About Us

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 differences throughout 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 UNC 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.

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.

Goals and Guiding Principles

Our Goals

Monitoring the cancer burden and identifying differences throughout North Carolina

Amplify cancer outreach and supportive care efforts with different stakeholders

Synergize institutional and community efforts and engage different stakeholders in addressing the cancer burden and improve cancer outcomes in North Carolina

Facilitate impactful cancer research in North Carolina and beyond

Guiding Principles

Compassion: every person deserves to be seen, heard, understood, valued, and appreciated.

Respect: for community, science & scientific process, internally for each other, how we do our work, acknowledging other’s assets/value/opinions

Collaboration: nurturing relationships, bridging internal & external partners

Communication: bidirectional, transparent, clear

Accountability: to NC citizens, UNC Lineberger Cancer Center faculty researcher-members, partners, Community Advisory Board, our office; & responsive to needs

Empowerment: amplifying the voice of the patients and communities we serve