The Grayken Center for Addiction will offer addiction researchers consultation on how to make their research more relevant for Black people and more inclusive of Black research participants. This service will be available free of charge, starting in fall of 2025 for BMC/BU researchers. The consultations will be provided by a “Lived Experience Advisory Panel” (LEAP), composed of Black people who have lived experience of problematic substance use. LEAP members are drawn from several regions of the United States, have a variety of professional backgrounds, and are preparing to provide consultation by participating in workshops focused on research methodology. Each consultation will be moderated by a member of the Grayken team who is a clinician-researcher. Through the consultation service, LEAP members will address researchers’ questions and will provide insights about how best to make addiction research more inclusive, relevant, and equitable for Black people. Researchers will receive a set of written recommendations following the consultation. We hope to make this service more widely available to addiction researchers from other institutions in the future.

Please contact Daneiris Heredia-Perez (daneiris.heredia-perez@bmc.org) with any questions. 

Set-up a consultation session with LEAP members