Center to Advance Community Health

We envision inclusive communities where all individuals and families have the knowledge, resources, and support to thrive.

The Center to Advance Community Health (CACH) advances community health and well-being through research and engagement that builds on community strengths, addresses the social drivers of health, and creates inclusive opportunities for communities to thrive. Working in partnership with communities across Colorado and the Rocky Mountain region, we develop and implement evidence-based solutions that promote health across the lifespan, with particular emphasis on medically underserved rural and urban populations.

History

The Center for Health Equity was founded in fall 2021 by Chancellor Don Elliman and Dean John J. Reilly, Jr., MD, with a generous $10 million investment to address systemic health disparities in Aurora and across Colorado. Located in one of the nation's most diverse cities, the center was established to tackle striking health disparities in both urban and rural communities throughout the Rocky Mountain region.

In 2025, the center transitioned from the Chancellor's office to the Department of Family Medicine, becoming the Center to Advance Community Health (CACH). This strategic transformation was formalized through a five-year Memorandum of Understanding providing $1.2-1.5M in annual institutional support. This transition positioned CACH as regional research infrastructure serving all six professional schools at CU Anschutz while maintaining authentic community partnerships.

Current Scope and Purview

CACH operates as a multidisciplinary research center dedicated to community-engaged research across Colorado and the Rocky Mountain region. Our work encompasses:

Research Excellence

Community-driven health research addressing disparities and social drivers of health

Education & Training

Capacity building in community-engaged research methods for faculty, students, and community partners

Community Engagement

Authentic partnerships with rural and urban communities to co-create health solutions

Evaluation & Data Services

Evidence-based support for on-campus program and initiative as well as community health programs and research

Policy Impact

Translation of research findings into actionable policy recommendations

Our Team

Deborah Parra-Medina, PhD, MPH

Director for the Center to Advance Community Health

Deborah Parra-Medina, PhD, MPH, is the Director for the Center to Advance Community Health (CACH) at University of Colorado Anschutz, having joined the campus in January of 2024. With more than 25 years of research and program development work in disease prevention and public health promotion among diverse populations, Dr. Parra-Medina brings a distinctive skill set and perspective to the center.

Dr. Parra-Medina is an epidemiologist by training, and she has dedicated her career to advancing public health and addressing health disparities through collaborative research spanning rural, urban and border settings. She has an extensive background in community-based research and health promotion, as well as chronic disease prevention and control interventions with underserved communities including women, youth, Latinos, immigrants and economically disadvantaged populations.

She served previously as director of the Latino Research Institute at the University of Texas at Austin, where she also served as endowed chair and professor of Mexican American and Latina/o studies. Before joining UT Austin, she served as a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. A California native, she holds a PhD in epidemiology from the University of California San Diego and a master’s degree in public health from San Diego State University.

Dionisia de la Cerda is Research Scientist and primarily a Data and Evaluation Manager and Consultant. Her areas of expertise are Data Management, Equitable Evaluation and Inquiry, Knowledge Management, Process Improvement, Strategic Planning. As a technologist there isn’t a data system, she cannot help you untangle. In addition, she is passionate about community work. Finally, she has extensive experience in developing skills for others. She primarily works remote and lives in the San Luis Valley.

She has worked for the University of Colorado for over 25 years. She began as a community college transfer student working as a tutor in the Math Learning Center at the Colorado Springs campus. She has developed and honed her skills in many settings including student centered work (Retention, Success, K12 STEM Pathways, Education Pathways and Initiatives), Corrections (Colorado Dept of Correction Office of Planning and Analysis), and for the last 10 years at Anschutz (Family Medicine, Access and Engagement).

She provides Data and Evaluation Consulting support for Department of Family Medicine, and the Office of Access and Engagement (e.g. Resident Climate Survey, Redcap Build, HR Dashboards in Tableau, Mapping for Community Initiatives).

Her community work spans a lifetime of her own lived experience and needs. The two geographic communities she is most familiar with are Aurora and the San Luis Valley.

