NASHVILLE, Tenn. For Alecia Fair, joining the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance (MVA) is a culmination of both her professional and personal goals. Dr. Fair served as an Assistant Professor of Surgery with MMC between 2003 and 2011.
“I was previously a faculty member at Meharry Medical College’s (MMC) Department of Surgery on a U54 Cancer Partnership/ American Cancer Society project on abnormal mammography follow-up in medically underserved women,” she explained.
Her research platform centered on minority medical underserved breast center risk with a focus on psychosocial behavioral beliefs on abnormal mammography follow-up and vitamin D as a preventive factor in reducing mammographic breast density.
“I’ve always been interested in public health,” she said, “and a lot of the projects throughout my graduate work involved minority underserved youth.”
While serving as faculty member at MMC, Dr. Fair had a secondary appointment as an Assistant Professor at the VUMC Department of Medicine and the Institute for Medicine and Public Health. From 2011-2017, Fair became a Research Services Consultant II at the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical Translational Research (VICTR) in Research Support Services. In this capacity, she assisted investigators and key study personnel in accelerating their science through direct support and facilitation of their regulatory, budgetary and methodologic research needs.
During her time at VICTR, Dr. Fair worked with MVA Executive Director Consuelo H. Wilkins, MD, MSCI and the MVA team on Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) projects and planning the Advancing Community Engaged Research ( CenR) Conference
Dr. Fair received her DrPH in Health Promotion and Education from the University of South Carolina, Columbia. In graduate school, she studied lifestyle and cultural factors related to obesity tolerance in African-American adolescents. She completed her Department of Defense funded postdoctoral cancer epidemiology fellowship on the role of energy balance on breast cancer risk under Dr. Wei Zheng at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC).
“I hope to bring my knowledge of public health and working with minority health underserved populations full circle in the arena of community engaged research and be a resource to the MVA staff,” Dr. Fair said, “as well as a conduit between the VUMC and MMC research communities to assist with community engaged components of translational research.”
As a Research Assistant Professor of Medicine with the MVA, Dr. Fair is involved in PCORI-funded community engaged research on provider motivations to participate in the Mid-South Clinical Data Research Network. She also serves as the project manager of the Advancing the Science of Community Engaged Research conference and is a program manager of the Precision Medicine & Health Disparities Collaborative (PMHDC) Training & Mentoring Core, a U54 Center of Excellence award with MMC, VUMC and the University of Miami.
“I’m just really thrilled to be back here,” she added.
About the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance
Founded in 1999, the Alliance bridges the institutions of Meharry Medical College and Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Its mission is to enrich learning and advance clinical research in three primary areas -- community engagement, interprofessional education and research -- by developing and supporting mutually beneficial partnerships between Meharry Medical College, Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the communities they serve. Through community engagement, the Alliance serves a large community of stakeholders including surrounding universities and colleges, community organizations, faith-based outlets and community health centers. Its interprofessional education enhances students' interdisciplinary understanding and improves patient outcomes through integrated care. The research conducted provides access to experienced grant writers and materials supporting the grant application process and facilitates grant-writing workshops.
