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Jenkins receives distinguished leadership award Carolyn Jenkins, Dr.PH, R.N., associate professor in the College of Nursing, received the Distinguished Leadership Award at South Carolina’s first National Minority Health Month Reception on April 26. The reception honored those who have worked to decrease and eliminate health disparities for the state’s minority populations.    Jenkins spent the previous 20 years of her career working with communities statewide, especially for the underserved black population, to improve health outcomes related to diabetes. Jenkins’s work focuses on reducing racial disparities and creating effective academic-community partnerships.     Two major initiatives include the South Carolina Diabetes Initiative, for which she serves as chairperson for the Outreach Council, and Charleston’s Enterprise/MUSC Neighborhood Health Program, which she founded  in 1995. Both initiatives utilize three-pronged (care delivery, research, and education), community-driven models of care, and both involve a range of people, from stakeholders at the highest levels of state and local governments to participants from the grassroots community.     Jenkins served as director of a nurse-managed interdisciplinary health center and currently acts as principal investigator of a Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) 2010 grant, one of 32 projects under the national CDC health disparity initiative.     “I accept this award on behalf of the community residents who have reached out, wanting to improve their health,” Jenkins said, “and on behalf of all the faculty and staff who have supported MUSC’s efforts to improve health in the African-American communities.  “Community residents want to lead healthy lives and learn to control their diabetes. As health professionals, we partner with people, helping them integrate skills and healthier lifestyles into their daily lives. This award is a highlight in my career.”    In addition to the leadership award, the reception recognized programs throughout the state for their outstanding community efforts to decrease health care disparities.    Several MUSC programs received honors in various areas: Cardiovascular Health: Enterprise Neighborhood Health Program, Lighten Up, and the MUSC/USC/AMEC Physical Activity Initiative Cancer Prevention: The College of Nursing/Hollings Cancer Center collaborative, “Mama and Me” Diabetes: REACH 2010, Diabetes e-Information Community Outreach Partnership Planning Project, Project Sugar, MUSC Department of Endocrinology/Diabetes, Partners in Wellness, and the Charleston County Diabetes Coalition Sickle Cell Disease: MUSC Sickle Cell Disease in South Carolina: Screening, Education, Tracking, and Stroke Prevention Health Promotion/Awareness: Health-E-AME and Our Health Research and Evaluation: Project EXCEED Reducing Disparities: Project EXPORT.     Friday, May 7, 2004 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.