Anne M. Cafer is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Mississippi. She also serves as coordinator for the Community Based Research Collaborative housed within the UM Center for Population Studies, of which she is an affiliated researcher. She holds a bachelor’s of science in both molecular biology and sociology, a master’s in anthropology and a Ph.D. in rural sociology.
Her research uses a systems approach to examine community resilience and social change around food procurement, agricultural systems, environmental sustainability and health/nutrition at the community level. She works primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Mississippi Delta. She also has an interest in the scholarship of teaching, specifically the impacts of community-engaged learning on both community and student outcomes. Her advanced courses are community-based, participatory research courses where students are actively involved with community stakeholders to explore collaborative solutions to non-resilient systems.
Cafer is a former Borlaug Scholar in Global Food Security, a member of the prestigious Rollins Society at the University of Missouri and has worked as a consultant with groups such as Land O’Lakes International Development and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. She also edits Community Development Practice, a publication of the Community Development Society that presents innovative approaches, tools and techniques that can be readily applied by community development practitioners and applied researchers.
Seena L. Haines, Pharm.D., is professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacy Practice at the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy. Prior to her position at UM, she served as professor and senior associate dean for faculty at Palm Beach Atlantic University’s Gregory School of Pharmacy. She served for seven years as director of pharmacy services at four community health centers and was co-director of the Diabetes Education and Research Center with the Florida Atlantic University School of Nursing. Haines served as residency director for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists-accredited pharmacy practice residency emphasizing ambulatory care and academia at the Gregory School of Pharmacy for seven years.
Meagen Rosenthal, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of pharmacy administration in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Mississippi. Rosenthal’s research focuses on developing systems to integrate health research evidence into practice (either in clinical settings or the daily lives of people) faster and more effectively. She approaches this broad topic area through two specific areas. The first specific area involves partnering with people who have chronic conditions such as diabetes and obesity to understand their specific needs and help to generate research questions that are meaningful to them. The goal of this approach is that by generating knowledge from research questions that are important to people living with these conditions, these people will be more likely to adopt and integrate that knowledge into their daily lives. The second specific area involves working with community pharmacists to transform their practices to provide patients, especially those in rural communities where resources are limited, with much-needed services focused on chronic disease management. Community pharmacists are integral health care team members who are more accessible to patients than most other health care providers; however, they remain an underutilized resource.