About COE

The Office of Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) meaningfully engages the community in UNC Lineberger’s research, clinical care, and programmatic and policy efforts to better understand and serve the population’s needs. Infusing community perspectives helps ensure Lineberger’s efforts are timely, relevant, and responsive to cancer patients and caregivers, community providers and public health practitioners, policy makers, and the public at large.

Community and Collaboration

COE helps Lineberger researchers infuse the community’s perspective across the research lifespan in several ways. The office monitors cancer burden data and identifies disparities in North Carolina, informing the direction and priorities of the center’s research. Using its robust relational database, COE connects researchers to each other and to community partners and patient advocates across the state to foster meaningful collaborations.

Expertise and Outreach

The office supports Lineberger’s Community Advisory Board and its Patient Advocates for Research Council, which can advise on program development, review materials, train and educate researchers, review grant applications, and represent the community and patient voice on committees.

Our staff team has a broad range of expertise and can advise on topics such as health literacy, best practices in engaging patients and community organizations, and cultural sensitivity in working with populations disproportionately affected by cancer.

Through the Lineberger Equity Council, researchers have access to expertise and resources to grow and sustain a more diverse and inclusive research, clinical, and working environment.

Other resources supported by the COE office include our community pilot funding program and the UNC Lineberger Cancer Network, which delivers oncology-related educational and outreach programs to healthcare practitioners, trainees, researchers and the public.

Download copy of COE overview without formatting (for research grants)

The Office of Community Outreach and Engagement will help set up ways to analyze and put into place evidence-based and community-participatory research about the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes related to cancer, especially the disparities throughout North Carolina.

Our Goals