{"id":291,"date":"2016-02-17T13:39:12","date_gmt":"2016-02-17T18:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ctsi\/?page_id=291"},"modified":"2026-06-05T10:50:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T14:50:40","slug":"community-engagement","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ctsi\/community-engagement\/","title":{"rendered":"Community Engagement Program"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; max-width: 850px; margin: auto; padding: 20px; background-color: #f9f9f9; border-radius: 12px; box-shadow: 0 4px 12px rgba(0,0,0,0.1);\">\n<h2 style=\"color: #8b0000; text-align: center;\">About Us<\/h2>\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.6; font-size: 16px; color: #333;\">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.<\/p>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; max-width: 850px; margin: auto; padding: 20px; background-color: #e0f8f2; border-radius: 12px; box-shadow: 0 4px 12px rgba(0,0,0,0.1);\">\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.6; font-size: 16px; color: #333;\">The BU CTSI Community Engagement Program (CE Program) seeks to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333333;\">Develop new and sustain existing<\/span> <strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ctsi\/community-engagement\/community-academic-partnerships\/\" style=\"color: #993366;\">partnerships<\/a><\/span><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ctsi\/community-engagement\/community-academic-partnerships\/\"><span style=\"color: #333333;\">;<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333333;\">Expand community-engaged research<\/span> <span style=\"color: #993366;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ctsi\/community-engagement\/capacity-building-with-partners\/\" style=\"color: #993366;\">capacity<\/a><\/strong><\/span> <span style=\"color: #333333;\">for organizations, neighborhoods, and systems the people who live, work, and play within these contexts;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ctsi\/community-engagement\/disseminating-best-practices\/\" style=\"color: #993366;\">Disseminate<\/a><\/span><\/strong> <span style=\"color: #333333;\">best practices for community-engaged research approaches<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; max-width: 850px; margin: auto; padding: 20px; background-color: #f9f9f9; border-radius: 12px; box-shadow: 0 4px 12px rgba(0,0,0,0.1);\">\n<h2 style=\"color: #8b0000; text-align: center;\">Meet Our Team<\/h2>\n<p><!-- TEAM MEMBER TEMPLATE --><\/p>\n<div style=\"display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 20px; margin-bottom: 40px; align-items: flex-start;\">\n<p><img src=\"\/ctsi\/files\/2023\/07\/Screen-Shot-2023-07-28-at-9.34.41-AM-150x150.png\" alt=\"Astraea Augsberger\" style=\"flex: 0 0 150px; height: 150px; border-radius: 8px; object-fit: cover;\" \/><\/p>\n<div style=\"flex: 1; min-width: 300px;\">\n<h4 style=\"color: #993366; margin-bottom: 4px; font-size: 18px;\">Astraea Augsberger, PhD, MSW<\/h4>\n<p style=\"font-weight: bold; color: #555; margin-top: 0;\">Director<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #444; line-height: 1.6;\">Astraea Augsberger is the Director of Community Engagement (CE) for Boston University\u2019s 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 &amp; 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/profile\/astraea-augsberger-lcsw\/\" style=\"color: #8b0000; text-decoration: underline;\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 20px; margin-bottom: 40px; align-items: flex-start;\">\n<p><img src=\"\/ctsi\/files\/2024\/09\/Dr.-Wang-150x150.jpeg\" alt=\"Catharine Wang\" style=\"flex: 0 0 150px; height: 150px; border-radius: 8px; object-fit: cover;\" \/><\/p>\n<div style=\"flex: 1; min-width: 300px;\">\n<h4 style=\"color: #993366; margin-bottom: 4px; font-size: 18px;\">Catharine Wang, PhD, MSc<\/h4>\n<p style=\"font-weight: bold; color: #555; margin-top: 0;\">Associate Director<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #444; line-height: 1.6;\">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\u2019s 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&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3324,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":52,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ctsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/291"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ctsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ctsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ctsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3324"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ctsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291"}],"version-history":[{"count":53,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ctsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19046,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ctsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/291\/revisions\/19046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ctsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}