Community-Engaged Research
Harvard Catalyst, Harvard Medical School · Cohort-based digital course · 2022–2024
I operated the Community‑Engaged Research course from 2022 to 2024, supporting a program designed for both researchers and community partners. The course builds skills for effective collaboration, explores community‑oriented research aims and practices, and creates space for shared discussion on trust, challenges, and equitable engagement.
What I Built
The course prepares participants to engage in research that reflects community priorities and strengthens trust between academic institutions and the communities that they serve. My work focused on improving the learning experience, refining content based on data, and supporting faculty and teaching fellows in delivering a consistent, accessible offering.
- Operated the course for three consecutive years (2022–2024)
- Delivered year‑over‑year gains in satisfaction and retention
- Refined content to better support both researchers and community partners
- Strengthened alignment between faculty, teaching fellows, and operations
My Role
- Led course operations, including timelines, LMS setup, and learner communications
- Recruited, coached, and managed teaching fellows
- Collaborated with faculty to refine content and instructional approach
- Implemented data‑informed improvements to structure, pacing, and assessments
- Ensured accessibility, clarity, and consistency across modules
Course Structure
The course consists of three self‑paced online modules taken over two months. Each module includes short instructional videos, participant discussions, and applied activities that help learners understand how to design and conduct research in partnership with communities.
- Video lectures with guided questions and transcripts
- Discussion‑based activities that bring out shared challenges and perspectives
- Applied exercises focused on collaboration, ethics, and community partnership
- Perspectives from researchers and community members on inclusive research
Select Course Practice Resources
Worksheets and Planning Aids
Harvard Medical School
The course includes select printable take‑aways designed to support applied learning and real‑world collaboration. These resources give participants structured ways to plan engagement activities, reflect on partnership dynamics, and translate course concepts into practice.
- Stakeholder Engagement Worksheet (opens in new tab): a guided tool for identifying stakeholders, mapping relationships, and planning engagement strategies.
- Creating a Workplan for Community Engagement (opens in new tab): a structured worksheet for outlining goals, roles, timelines, and communication plans for community‑engaged projects.
These resources are available as downloadable PDFs within the course and are designed for use by both researchers and community partners.
Impact
- Consistent increases in satisfaction and retention across 2022–2024
- Clearer, more accessible learning experience through iterative refinement
- Improved alignment between faculty, teaching fellows, and course operations
- More actionable exercises supporting real‑world community‑engaged research
How It Scales
- Structure supports future modularization or on‑demand conversion
- Teaching fellow workflows can be reused across similar research‑focused courses
- Data‑informed approach to improvement applies to other digital offerings
- Content architecture supports expansion into additional community‑engaged topics