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The KU Work Group is an interdisciplinary team devoted to a common purpose: promoting community health and development through collaborative research, teaching, and service. Formed in 1975, our work is in three domains: community and public heath, child and youth heath & development, and community and capacity development.
Our disciplinary backgrounds include applied behavioral science, community psychology, anthropology, education, law, child development, urban planning, and public health. Team members have experience addressing a variety of issues facing communities including health promotion, substance abuse, adolescent pregnancy, education, child and youth development, rural health, child well-being, systems change, and neighborhood development in urban communities.
Our multi-generational team includes Ph.D-level researchers, professional staff, graduate students, and undergraduate interns. We learn through relationships with collaborative partners locally, nationally, and globally.
Vicki Colli-Akers, M.P.H.
Graduate Research Assistant
Background and Professional Interests
Vicki Collie-Akers, M.P.H., is a graduate research assistant at the KU Work Group. She is also a doctoral candidate in Applied Behavioral Science at the University of Kansas. Vicki was previously involved with the Work Group as an Undergraduate Research Fellow while she completed her Bachelor of Social Work at KU. During that time, she worked on the Bronzeville and Kauffman neighborhood development projects. She was also a member of the Kansas Community Leadership Corps.
Vicki completed her Masters in Public Health, with a concentration in Behavioral Science and Health Education, at Saint Louis University, in St. Louis, MO. While there, she was involved in research that studied the coverage of prevention research in small market media and environmental assessments of walkability for children. After receiving her M.P.H., she worked as an initiative coordinator for the Kansas City- Chronic Disease Coalition, a REACH 2010 project evaluated by the KU Work Group. There she worked with neighborhood and faith organizations to implement environmental change and health programming. This experience led to the development of her primary research interest: understanding how communities can have a role in changing behaviors that prevent chronic diseases. She is currently working on the Kansas City Chronic Disease Coalition and Healthy STEPS Projects.
Research Assistant
Background and Professional Interests:
Teresa Dailey joined the KU Work Group as a Graduate Research Assistant in August of 2008. She received her BA in Economics and Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame in 2005. Her work experience while in college included training high school students to lead Peace Camps, doing outreach in a domestic violence shelter, and running a summer camp for Burmese refugees in Bangkok, Thailand. Since graduating from college, she has worked for both Catholic Relief Services and the Department of Agriculture supporting food assistance programs.
Ms. Dailey is a graduate student in the Joint Ph.D./M.P.H. program in Applied Behavioral Science and Public Health. Her research interests include developing effective violence intervention programs, and creating the conditions for sustainable development in impoverished countries. She is currently supporting programs in the Kansas City metro area involving youth and violence intervention.
Director, KU Work for Community Health and Development, a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre
Kansas Health Foundation Distinguished Professor,
Department of Applied Behavioral Science,
University of Kansas
Background and Professional Interests
Professor Fawcett uses methods of behavioral science and community development to help understand and improve how communities create conditions that promote health and development. A former VISTA volunteer, he worked as a community organizer in public housing and low-income neighborhoods. Dr. Fawcett has been honored as a Fellow in both Division 27 (Community Psychology) and Division 25 (Experimental Analysis of Behavior) of the American Psychological Association. He received the Distinguished Practice Award of the Society for Community Research and Action and the Higuchi/Endowment Award for Applied Sciences. He is co-author of nearly 200 articles and book chapters and several books in the areas of community/public health, child/youth health and development, and community development. Dr. Fawcett has been a Scholar-in-Residence at the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and member of the Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice. He has consulted with a number of private foundations and national organizations, including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the California Wellness Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He has also served as a visiting scholar at the World Health Organization in Geneva.
Current Work Group Projects
Dr. Fawcett serves as an advisor for most KU Work Group projects. This includes:
- Research into factors that affect how communities create conditions that promote health and development,
- Undergraduate teaching and graduate training in behavioral science, applied research, and community health and development, and
- Public service and consultation with local and national organizations, governmental organizations, and foundations.
Dr. Stephen Fawcett's Vita
Post-Doctoral Researcher
Grant provided by the Researchers Training Program of the Basque Government (Spain)
Background and Professional Interests
Cesáreo Fernández, PhD, and Master in Addictions, is a Spanish psychologist (in Industrial and Clinical Psychology). During the last 15 years, he has been a researcher and scientific research assistant for several European and national associations working in mental health and substance abuse. He is author and co-author for more than 50 articles in peer-reviewed journals, books, and chapters on mental health and substance abuse prevention and treatment. His work for the KU Work Group on Health Promotion and Community Development involves translating the Community Tool Box into Spanish, and adapting the Community Tool Box to European contexts.