She is active member of the Colorado Collaboratory on Equitable Inquiry community of practice with the Colorado Health Foundation, participate in the HOPE Council for the School of Medicine, and is member of the Data Analytics Collaborative in the Data Enablement office.

Brooke Dorsey, PhD, MA, is the Associate Director of the Center to Advance Community Health (CACH) and Director of the ACCORDS Qualitative & Mixed Methods (QM2) Research Core. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and an experienced qualitative and mixed methods researcher.

Dr. Dorsey’s work focuses on advancing community health and well-being through rigorous research and meaningful partnerships. She has expertise in a range of qualitative methodologies, including phenomenological, historical, and narrative approaches, and applies these methods to health services research, health policy, and program evaluation.

Her primary research interests include maternal health and factors that influence health outcomes across populations. She is particularly focused on how access to care, economic conditions, and community environments shape health and well-being across the lifespan. Dr. Dorsey’s research emphasizes collaboration with community partners to develop and implement evidence-based strategies that improve health outcomes, particularly in medically underserved populations. She has extensive experience in community-engaged research, working alongside community members and organizations to better understand lived experiences and inform practical, sustainable solutions.

Kathryn (Kady) Nearing, PhD MA, is an Associate Director in the Center to Advance Community Health (CACH), having joined the center in April 2025. Kady’s work focuses on partnering with community members, patients and study participants to improve community health.

Kady is a medical anthropologist committed to learning about different cultures and lived experiences, and elevating different voices and ways of knowing to foster community-driven solutions. Kady leads multiple NIH and VA funded initiatives that center community voices and strengths. Examples include the Older Adult Research Specialist training programTM that created a pathway to encore careers in research for older adults to maintain meaningful roles and increase the capacity of research teams to reach, recruit and retain older adults in research. Together with Older Adult Research Specialists, Kady also established Research RoadshowsTM to create meaningful, accessible opportunities for communities that are not adequately included in research to learn about studies and ways to participate.

Kady is an Associate Professor in the Division of Geriatric Medicine, where she led efforts in 2021 for CU to become the 4th academic medical campus in the world to achieve the Age-Friendly University designation. Kady has a dual appointment at the Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center where she helped establish the first Age-Friendly Health System-designated telemedicine clinic to increase access to best practices in geriatric care for older, rural Veterans.

Bethany Wood, PhD, MSW, CSW, is a Senior Instructor at the Center to Advance Community Health (CACH) within the Department of Family Medicine at CU Anschutz. Her research focuses on neighborhood poverty and structural inequities as social determinants of mental health and behavioral health access among low-income and medically underserved populations. Dr. Wood brings advanced quantitative expertise and a community-engaged approach to understanding how place-based factors shape mental health outcomes.

Dr. Wood is a social worker and population health researcher whose work integrates advanced quantitative methods, including structural equation modeling, hierarchical linear modeling, and spatial analysis, with community-based participatory research. Her eight years of clinical experience include working with a wide range of populations such as domestic violence survivors, young adults on the autism spectrum, and youth with high suicidality. She also managed Cyber-Seniors, a program for older adults living in Section 8 housing in Salt Lake City, and served as the principal investigator for the Utah Cyber-Seniors study.

Prior to joining CU Anschutz, Dr. Wood served as a tenure-track assistant professor at the University of Texas at Arlington’s School of Social Work. She holds a PhD in Social Work with a concentration in applied statistical modeling from the University of Texas at Austin.

Ajah Mejia is a seasoned professional with six years of experience in coordination, event planning, and community outreach at three of the University of Colorado’s campuses. She values the importance of critical conversations about diversity, equity, inclusion, class, and navigating intersectional identities and networks across national and international diasporas. Graduating from the University of Colorado Denver in 2023 with a BA in Ethnic Studies (Summa Kum Laude) and minor in International Studies, Ajah brings a nationally and internationally informed approach to community engagement and health equity. In 2021 Ajah was awarded the Rosa Parks Diversity Award for her commitment to serving her community and creating opportunities for dialogue across identities and power structures. Ajah supports the Center to Advance Community Health with business functions and is the Executive Assistant to the Executive Director.