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Architecture of the Chicago Cancer Health 
Equity Collaborative – A Partnership 
Delivering Transformative Cancer Health 
Equity Research, Education and Community 
Engagement 
Catherine A. O’Brian,1 Marian Fitzgibbon,2,3 Christina Ciecierski,4 Lidia Filus,5 Joseph Feinglass,6 Robert A. 
Winn,3,7 and Melissa A. Simon1,8,* 

1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, 
2Department of Pediatrics, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL,3University of Illinois Cancer Center, University 
of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, 4Department of Economics, Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, 
IL,5Department of Mathematics, Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, IL, 6Division of General Internal Medicine 
and Geriatrics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, 7University of Illinois Hospital and 
Health Sciences System Mile Square Health Centers, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, 8Robert H. Lurie 
Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern University, Chicago, IL 
*Corresponding author: Melissa A Simon m-simon2@northwestern.edu 

ABSTRACT: Reducing cancer health inequities requires transformation of longstanding structures, 
including ways of ‘doing business’ and other deeply rooted traditions that perpetuate social injustice. 
We posit that moving the needle toward cancer health equity requires the building of large-scale 
partnerships with the infrastructure and reach to reshape the architecture defining how education, 
training, and research are conducted. It is with this vision that the Chicago Cancer Health Equity 
Collaborative (ChicagoCHEC) was conceived in response to a call for proposals by the National Cancer 
Institute (NCI) in 2015 that sought applications for a partnership across a NCI designated comprehensive 
cancer center and up to two institutions serving underserved health disparity populations and 
underrepresented students. ChicagoCHEC was conceived as a tri-institutional partnership comprised of 
the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, a NCI-designated 
Comprehensive Cancer Center which serves a diverse nine county catchment area, Northeastern Illinois 
University, a minority-serving institution known for its connection to minority students, and the 
University of Illinois Cancer Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), a minority-serving 
institution and leader in community-focused cancer care and disparities research. Established in 2016, 
ChicagoCHEC is comprised of four functionally distinct cores that together serve the mission of 
advancing cancer health equity through meaningful scientific discovery, education, training, and 
community engagement. The successful functioning of of ChicagoCHEC is evident from the fruits borne 
by the partnership in research, education, and community engagement toward the goal of eradicating 
cancer health inequities. KEYWORDS: cancer health equity; cancer health disparities; 
Citation: O’Brian CA et al (2019) Architecture of the Chicago Cancer Health Equity Collaborative – A 
Partnership Delivering Transformative Cancer Health Equity Research, Education and Community 
Engagement. 4: e1-5. doi:10.9777/chd.2019.1015



 
 
 
 
 

 
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Reducing cancer health inequities requires 
transformation of longstanding structures, 
including ways of ‘doing business’ and other 
deeply rooted traditions that perpetuate social 
injustice. We posit that moving the needle toward 
cancer health equity cannot be done in isolation 
but rather requires the building of large-scale 
partnerships with the infrastructure and reach to 
reshape the architecture defining how education, 
training, and research are conducted. Key to 
success is the forging of authentic partnerships, 
rather than mere top-down relationships, between 
scientists and educators at academic institutions, 
representatives of community organizations, and 
other stakeholders. 

It is with this vision that the Chicago Cancer Health 
Equity Collaborative (ChicagoCHEC) was 
conceived in response to a call for proposals by 
the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/ National 
Cancer Institute (NCI) in 2015 
(National_Cancer_Institute, 2015). The funding 
announcement, PAR-15-103, sought applications 
for a partnership across a NCI designated 
comprehensive cancer center (CC) and up to two 
institutions serving underserved health disparity 
populations and underrepresented students 
(ISUPs). It was envisioned in the program 
announcement that the partnership would be 
mutually beneficial to the CC and the ISUPs, 
bringing increased diversity among the students, 
faculty and investigators conducting cancer 
research as well as increased emphasis on cancer 
health equity, with a focus on inclusion at the CC 
and provision of the ISUPs with an elevated 
national profile and access to the expertise and 
cutting edge technology at the CC. 

We immediately recognized the importance of 
forging such a partnership that could fortify cancer 

health equity research, education, and community 
engagement in the Chicago area. Chicago is one 
of the most segregated cities in the US with 
numerous pockets of impoverished and resource 
poor areas (US_Census_Bureau, 2018), and it is rife 
with cancer health inequities. The majority of 
residents in Chicago are underrepresented 
minorities – approximately a third are African 
American and a third are Hispanic 
(US_Census_Bureau, 2018). Compared to whites, 
racial/ethnic minorities in Chicago experience 
health disparities in major cancers (e.g,, breast, 
cervical, prostate, lung, and colorectal cancer), 
despite the presence of five major medical centers 
in the metropolitan area; observed cancer health 
disparities include increased rates of cancer 
incidence and mortality, and later stage of 
diagnosis (Center_to_Reduce_Cancer_Health_ 
Disparities, 2004; Chicago_Department-
of_Public_Health, 2017; Formigoni et al., 2017; 
Garner and Shen, 2018; Pallok et al., 2019). 

