What we do
The Engagement, Integration and Implementation (EII) Core engages with you throughout the translational science process to expand your boundary-crossing partnerships and enhance the efficiency and speed with which your research has impact.
The EII Core houses ICTS’ Community Advisory Board, two consultative service cores (partner engagement and qualitative research), and direct partnership with the Implementation Science Center.
Community Advisory Board (CAB)
The Core organizes the ICTS State-wide Community Advisory Board (CAB) which is composed of 17 community members across Iowa who represent patient advocacy groups, hospitals, nonprofits, and state and local agencies. The CAB is available for consultation on all aspects of research from design to dissemination and focuses on the integration of community perspectives in the research process.
What we do
The Engagement, Integration, and Implementation (EII) Core staff collaborate with investigators to support engagement and integration of partner perspectives. We provide expert consultation and training on qualitative approaches and analysis; patient-centered and community-engaged methods; dissemination and implementation research. Through our Qualitative Research Services Core, we provide a full range of qualitative and mixed methods research and evaluation services including methodological design, grant and article writing, data collection, and project coordination. EII Core staff regularly convene the ICTS State-wide Community Advisory Board (CAB), a group of community members across Iowa representing patient advocacy groups, hospitals, nonprofits, and state and local agencies, which consults on all aspects of research with a focus on integrating community perspectives. We assist research teams in developing their own patient or community advisory boards. EII Core directly partners with the Implementation Science Center assist investigators in the design of dissemination and implementation research plans, including specific aim development, method selection, sampling design, data collection, and analysis plans.
ICTS Translational Science Process Model – From Engagement to Implementation
ICTS Translational Science Process Model starts with partner engagement, while emphasizing that engagement does not end until a scientific innovation is successfully implemented in the clinic, bedside, or community. The initial stage of our process engages a comprehensive group of partners who will be required to move a project across the variety of research stages to ensure that measures that will be required for implementation into routine practice are considered early in each project. Science is iterative and requires multiple experiments and studies. What is important to our translational science process model is that partners remain involved throughout the entire process of moving from scientific innovation into implementation. Implementation science typically focuses on clinical and community projects once the scientific innovation is established as evidence-based.
No matter where your research sits in the translational science spectrum, we in the EII Core are happy to have a conversation with you about how ICTS’ translational science process model can help you engage new partners and expand your program of research. Please find an editable version of the model for your own use here.
EII Staff
Morolake J. Adeagbo, PhD
Morolake J. Adeagbo, PhD in Sociology, is an Assistant Research Scientist with the ICTS Engagement, Integration and Implementation Core. Her expertise centers on applying innovative principles and research methodologies, particularly qualitative methods, to address complex scientific challenges. Her work spans maternal and women’s health, global and mental health, health determinants, evaluation and implementation science. Dr. Adeagbo is committed to fostering interdisciplinary collaboration that bridges clinical practice and community engagement, ensuring research drives meaningful change in real-world settings.
Emily E. Chasco, PhD
Emily E. Chasco, PhD is an Assistant Research Scientist with the Engagement, Integration, and Implementation Core at the Institute for Clinical and Translational Science. As a medical anthropologist and health and behavioral sciences researcher, Dr. Chasco has extensive experience in interdisciplinary health research and expertise in qualitative and ethnographic methods. She collaborates on interdisciplinary research, quality improvement, evaluation, and implementation work, including studies on HIV and other infectious diseases, infection prevention, maternal and women’s health, mental health, cancer, community engagement, and rural health.
Scott Houghton, MPP, MA
Scott Houghton, MPP, MA, is the Program Manager for the Engagement, Integration, and Implementation Core. He has over 10 years of experience conducting qualitative and mixed methods research with a specific focus on program evaluation. In his role with ICTS, he has provided qualitative analysis and project management for projects that span health topics, including differences in cardiac arrest survival outcomes, perinatal mental health and home visiting programs, rural health, cancer care, and precision medicine.
DeShauna Jones, PhD
DeShauna Jones, PhD, is an Associate Research Scientist and the Assistant Director of the Engagement, Integration, and Implementation (EII) Core at the Institute for Clinical and Translational Science (ICTS). She contributes to qualitative research and evaluation across studies focused on maternal and infant health, breast cancer, antimicrobial stewardship, and other areas of clinical and translational science, working with clinicians, researchers, and community stakeholders to integrate qualitative methods, implementation science, and community engagement. Dr. Jones supports and coordinates the ICTS Community Advisory Board, working collaboratively with its members to strengthen community‑informed research.
Heather Schacht Reisinger, PhD
Heather Schacht Reisinger, PhD, is a Professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa. She serves as Director of the Implementation Science Center and Associate Director for Engagement, Integration, and Implementation at the Institute for Clinical and Translational Science. Additionally, she is a Core Investigator at the Center for Access and Delivery Research and Evaluation at the Iowa City VA Health Care System. Dr. Reisinger is a medical anthropologist who also completed post-doctoral training in epidemiology. Her areas of expertise include implementation science, telemedicine, rural health, and Veteran health, employing the methodologies of ethnography, qualitative research, and mixed methods.
Loulwa Soweid (she/her), MPH
Loulwa Soweid (she/her), MPH is a Research Specialist at ICTS. Before her position with ICTS, she worked at the University of Iowa College of Public Health as a Project Coordinator and Research Assistant on several studies about alcohol use disorder. Her professional interests lie in all things qualitative research, whether that be delving into different qualitative methods and methodologies, teaching qualitative research fundamentals to undergraduates, or collecting and analyzing qualitative