People

There are currently 27 WSU faculty that have committed to membership in CHECK-UP representing the School of Medicine. College of Education, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, College of Nursing, Institute of Gerontology, School of Law, and the School of Social Work. This number is expected to grow as CHECK-UP expands. Further, seven community-based organizations (CBOs) have initially committed to partnerships with CHECK-UP, including the Detroit Health Department and the Detroit Public Schools Community District. This number is also expected to grow and does not include many existing academic-community partnerships that WSU and its faculty have with external groups. CBO involvement is critical to CHECK-UP's current steering/planning committee, composed of metropolitan Detroit area community stakeholders who are recognized as local leaders and key collaborators in addition to WSU faculty and staff. Current chair of the steering committee is Lisa Braddix, MPH, Program Manager, Michigan Public Health Institute.

CHECK-UP Director Hayley S. Thompson, Ph.D. is a professor in the Department of Oncology at Wayne State University and the Associate Center Director for Community Outreach and Engagement at the Karmanos Cancer Institute (KCI). She is also associate cancer center director for Community Outreach and Engagement (COE), she established KCI's Office of Cancer Health Equity and Community Engagement (OCHECE) and she currently serves as its faculty supervisor. She is a clinical psychologist whose research addresses racial and ethnic disparities in cancer care outcomes. Over her career, Dr. Thompson has received over $10M in extramural funding as a principal investigator or project lead from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), the Department of Defense (DoD), Patient-Centered Outcomes Institute (PCORI), and other agencies, including foundations, and additional funding as a co-investigator or co-lead. 

Carrie Leach, Ph.D. is CHECK-UP's Co-Director for Community Inclusion. Dr. Leach is a research assistant professor at the Institute of Gerontology and Community Engagement Program Manager of WSU Center for Urban Responses to Environmental Stressors (CURES) where she leads the activities of the Community Engagement Core (CEC) and a 28-member Community Advisory Board (CAB). 

M. Safwan Badr, MD, MBA is CHECK-UP's Co-Director for Practice-Based Health Equity Research. Dr. Badr is the chair of the WSU School of Medicine Department of Internal Medicine. A professor of Internal Medicine, Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, Dr. Badr is chief of the WSU Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, and a staff physician at the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center. He is also a member of Wayne Health's Board of Directors