Population and Health Services (PHS) Sub-Core

The mission of the Population and Health Services (PHS) sub-core is to provide support to the Research Capacity Core by providing new opportunities for research and supporting ongoing research projects

The sub-core’s objectives include:

• Facilitating and developing new partnerships with neighboring academic institutions, research institutes, and private industries
• Engaging early stage investigators (ESIs) throughout the NCCU campus to develop pilot projects and support ongoing projects
• Supporting the broader NCCU community and its partners in research and practice related to population health
• Identifying communities that provide research and training opportunities for new and senior investigators
• Creating student engagement opportunities across population health initiatives
• Collecting information on mobile health programming needs

The leaders for the PHS sub-core are Yolanda VanRiel, Ph.D., RN, MEDSURG-BC, OCN, and William Pilkington, D.P.A., M.P.A., M.A.

The following are all components of the PHS sub-core:

1. Consultations with RCMI researchers
2. Communicating research opportunities
3. Assisting with staffing needs in conducting research
   • Facilitating use of mobile health units
4. NCCU Department of Nursing: Faculty and staff are available to assist with population health screening events. A network of artists and researchers are dedicated to using the arts as a tool for innovative health communication.
5. NCCU HOPE Program: Staff are available to facilitate connections with community engagement partners.

The following resources are available through the PHS sub-core:

• Consultations on research opportunities to improve population health
• Assistance in identifying communities and community partners with ongoing population health research projects

Current initiatives of the PHS sub-core include the following:

• Long COVID Study: This study recruited and monitored almost 300 individuals to measure the lived and lasting effects of Long COVID-19 among North Carolina residents. (Pilkington, W.; Bauer, B.E.; Doherty, I.A. Living with Long COVID in a Southern State: A Comparison of Black and White Residents of North Carolina. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2025, 22, 279. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph22020279)
• Mobile Health Programming: This inititiave facilitates population health screening events in multiple North Carolina counties that support RCMI researchers in conducting survey research.