Doctoral alumna Laurenia Mangum's latest publication, co-authored with Drs. Valire Copeland and Shaun Eack and co-authors alumni Shataya Taylor (BASW and MSW) and Ifeoluwa Orebiyi (MSW).
Mangum, L., Copeland, V. C., Orebiyi, I., Taylor, S., Jones, T., Nathan, J., Nathan, B. R., & Eack, S. M. (2025). Parental Perceptions of Access to and Utilization of Services for Autistic Children in African American Families: An Exploratory Study. Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities.
The publication stems from the work of their Health Disparities Scholars Summer Research Program during the summer of 2022. Shataya Taylor and Taja Jones were their Health Disparities Scholars. The Health Disparities Scholars Summer Research Program is a collaboration between the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work, the University of Pittsburgh Center for Excellence in Autism Research (CeFAR), School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, and School of Health, and Rehabilitation Sciences. The CeFAR Health Disparities Scholars Summer Research Program is, in part, an effort to establish long-term educational partnerships between the School of Social Work at the University of Pittsburgh, Tennessee State University, and other HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) with communication Sciences and Disorders concentrations. The purpose of these collaborations is to build a trajectory of racial and ethnic researchers, scholars, and practitioners to assuage racial and ethnic disparities in health care delivery. This summer, our Health Disparities Scholars will benefit significantly from our applied summer research program, which provides first-hand observation, contact, and interviews with African American parents who have children diagnosed with autism and their perceptions of access to care for their children. The goal of this program is to acquaint undergraduate students with the field of autism, diagnosis, treatment, and service delivery to Black Families. Our summer scholars will learn about research methods to conduct scientific research with our target population, as well as the role of interprofessional education and training when conducting interdisciplinary health services research. While health disparities projects will be the primary focus for the interns, we are hoping to give them a broad array of academic experiences in autism research and services to increase their knowledge about racial and ethnic disparities in health service delivery systems as they contemplate the future in the field of health sciences.