In 2018, Dr. Barnes secured funds from the Lilly Endowment to create Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIPS) in partnership with the Center for Rural Engagement to implement in seven rural Indiana counties. With Kenya native Dr. Mwangi leading the way, Dr. Barnes is introducing the CHIPS model to the global stage.
"I came to Indiana University in 2012 thinking I would do community-based participatory research as a young scholar, but I didn’t know that my purpose was really setting the infrastructure in which our school does that in our own backyard and beyond," shares Dr. Barnes. "I think that’s why Josephine really connected to what I was doing here and thought it could serve spaces like Kenya."
Dr. Mwangi’s connection with Kabarak University—a private, rural institution—came through conversations with Wilson Shitandi, Ph.D., a visiting scholar in the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies who also serves as an advisor in the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs and adjunct faculty in the Jacobs School of Music. Director of International Programs Nicole Anderson shares that talks with Dr. Shitandi about a partnership with Kabarak began in September 2022. Anderson traveled to Kenya the following May to lay the foundation to explore these partnership opportunities for both faculty research and student mobility programming for SPH-B.
Nicole Anderson
"When we plan a trip like this, we look at how this partnership can benefit our school overall," shares Anderson. "Are there service opportunities for other faculty? What does Kabarak have to offer so we can collaborate more fully?"
Drs. Barnes and Mwangi spent three days talking to community leaders in nearby counties of Baringo, Nakuru and Kericho, gathering input and data on health gaps and potential improvements in education and resources. Anderson says that various initiatives, such as local environmental health education, could be prime research opportunities for SPH-B students.
Josephine Mwangi, Ph.D.
"A big asset we identified is community volunteers," says Dr. Mwangi. "Some counties had a specific minister of health, which is a huge asset. But there are gaps such as education in home health visits—the volunteers are there, and they have the tools, but they have not been trained to use them."
Other common challenges Dr. Mwangi cited across the diverse areas include financial issues needing to be identified to address workforce shortages in the healthcare systems and optimize the current infrastructure in place.
Dr. Barnes says that while they were at Kabarak, her team established three goals: First, to begin an inventory of assets as to what strengths each academic community could bring to the table; second, to hear the concerns, desires and aspirations of community members outside of campus; and finally, to determine how to combine the assets of the academic institutions with the assets of three community spaces.
Collaborators in Kenya
A memorandum of incorporation (MOI) is pending with Kabarak University, with another potential MOI in discussion with the leadership team at Kenyatta University.
"Nicole will be our advocate and liaison," says Dr. Barnes, "and it is our hope these parallel MOIs will connect, because across our universities there are common interests and shared values. Rather than answering a specific research question, we discussed how we can bring our assets together to figure out how to co-design, co-create, and co-deliver public health interventions—together."
For more stories about SPH-B students and faculty making a big difference both locally and worldwide, visit go.iu.edu/48bx.
