Cultural Ambassadors

“Our mission became clear: we would become ambassadors for recruitment and empowerment for an underserved community to change the trajectory of the disenfranchised.” Reverend Dr. Leroy O. Perry

In 2010, the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation (YCCI) met with community leaders to discuss clinical research, health care priorities and the role minority community leaders can play in improving community health and reducing health inequity among marginalized populations. As a result of this meeting, a partnership between the community and the Yale School of Medicine was formed when the Yale Cultural Ambassadors program was launched. The purpose of the Cultural Ambassadors program is to increase the participation of minority populations in clinical trials.

As partners, our role is to help ensure YCCI’s clinical research reflects the diversity of New Haven’s population, and directly offers benefits to the local community. We do so by assisting in the development of clinical trials and aiding in recruitment and translational services for informed consent for trials that can be beneficial to our communities.

We have shown that we can make a significant difference in clinical research, and we hope to continue contributing to the Yale Cultural Ambassadors program’s goal of catalyzing sustainable diversity, equity, and inclusion in clinical research through bilateral collaboration and shared decision making between community leaders and healthcare providers/researchers.