Tyler English, UVA student in Global Public Health & Chemistry
Tyler English is a third-year student majoring in Global Public Health and Chemistry from the tidewater area of Virginia. He is an active student on grounds and in the local community through research and service. Through his research with Kelsie D. Kelly Smith, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor in Public Health Sciences and Associate in the Office of African American Affairs, Tyler has become involved with R3, Residents for Respectful Research. R3 is a Charlottesville-based organization that is an initiative of the Public Housing Residents Association (PHAR) in partnership with
the UVA IRB and other members of UVA. The mission of R3 is to ensure that public housing residents are informed about, involved in, and benefit from research conducted within their communities. There’s a prevailing concern among public housing residents regarding how research data are utilized and how their lives are portrayed. Additionally, the burden of uncoordinated research often falls heavily on residents. This initiative stemmed from historical injustices where low-wealth, Black, and Brown individuals have been exploited in research endeavors, as seen in events like the Tuskegee Experiments and the case of HeLa cells.
The focus of Tyler’s research with Dr. Kelly Smith is to explore public housing residents’ sense of coherence strategies following the events of August 12th, 2017, and their current coping mechanisms and healing processes since those events. They aim to understand the narratives and experiences of individuals in public housing after traumatic events using Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR). They also aim to investigate the role of resilience and collective community identity during times of stress, alongside examining the impact of these stressors on subjective sleep quality, such as difficulties falling asleep, frequent nocturnal awakenings, or daytime fatigue.
The insights gathered from their research will inform recommendations for R3 communities and other stakeholders identified through collaborations with Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Association (CRHA) and PHAR. These recommendations will be instrumental in shaping future programming, strategic planning, and community-university partnerships.