Jennifer Cunningham Erves

Jennifer Cunningham Erves is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at Meharry Medical College's School of Medicine, specializing in cancer biology and health disparities research with a focus on underserved African American and Latino communities.

Education:

• PhD
• MPH
• MAEd
• MS
• CHES

Research Interests: Dr. Erves develops culturally-targeted health communication interventions to address HPV vaccine hesitancy and improve cancer clinical trial participation. Her work integrates community-based participatory research to tackle sickle cell disease management and health disparities through mixed-methods approaches emphasizing equitable community-academic partnerships.

Grants:

• A tailored health communication intervention to increase HPV vaccine uptake among vaccine-hesitant families (NCI-funded)
• Pilot feasibility study of a culturally-targeted educational program for African American men (NCATS-funded)

Community Engagement: As a core member of Meharry's Community Engagement Core, she develops infrastructure for sustainable community-academic research partnerships and frameworks for disseminating research findings to communities through stakeholder engagement.