The study of Epidemiologist (EPI) is a very collaborative field in public health industry. “The reason I wanted to start my lab was because of my love for community. I coupled that with the love for research and the lab came to life.” The Balls-Berry Research Lab has a diverse staff purposefully and we welcome partnerships across the globe.
Who We Are
What We Do
The Balls-Berry Research Lab is a clinical and translational science lab, which means that we study research from the bench to the community, and a bulk of our work is in clinical and community-engaged research, both clinical and public health settings.
The Balls-Berry Research Lab focuses its attention on a variety of mixed methods approaches, usually always starting with the community and patient engagement.
When we talk to the community, we talk to the patients and that is when we find out not only what their interests are, but also, we also talk to the people that are on those care teams or service providers.
- Clinical and Translational Science Lab
- Community-Engaged Research
- Mixed Method Approaches
- Focus Groups
- Qualitative Work Interviews
Dr. Balls-Berry is a theorist and has created different theories around engaging with different types of stakeholders and how that looks based on our qualitative work.
We use a world cafe or science cafe model which is our brain aging cafes and garden cafes to have listening sessions in the community about different health. We’ve also done a lot of survey research because I was trained in both survey research. I’m an epidemiologist, so I like to count and sort. Surveys are built from the literature and also from key informant interviews or meeting with advisory boards about questions that we should be asking different populations. We also do literature reviews, so systematic lit reviews to find out what might be happening with a topic.
We use some biomarker data, so blood biomarkers and things like that. But that’s usually in a partnered lab, someone else’s lab that’s collecting that type of data. So a bulk of our work is also sometimes active disease investigation as well. So we’ve done some things on the covid Frontline, H I V, and aids. So the lab really focuses on clinical and translational science across the lifespan. So we look at a lot of barriers and benefits to participating in different types of research. We provide education on research. We also create communications things or work with other partners on creating communication content like the PSA that we wanted to do that we did with your team
Experience
Want to donate to our lab?
Our lab operates solely on grants and donations from people like you. If you are able to assist us in our quest to end Dementia and Alzheimers, we would be most thankful.