us
Community engagement is a critical tool in advancing evidence-based practices from bench to practice. Our program is dedicated to developing and maintaining community-centered relationships across Boston and across campuses. With the support of the BU CTSI Evaluation module, we apply an iterative continuous quality improvement approach to our programs. Through these community-centered and iterative practices, the community engagement program channels voices of people within the BUMC/BMC safety net catchment throughout the BU CTSI hub to effect health improvement for the most vulnerable.
The BU CTSI Community Engagement Program (CE Program) seeks to:
- Develop new and sustain existing partnerships;
- Expand community-engaged research capacity for organizations, neighborhoods, and systems the people who live, work, and play within these contexts;
- Disseminate best practices for community-engaged research approaches
Meet Our Team
Astraea Augsberger, PhD, MSW
Director
Astraea Augsberger is the Director of Community Engagement (CE) for Boston University’s Clinical and Translational Research Institute. She is also an Associate Professor at Boston University School of Social Work and an affiliated faculty member at the BU Center for Innovation in Social Work & Health. Her research program, which has been shaped by over fifteen years of clinical social work practice experience, examines multi-level factors that inhibit or facilitate a person’s ability to participate in decision-making within multiple institutions including health care, child welfare, education, and municipal government. She employs community-engaged research approaches such as youth participatory action research (YPAR) and in-depth qualitative research methods to elevate the voices of youth and communities in identifying research priorities and solutions to community concerns. She is a nationally recognized expert in youth and family engagement strategies, including the development, implementation and evaluation of youth advisory boards.
Catharine Wang, PhD, MSc
Associate Director
Catharine Wang is a Professor in the Community Health Sciences Department, and a Peter T. Paul Career Development Professor, at Boston University. Her expertise is in the areas of mixed-methods research, intervention development, and program evaluation. Dr. Wang’s research focuses on the effective translation of genomic discoveries into clinical and public health practice. Her research has spanned across several areas including health communication, digital health systems, health care delivery, and precision medicine. Her work exemplifies her commitment to engaging with diverse communities to identify best practices for mitigating health disparities via accessible information, interventions, and services. For over a decade, Dr. Wang has served as a member of the National Cancer Institute’s Physician Data Query (PDQ) Cancer Genetics Editorial Board, which synthesizes the latest evidence on cancer prevention, detection, genetics, and treatment, to facilitate knowledge translation for health professionals. As a faculty member in the School of Public Health, Dr. Wang trains graduate students on the design and implementation of interventions to improve health outcomes. Dr. Wang also serves as faculty within the Genetic Counseling Program at the School of Medicine to facilitate training on research methods and supervise capstone research projects.
Rebecca Lobb, ScD, MPH
Director of Integration & Strategic Partnerships
Rebecca leads efforts to ensure integration of knowledge, products, processes, and people across all CTSI core services. She cultivates and nurtures relationships with a robust network of strategic partners and affiliates within BU and outside of BU, including our local partners the Boston Medical Center, Boston-area government agencies, organizations and community groups, and nationally with other Clinical Translational Science Award Hubs and the National Center for Advancing Translational Science. She is the strategic lead for the Advancing Equity in Health Research Community Advisory Board which she supports by drawing upon over two decades of community-engagement leadership experience in roles that included Assistant Professor at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and VP of Programs and Research at Family Research Foundation.
Jorma McSwiggan, MSc
Research Program Manager
Jorma (Jo) McSwiggan is a Research Program Manager for the BU CTSI Community Engagement Program. They work with CTSI’s leadership and Community Engagement team to align activities and ensure that the CE Program’s resources and services reach our community members and researchers. Before joining the BU CTSI team, they were part of the Community Operations team with the HEALing Communities Study at Boston Medical Center working to reduce fatal overdoses across MA. Jo graduated from Boston University School of Public Health with a Master’s degree in Health Services and Systems Research, focusing on qualitative methods, community engagement, and organizational theory, and was a 2022 Honorable Mention Research to Practice APHA awardee.
