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Discussion Guide and Transcript

Season Three - Episode Six

Research Ethics Reimagined Podcast Season Three: Episode Six “Building Trustworthy Research Through Community Partnership” Guests: Malcolm Bevel, PhD; Tiffany Coleman; Bianca Marsh; and Corey Rogers

  • In this episode of PRIM&R’s podcast, “Research Ethics Reimagined,” we explore a model for community-engaged research that brings together an Institutional Review Board, researchers, and a trusted community partner. Host Ivy Tillman speaks with Corey Rogers, executive director of the Lucy Craft Laney Museum of Black History in Augusta, Georgia; Dr. Malcolm Bevel, assistant professor at the Georgia Cancer Center at Augusta University, whose research focuses on the food environment and obesity-related cancers; Tiffany Coleman, former director of Augusta University’s IRB office; and Bianca Marsh, who leads the Human Research Protection Program’s community engagement work. Together they discuss how the partnership grew out of efforts to address research mistrust rooted in the legacy of the Tuskegee study, why researchers must build relationships with communities long before recruitment, and how sustained, reciprocal collaboration can advance the trustworthiness of the research enterprise. Listen on Spotify | Listen on Apple| Listen on Amazon
Discussion Questions
  • 1.) Building a Three-Part Model for Community Engagement
  • Marsh explains that the model requires three components — the IRB, researchers, and an established community partner — and recalls that her earliest events drew little turnout until she connected with an institution already trusted in the community. What does it take to identify and build authentic community partnerships, and why is the credibility of the research institution alone not enough to draw people in?
  • Coleman and Marsh describe a deliberate shift toward bringing research to the community so that a person’s first encounter with a researcher is not a consent form. How might engaging communities well before recruitment begins change the relationship between researchers and the people they hope will participate?
2.) Confronting Historical Harm and Advancing Trustworthiness
  • The guests chose to address the U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee directly rather than avoid it, and Marsh found that these honest conversations left participants more open to research. Why might openly naming past abuses build more trust than focusing only on present-day protections?
  • The episode reframes the challenge from asking the public to trust research toward making research systems demonstrably trustworthy, and Bevel tells a skeptical community partner that going through the IRB process is what ensures science is done the right way. How can researchers and institutions show communities that a system is trustworthy, rather than simply asking to be trusted?
3.) Sustaining and Expanding Community-Engaged Research
  • Rogers identifies sustainability as what sets this partnership apart from one-off efforts that “come and go,” and the guests repeatedly note that staffing and funding shape what is possible. What institutional supports are needed to sustain community engagement over years rather than single events?
  • Bevel advocates for community-based participatory research, saying researchers “should not move until the community tells us to move and how to move,” and gives the example of consulting his partners before deciding how to share a surplus harvest. How can researchers share genuine decision-making power with communities while still meeting scientific and regulatory requirements?

Key Terms

Institutional Review Board (IRB): A committee that reviews and oversees research involving human participants to ensure a study is ethical and that participants’ rights, safety, and welfare are protected.
Human Research Protection Program (HRPP): The broader institutional system — including the IRB along with related policies, education, and community engagement efforts — responsible for protecting people who take part in research. Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR): An approach in which researchers and community members share decision-making throughout a study, so the work reflects community priorities rather than being designed and carried out by academics alone. Food Desert and Food Swamp: A food desert is an area with limited access to affordable, nutritious food; a food swamp is an area where unhealthy food options far outnumber healthy ones. Both shape community health and were central to Bevel’s outreach. Belmont Report: The foundational 1979 document outlining the core ethical principles that guide research with human participants — respect for persons, beneficence, and justice — which underpin practices like informed consent.
Additional Resources

Transcript

Please note, a transcript generator was used to help create written show transcript. The transcript of this podcast is approximate, condensed, and not meant for attribution. Listen to the full conversatio on PRIM&R’s Research Ethics Reimagined podcast.
Research Ethics Reimagined guests are esteemed members of our community who generously share their insights. Their views are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of PRIM&R or its staff.