Director of Training and Technical Support
Background and Professional Interests:
Christina M. Holt, MA, is Director of Training and Technical Support at the Work Group for Health Promotion and Community Development. She holds a master's degree in Human Development (Child and Developmental Psychology) at the University of Kansas. Ms. Holt also received her undergraduate degrees at the University of Kansas in American Studies and in Human Development and Family Life (with an emphasis in Community Leadership and Development). The behavioral science training that Ms. Holt has received under girds her work to help communities make a difference on socially important issues. Ms. Holt has extensive experience in various leadership capacities, coordinating and conducting training, coordinating community projects, overseeing development projects, and developing data collection systems. Ms. Holt's experience includes acting as Director of Behavioral Services and Family Enhancement at Community Living Opportunities, serving as a Research Associate at the Work Group for Health Promotion and Community Development, and serving as the Co-Director of KU's Center for Community Outreach. Ms. Holt is currently the Director of Training and Technical Support at the Work Group for Community Health and Development.
Ms. Holt has educational training and experience in designing data collection and management systems and using data to guide the work. Ms. Holt has experience helping others design such systems and helping them make sense of their data. Ms. Holt has over five years of experience helping communities collect, analyze, and make sense of their community change data.
Ms. Holt served as a Kansas Health Foundation and Senior Undergraduate Fellow at the KU Work Group. Trained by the Foundation's Master Facilitator Program, she is currently a Kansas Health Foundation Ambassador.
Ms. Holt coordinates the work of the Community Tool Box in an effort to give people tools to address socially important issues in their communities. This includes overseeing the CTB's development, disseminating the CTB, and providing technical assistance and coordinating related training. Ms. Holt also helps with various other grants and research projects at the Work Group.
Business and Finance Manager
Background and Professional Interests:
Michelle Kampfer has worked for the Work Group since May 2001 as the Financial Manager and is now the Business Manager for the office. She worked for the federal government for 12 years prior to coming to the Work Group. She enjoys the paper shuffle in an office setting along with being the person in charge.
Michelle enjoys working with people, teaching people and just conversing with people. She also enjoys young children and watching them grow, hence the reason for leading girls through the Girl Scout program. Michelle shines when she volunteers for the Wellsville Schools. She is an active member of the Parent/Teachers Organization for the Elementary and Middle School, a member of the Site Council for the Middle School and the President for the Site Council for the Elementary School. Her special interests include baking, photography, and scrap-booking.
Graduate Research Assistant
Background and Professional Interests
Nikki Keene is a Research Assistant for the KU Work Group on Health Promotion and Community Development. In August 2007, Ms. Keene became affiliated with the Work Group. She joined the work group as a recent graduate from the Health Services Management and Community Health and Development program at Wichita State University. Her past research experience was primarily focused on the prevention and cessation of tobacco use among college aged populations in Kansas.
Ms. Keene is currently graduate student in the Joint Ph.D. /M.P.H. program in Applied Behavioral Science and Public Health. Her research interests include building community capacity to bring about change and improvement related to socially important problems and goals. Currently, she is engaged in a wide variety of community health related research projects. Some of the current projects are focused on the prevention of youth substance abuse in communities across Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Iowa and also improving the quality of healthcare in Kansas communities.
Lead Community Tool Box Translator
Background and Professional Interests
Angie is a Pharmacist from Costa Rica. She graduated from the Universidad de Costa Rica in 2005. Before traveling to Lawrence, Kansas, she worked in the School of Pharmacy at the Universidad de Costa Rica. During that time, she collaborated in different university courses on Pharmacology and Toxicology. She also worked for the School of Pharmacy Leadership Project where she developed health-related workshops.
Public Health is Angie's caling. In August 2008, she began her studies in the Master's in Public Health Program at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Angie is interested in Health Education, Leadership, and drug abuse prevention; especially smoking cessation and prevention.
At the end of 2007, she started working at the KU Work Group as volunteer, translating sections for the CTB. Currently, Angie is coordinating and overseeing a group of more than 70 collaborators and institutions that are translating and culturally adapting the Community Tool Box for Spanish-speaking audiences. Funded by a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Grant, Angie's team is set to finish the CTB Spanish translation process by July of 2009.
