Pitt Nursing Research Team Honored with Racial Justice Award

The YWCA Greater Pittsburgh bestowed one of its 23rd Annual Racial Justice Award in the Healthcare category on the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing’s ACTS Research Team.

THE ACTS (the Attitude, Communication, Treatment and Support) Team has been conducting community-based research for over a decade on interventions to mitigate the disparity in the breast cancer experience for African American women from screening through end-of-life care. The team includes faculty member Margaret Rosenzweig and staff members Jacqueline Simon, Howard Stein, Debra Otey, Tamami Hamada, and Mary Connolly. 

This project has led to significant funding from the American Cancer Society (2009-2015) for the development of regional clinical trials of an intensive psycho-educational intervention (which addresses attitudes, communication, treatment, and support) that will help African American women adhere to treatment and therefore, to increase survival rates among this population.

The YWCA Greater Pittsburgh is dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women, and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all.  The YWCA is a source of support and education for women and girls of all ages throughout greater Pittsburgh with programs that generate the institutional change necessary to better the lives of women and girls.

Its programs include  subsidized child care for women who are the sole financial supporters of their families; housing for women in transition; breast and cervical health education for economically disadvantaged women; and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education for teen-aged girls from socio-economically distressed homes. In 2013, the YWCA Greater Pittsburgh provided service to 54,493 women, children, and families.

The School of Nursing is so pleased that the ACTS Research team was recognized for their efforts to bring about breast cancer equity and affirmative action by the YWCA.