Eugenia Eng

Eugenia Eng is a Professor of Health Behavior and Health Education at UNC and Director of the MPH Program. She is responsible for the scientific integrity and overall administration of CCARES. Dr. Eng has pioneered research on the lay health advisor intervention model, the concepts of community competence and natural helping and the community assessment procedure, “Action-Oriented Community Diagnosis”. Her body of CBPR work includes field studies conducted with rural communities of the US South, West Africa and Southeast Asia to address socially stigmatizing health problems such as breast cancer, prostate cancer and STDs. She is the Co-Scientific Director for the AHRQ-funded evidence-based review of the conduct and quality of CBPR and is co-editor for the book, Methods for Conducting Community Based Participatory Research in Public Health. She is PI for Men As Navigators for Health, a CDC funded multi-level intervention study to increase use of preventive health services (including prostate cancer screening) among men of color. The intervention includes men as LHAs in 2 rural and 1 urban communities and a dismantling racism process in the participating health departments. Dr. Eng and colleagues from the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center have conducted several NCI-funded studies to reduce breast cancer disparities among rural African American women. These include: Black-White Differences in Breast Cancer Screening, a demonstration trial of the “Just Ask Your Doctor” campaign; Save Our Sisters, a feasibility study of an LHA intervention; and the North Carolina Breast Cancer Screening Program (NCBCSP), an intervention trial of an LHA intervention, based on findings from Save Our Sisters, that appeared to have very nearly eliminated racial disparity in mammography screening, particularly among lower income women. As a follow-up to NCBCSP, Drs. Eng and Ellen Lopez were funded by the Komen Foundation to define quality of life among rural African American breast cancer survivors. Their study combined the CBPR method of photovoice with the qualitative method of grounded theory to generate a conceptual model of quality of life.

Dr. Eng’s on-going commitment to health disparities research is exemplified by her service as Director of the WK Kellogg Community Health Scholars Postdoctoral Program to increase the number of health sciences faculty with capacity to carry out CBPR investigations and teaching. For the NCMHHD-funded Carlin-Shaw Partnership for the Elimination of Health Disparities, she leads the CBPR Core. She serves on the National Commission for Academic Excellence in Community-Based Education, which produced a report on the status of academic policies and infrastructure to promote excellence in community-based research, teaching and service. Dr. Eng is the recipient of the Mayhew Derryberry Award from the American Public Health Association, Public Health Promotion and Health Education Section, for outstanding contributions to theory and research, Robert Allen Symbol of HOPE Award from the American Journal of Health Promotion in recognition of work with underserved communities and Bernard G. Greenberg Alumni Endowment Award from the UNC School of Public Health in recognition of excellence in research, service and teaching.