University of Pennsylvania Names Its Inaugural Community Scholars-in-Residence

The University of Pennsylvania has announced the first cohort of its new Community Scholars-in-Residence program. The program is designed to address challenges that researchers face in developing and maintaining relationships with community partner organizations. The first two community scholars-in residence are women.

Bridgette M. Brawner will be working with the city of Philadelphia’s Department of Behavioral Health and Disability Services to determine the reasons for racial disparities in the percentages of individuals from different groups who access the department’s services.

Dr. Brawner is a graduate of the nursing school at Villanova University in Pennsylvania. She holds a master’s degree and a doctorate in nursing science from the University of Pennsylvania. From 2011 to 2013, she was a visiting research fellow at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS at Yale University.

Nadia L. Dowshen, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and director of adolescent HIV serves at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, will be working with the city of Philadelphia’s Department of Public Health. She will be working with youth with, or at risk for, HIV and with LGBT and homeless adolescents.

Dr. Dowshen is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in urban studies. She also earned her medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania.