Congratulations Dr. Towner on Receiving the 2025 Community Engagement Award and Collaboration Lab Fellowship
Double congratulations to Dr. Elizabeth Towner who was selected to receive one of Wayne State University’s 2025 Community Engagement Awards and was selected by the Michigan Health Endowment Fund to participate in the next cohort for the Collaboration Lab!
The Collaboration Lab is a 10-month learning experience that aims to build skills for systems-wide collaborations that create cultures of collective action to and build healthier communities across Michigan. For more information, please visit, https://healthyplacesbydesign.org/collaborationlab/
The Wayne State University Community Engagement Awards are awards that recognize community-based research, creative activities, teaching, and service collaborations that positively impact both community and scholarship. Dr. Towner’s community engaged scholarship includes community-academic partnerships to develop family-based childhood obesity prevention and intervention programs and community-driven health campaigns that address local priorities for childhood obesity prevention, COVID-19, and Long COVID. A core component of Dr. Towner’s community-engaged scholarship is to not only ensure the engagement of community members, but also to build their capacity for conducting research and to create infrastructure in community and academic settings to support community-academic research partnerships. Her work has been funded by multiple grants from local, state, and federal agencies due to its important and innovative nature. Dr. Towner serves in several roles that promote research between Wayne State University and the community including the steering committee for Wayne State University’s Center for Health Equity and Community Knowledge in Urban Populations and directing research within the MetroNet Family-Based Research Network. Finally, Dr. Towner teaches and mentors numerous students, trainees, junior faculty members, and community members in community engagement and conducting community engaged research through formal courses and trainings and facilitating community-academic partnerships.
Congratulations Dr. Towner on these well-deserved recognitions!