The Center on Society and Health is pleased to announce that Chanel Bea has accepted a full-time position as the Center’s Community Engagement Assistant. Ms. Bea started working with the Center five years ago as one of the founding members of Engaging Richmond and has since worked on several Engaging Richmond projects, most recently on the Community Conversations pilot study for the Corporation for National and Community Service. Ms. Bea has been an integral member of our community engagement work since she first started working with the Center—helping to build bridges between CSH and the East End community in both her personal and professional life.

In addition to conducting research with Engaging Richmond, Ms. Bea has spoken on behalf of the Center at several academic conferences and events, including the Health Affairs briefing event in Washington, DC sponsored by the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) and the North American Primary Care Research Group Conference (NAPCRG). In her personal life, Ms. Bea volunteers with Richmond Public Schools and has taken on leadership roles through the Maggie L. Walker Initiative for Expanding Opportunity and Fighting Poverty and Richmond Promise Neighborhood. Unsurprising to us, she was recently named one of Richmond’s Most Fascinating People in 2016 by RVANews. When she’s not at the Center or in her community volunteering, she’s busy raising her three daughters.

In her new role, Ms. Bea will continue to work closely with Emily Zimmerman, Alicia Aroche, Sarah Cook, Dr. Alex Krist, the Center for Clinical and Translational Research, and Engaging Richmond to build upon our portfolio of community-engaged research projects. We are so excited to have her in this new role and look forward to her continued work with the Center.