Research Assistant
Background and Professional Interests:
Drew Mountain joined the Work Group staff in 2008 as a Research Assistant after earning his BA in English from the University of Kansas. His professional background includes experience with policy and social research, information technology administration, and customer service.
Drew's efforts at the Work Group are aimed at promoting collaborative research, teaching, and service between communities. He helps community initiatives design, customize, and implement web-based CTB WorkStations and their related Online Documentation and Support Systems. In addition, Mr. Mountain assists in the coding of community initiative data.
Mr. Mountain also produces CTB WorkStation and ODSS help videos and user guides, and provides technical assistance to groups who use these services. He co-coordinates the dissemination of Community Tool Box materials, and advises outside groups on proper citation of the CTB. He also maintains the KU Work Group website.
Graduate Research Assistant
Background and Professional Interests:
Zora received her masters from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and is currently enrolled in the joint Ph.D. /M.P.H. program in Applied Behavioral Science and Public Health at the University of Kansas. She joined the KU Work Group as a graduate Research Assistant in August of 2008 where she is working on substance abuse prevention and reducing health disparities in minority communities.
Zora’s research interests include: the evaluation of evidence-based practices to create healthy communities, targeting behaviors and environmental conditions which lead to pediatric obesity, the examination of comorbities (such as rates of HIV/AIDS when individuals abstain from drug abuse), and the dissemination of behavior analysis in the field of public health.
Graduate Research Assistant
Background and Professional Interests
Dan Schober joined the KU Work Group as a Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant in August of 2006. Dan’s work is in youth substance abuse prevention in Kansas and the prevention of violence (child sexual abuse, youth and adolescent violence, and intimate partner violence) in multiple states. Dan provides training and technical support to practitioners documenting and evaluating community-level interventions. He also contributes to diverse research initiatives with the Work Group.
Mr. Schober is a graduate student in the Joint Ph.D. /M.P.H. program in Applied Behavioral Science and Public Health. His research interests are in scientific discovery of societal conditions that contribute to community health and development, as well as understanding how changes in programs, policies, and practices can lead to population-level behavior change.
Co-Director of the KU Work Group
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Preventive Medicine, Courtesy Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Behavioral Science, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology
Background and Professional Interests
Dr. Schultz holds a Ph.D. in anthropology and an M.A. in medical anthropology from the University of Kansas. He works primarily with issues involving building capacity of urban neighborhoods to solve local problems, understanding systems change, evaluating community health and development initiatives, and qualitative methodologies. He is part of the Community Tool Box (CTB) development team, a global online resource for community building. His responsibility includes both content and design development for the CTB. Dr. Schultz has co-authored numerous articles on evaluation, empowerment, and community development. He has been a consultant to several foundations, community coalitions, and state agencies. In addition to his work in community health and development, Dr. Schultz has studied East Asian and Native American culture and history, producing several documentaries on these subjects. Dr. Schultz is a Fellow of the Society for Applied Anthropology and a member of the Society for Community Research and Action, and the American Public Health Association. He received the Distinguished Practice Award form the Society for Community Research and Action.
Current Work Group Projects
- Community Tool Box
- STEPS to a Healthier Austin
- Kansas City-Chronic Disease Coalition - A REACH 2010 Project
- Supporting Documentation of Substance Abuse Prevention Efforts in Kansas
Research Associate
Background and Professional Interests:
Jomella Thompson, M.U.P., is a Research Assistant for the KU Work Group on Health Promotion and Community Development. In 2001, Ms. Thompson became affiliated with the Work Group while completing her Masters in Urban Planning at the University of Kansas. Her work involves providing training, technical assistance, and supports of an online documentation system that tracks community and systems change for users such as community-based organizations and governmental initiatives. She has worked on various projects including the Kauffman Neighborhood Initiative and the Kansas Juvenile Justice Authority project.
Ms. Thompson is currently a doctoral candidate in Behavioral Psychology in the Department of Applied Behavioral Science. Her research interests are focused on increasing community capacity of neighborhood residents, especially youth, and participatory research in neighborhood and community development. She obtained a B.A. in Urban Studies with an emphasis in Community Development from Jackson State University, Jackson, Mississippi in December 2000.
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