Prof. Sprague Martinez Receives NIH HEAL Award for Community Partnership
Associate Professor Linda Sprague Martinez of Boston University School of Social Work (BUSSW) recently received the HEAL Director’s Award for Community Partnership at the annual NIH HEAL Initiative Investigator Meeting in Bethesda, Maryland. The award recognizes HEAL-funded researchers who have demonstrated a commitment to community partnerships through community-based participatory research methods, integrating feedback from people with lived experience, and engagement through community advisory boards.
The Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative, or NIH HEAL Initiative, is an aggressive, trans-NIH effort to speed scientific solutions to stem the national opioid public health crisis. Launched in April 2018, the initiative is focused on improving prevention and treatment strategies for opioid misuse and addiction, and enhancing pain management.
Professor Sprague Martinez is an associate professor and former chair of the Macro Social Work Practice Department at BUSSW. She specializes in community-based participatory research, youth-led research and action, and community-driven approaches to health promotion.