VA-ACCERT leadership and organization
Over the next five years, the VA-ACCERT Center will undertake a range of research projects led by principal investigators from VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center and Virginia Health Sciences at Old Dominion University.
This leadership team brings extensive expertise in cancer prevention, multilevel interventions and community engagement, ensuring the initiative’s strategies are evidence-based and impactful.
Administration
The Administrative Core oversees the Center’s operations, ensuring effective communication, coordination across projects, financial management, and evaluation processes. Internal and external advisory committees provide strategic guidance to help advance the Center’s goals. Core leaders include:
- Bernard Fuemmeler, Ph.D. (VCU)
- Jessica LaRose, Ph.D. (VCU)
- Brynn Sheehan, Ph.D. (VHS at ODU)
Research Methods, Measures and Data Management
This Research Methods, Measures and Data Management Core supports the Center’s research by designing and analyzing data systems to ensure robust, meaningful results. Responsibilities include organizing and managing data across the Center, developing and refining measures to evaluate outcomes, adapting research methods to community-specific needs and overseeing the secure sharing and dissemination of data. Core leaders include:
- Alexander Krist, M.D. (VCU)
- Roy Sabo, Ph.D. (VCU)
Community Core
The Community Core supports the Center by supporting all projects in the center, including overseeing the various Community Responsive Research Projects. Additionally, the Core provides community engagement training and delivers the mental health first aid and trauma informed communication training. The Community Core works in collaboration with our housing community advisory board and our community partners to ensure that the communities are engaged in each step of the research process. The Community Core is led by:
- Brynn Sheehan, Ph.D. (VHS at ODU)
Community-responsive research projects
VA-ACCERT will support four community responsive research projects (CRRPs) across the five-year project period to improve dissemination and implementation of multi-level cancer health promotion and prevention services to individuals and families living within Virginia’s income-based housing communities. Each project will be co-led by an academic faculty member and a community member and will promote iterative, rapid-cycle research that is responsive to the needs of income-based housing communities. The overall goal is to ensure that the Center is conducting timely research to address the emerging priorities of residents.
- CRRP Leader: Brynn Sheehan, Ph.D. (VHS at ODU)
- Project 1 Co-lead: Carrie Miller, Ph.D. (VCU Co-Lead)
- Project 1 Co-lead: LaToya Wright (Community Co-Lead)
- Project 2 Co-lead: Ellen Pudney (VHS at ODU)
- Project 2 Co-lead: Sara Rothenberg (VHS at ODU)
- Project 2 Co-lead: Sudie Greene (Community Co-Lead)
About CRRP 1: The first community-responsive project targets colorectal cancer, the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S. While colorectal cancer is highly treatable when detected early, screening rates remain low, particularly among disadvantaged populations, including income-based housing residents.
This project introduces a peer-led Colon Health Champion model to raise awareness and improve screening uptake. The initiative emphasizes education, peer support and trust-building to address barriers to screening.
Additional community-responsive projects will be developed and implemented throughout the Center’s five-year project period, each designed in collaboration with community partners.
About CRRP 2: This project was recently funded in fall 2025 informed by the July 2025 Closing the Gap Summit, which focused on mental health along the cancer journey. Women with higher weight experience elevated cancer risk and may encounter weight stigma in health care settings, which can contribute to delayed or avoided preventive screenings. This study aims to reduce healthcare-related stress, strengthen community resilience, and improve medical trust to support more accessible and effective cancer prevention services for adult women with higher weight living in income-based housing.
The study uses a mixed-methods, community-engaged approach. Community Story Circles are a key aspect of this study, which involve facilitated, small-group conversations where participants share personal health care experiences in a supportive setting. Along with Story Circles, the study will implement brief surveys to identify key sources of stress and avoidance related to women’s health care. Interviews with women’s health care practitioners will further inform the development of a multi-level intervention targeting both community and clinical settings, with the goal of reducing weight stigma, building medical trust, and empowering women to engage in cancer prevention and screening.
Social drivers of health research project: POWER (Prevention, Outreach, Wellness, Engagement, Resilience)
To reduce cancer risk among residents of income-based housing, the VA-ACCERT Center is launching a comprehensive strengths-based intervention focused on addressing four social drivers of health: food insecurity, health literacy, neighborhood and built environment, social and community context. By addressing these factors at the individual, organizational and community level, the project aims to achieve sustainable improvements in two key cancer risk factors: diet quality and physical activity.
The goal is to enroll 480 residents across 12 income-based housing communities to participate in the study, but community programming will be open and accessible to all residents, fostering meaningful engagement while addressing key social drivers of health.
Project leadership:
- Jessica LaRose, Ph.D. (VCU Co-Lead)
- Janet Plent, RN (Community Co-Lead)