Our Partners

The Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine is Washington’s community-based medical school. Named after WSU’s late president, Dr. Elson S. Floyd, the college was created to expand medical education and health care access and fill critical health care gaps in communities across the state. It attracts talented students from or with significant ties to Washington – both rural and urban – to train within their communities, increasing the likelihood they will remain there to practice medicine.

CHaSE Lab is situated within Washington State University’s Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology, part of the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine. Located on WSU’s Spokane campus, the lab uses advanced geospatial and statistical methodologies to investigate how neighborhood and population characteristics impact disease occurrence, health care access and health outcomes. The lab also employs interactive data visualization to assist users in understanding and exploring the outcomes of population health research based on geospatial and clinical data.

The group of scholars affiliated with IREACH are committed to improving community health in underserved populations and geographic regions. Their cutting-edge research with rural and tribal populations, including American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders, is aimed at improving the lives of all patients, their families, and their communities.

NW HERON, a practice-based research and educational network,  was built to enhance the health and health care of residents of Washington and the region, specifically those living in rural, tribal, and urban medically underserved areas. The organization is a transdisciplinary partnership of Washington State University’s Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, the Institute for Research and Education to Advance Community Health, the Health Equity Research Center and primary care clinics in Washington state and the surrounding region.

The Health Equity Research Center is an interdisciplinary network of WSU faculty, staff, and students from multiple colleges and campuses interested in understanding the factors that promote health resilience and decrease health risks associated with poverty, discrimination, and poor access to health care. HERC researchers from the College of Arts and Sciences; the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine; and the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences are dramatically increasing WSU’s capacity to examine how the biological and social determinants of health disparities interact, and how they can be addressed at the individual and community level.