July 24, 2006

Neighborhoods Initiative Leader Is Robert Wood Johnson Fellow

Cynthia "Cee" Barnes-Boyd, director of the University of Illinois at Chicago's Neighborhoods Initiative in the Great Cities Institute, is one of 20 nurses in executive leadership roles throughout the United States selected as a 2006 Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow. The three-year fellowship program, now in its ninth year, is designed to strategically position nurse leaders across many sectors of the
economy in a health care system undergoing unprecedented change and challenges.

As part of the fellowship, Barnes-Boyd will undertake a leadership project to benefit UIC. She has proposed to study the factors that contribute to authentic university and community partnerships, particularly partnerships with communities of color.

"I hope to look at models across the country and internationally as well as our own experiences," Barnes-Boyd said. "My goal is to move UIC toward a campus-wide culture of authentic partnerships."

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will provide Barnes-Boyd with a $45,000 grant — to be matched by UIC — to defray the costs of the three-year project.

"Nurses play a pivotal role in leading the redesign and success of health care now and into the future," Barnes-Boyd said. "The Executive Nurse Fellowship is an intensive opportunity to develop critical leadership skills, work with a nationally recognized team of coaches and instructors from within the health care industry, as well as from
other sectors of the economy, and benefit from collaboration with nursing and health care leaders throughout the country. I am honored and excited to be selected as a participant."

In 2005 Barnes-Boyd received the Illinois Outstanding Nurse Leader Award presented by the UIC College of Nursing, where she also serves as assistant dean of community health initiatives. She was selected for her commitment to reducing health care disparities among the most underserved populations in the Chicago area. Her work includes home-visiting for mothers and infants; child asthma management; and
nutritional interventions and primary health care services delivered in public schools, churches, beauty salons and other neighborhood venues. Improving consumer education and health literacy are among her passions.

UIC ranks among the nation's top 50 universities in federal research funding and is Chicago's largest university with 25,000 students, 12,000 faculty and staff, 15 colleges and the state's major public medical center. The UIC College of Nursing ranks in the top 10 among the nation's nursing colleges, and consistently ranks in the top five
of federal research funding for nursing colleges and universities. A hallmark of the UIC campus is the Great Cities Commitment, through which UIC faculty, students and staff engage with community, corporate, foundation and government partners in hundreds of programs to improve the quality of life in metropolitan areas around the world. For more information about UIC, visit www.uic.edu.

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