Leilani Dodgen works as a Research Scientist at the Baylor Scott and White Health and Wellness Center in Dallas, TX. There she is working to increase diversity and health equity in research studies and programs, as well as, build capacity in the organizational workforce and among community partnerships to meet community needs and priorities. Her experiences have included partnering on several NIH-funded studies to ensure interventions are tailored to specific communities utilizing a Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) approach. Her efforts are participatory in nature and often utilize qualitative methods to capture community voice and experience to drive programmatic and research directions. Currently she serves as PI on two on-going studies related to the impact of interventions on cardiovascular health outcomes and quality of life in community and clinical settings. She received a PhD in Public Health Sciences from the University of North Texas Health Science Center and Masters in Public Health from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.