ChicagoCHEC was conceived in response to the 
PAR-15-103 funding announcement as a tri-
institutional partnership comprised of the Robert 
H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of 
Northwestern University (NU), a NCI-designated 
Comprehensive Cancer Center which serves a 
diverse nine county catchment area, Northeastern 
Illinois University (NEIU), a minority-serving 
institution known for its connection to minority 
students, and the University of Illinois Cancer 
Center (UICC) at the University of Illinois at 
Chicago (UIC), a minority-serving institution (MSI) 
and leader in community-focused cancer care and 
disparities research. Established in 2016, the 
organizational structure of ChicagoCHEC is 
comprised of 4 functionally distinct cores that 
together serve the mission of advancing cancer 
health equity through meaningful scientific 



 
 
 
 
 

 
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discovery, education, training, and community 
engagement. In brief, the Research Education Core 
functions to build a pipeline of summer student 
fellows focused on reducing and eliminating 
cancer health disparities; the Community 
Engagement Core serves to enhance community 
engagement, cancer education, and survivorship 
support, and helps to build the research capacity 
of our community partners; the Planning and 
Evaluation Core initiates and monitors new and 
ongoing projects, monitors the progress of our 
Early Stage Investigators (ESIs), and evaluates 
ChicagoCHEC’s progress toward realizing the 
goals of its mission; and the Administrative Core 
provides the overall leadership, administrative 
management, and program coordination of 
ChicagoCHEC. 

In the governance model operative in 
ChicagoCHEC, guidance is provided to the cores 
by the NCI and three distinct steering bodies. The 
Program Steering Committee (PSC) is the external 
evaluating board for ChicagoCHEC partnership 
activities and accomplishments toward realizing 
the goals of its mission; the Internal Advisory 
Committee (IAC) is an internal evaluating board 
that is structured to ensure that the goals and 
objectives of the ChicagoCHEC partnership are 
met; and the Community Steering Committee 
(CSC) is a body with representation from more 
than 30 community organizations serving 
vulnerable populations in the Chicago area that 
functions to ensure that community engagement 
activities are done in true partnership with those 
engaged. 

The successful functioning of the governance 
model and organizational structure of 
ChicagoCHEC is evident from the fruits borne by 
the partnership in research, education, and 

community engagement toward the goal of 
eradicating cancer health inequities. The vibrant 
collaborative relationships forged amongst NU, 
NEIU, and UIC by ChicagoCHEC have increased 
the cancer research capacity at the ISUPs and 
reinforced the commitment of the CC at NU to the 
mission of eradicating cancer health disparities. 
Innovations in community engaged research 
advanced by ChicagoCHEC are exemplified by the 
recruitment of African American men as citizen 
scientists to validate a biomarker for prostate 
cancer (Watson et al., 2019), adaption of a 
smoking cessation program to increase 
participation by LGBTQ smokers (Matthews et al., 
2019), and development of an mHealth tool for 
persons with disabilities and cancer (Magasi et al., 
2019). Innovations in education and training 
include the ChicagoCHEC Research Fellows 
Program which contrasts with traditional 
healthcare career STEM pipeline programs insofar 
as, rather than being paired individually with one 
mentor, the Research Fellows advance through the 
summer as one cohort with exposure to a wide 
array of transdisciplinary researchers. Strengths of 
this model include exposure of fellows to a variety 
of healthcare career options, facilitation and 
support of the beginning of mentor-mentee 
relationships, and social and professional network 
development between fellows and program 
lecturers and leaders (Taylor et al., 2019). Following 
this broader summer experience, the fellows have 
a subsequent opportunity to have a dry or wet lab 
immersion experience where they are paired with 
an individual mentor. Finally, community 
engagement is at the heart of the cancer health 
equity mission of ChicagoCHEC, and the 
Community Engagement Core purposefully fosters 
group dynamics that break with tradition with the 
goal of leveling the playing field amongst 



 
 
 
 
 

 
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academic institutions, researchers, community 
residents and leaders, health care providers, and 
community organizations so that all voices are 
heard and counted (Giachello et al., 2019). 

In summary, we applaud the wisdom of initiatives 
such as NCI’s Comprehensive Partnerships to 
Advance Cancer Health Equity (CPACHE) that seek 
to break with traditional models by supporting 
large scale partnerships with the scale that allows 
the establishment of new architectural elements 
designed to drive the eradication of health 
inequities. We are gratified that we have been 
afforded the opportunity to realize this vision in a 
metropolitan area with steep cancer health 
inequities through the establishment and 
continued development of ChicagoCHEC, a 
thriving partnership model wherein representatives 
of academic institutions, researchers, community 
residents and leaders, health care providers, and 
community organizations give voice to their 
concerns and priorities and collectively engage in 
research and education initiatives squarely aimed 
at reducing health disparities. 

Acknowledgements 
We thank the members and community partners 
of ChicagoCHEC for their important contributions 
to the Partnership. 

Funding 
This work was supported by the National Cancer 
Institute (U54CA202995, U54CA202997, 
U54CA203000). 

Conflict of interest 
There are no conflicts of interest to report. Melissa 
Simon is a member of the United States Preventive 
Services Task Force (USPSTF). This article does not 

necessarily represent the views and policies of the 
USPSTF. 

Authors’ contributions 
.All authors are affiliated with ChicagoCHEC, and 
each substantially contributed to the writing and 
editing of the manuscript.  

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