Community Scientist Certificate Program

Community Scientists is a non-degree certificate program developed at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) School of Public Health (SPH) for community members who are interested in developing research careers, advancing their capabilities in evidence-based practice, and/or creating strategic partnerships to improve community health. The program builds expertise in:

  • Identifying community-based research questions
  • Using an appropriate research design to collect and analyze data
  • Generating evidence-informed solutions to guide future practice recommendations.

Participants who complete all sessions will receive a Community Scientist Certificate.

Completing this program will give community scientists tools for conducting evidence-based inquiry in their communities. It will also address how to formulate research/evaluation questions, how to collect and interpret evidence, and how to use evidence to inform decision making. Following the course, Community Scientists will be able to access resources and tools from the course, connect with members of the UIC community for additional support, and connect with their peers as they pursue evaluation or research activities. Community Scientists can work in local community-based organizations (CBOs), to help those CBOs improve the evidence-base for their community-based activities and to assess the value those activities produce for their communities.  They can also support community-level evaluation work for grants that CBOs or other organizations might apply for.

APPLICATIONS FOR THE SPRING COHORT CLOSED ON SUNDAY, APRIL 5TH:

Who are Community Scientists?

The term Community Scientists refers to community members who bring their own life experiences to the research process, in recognition of the critical role that community members play in the research/scientific discovery process. As members of the general public, community scientists play an active role in research and collaborate with researchers with scientific projects to address real-world problems.

Program Background

The Spring 2026 Community Scientist program will pilot for five weeks from May 4 – June 5, 2026, on weekday evenings. The cohort will be comprised of a small group of community educators, community organizers, local health workers, parents, and other public health-ers ready to advance their trajectory toward collective health equity.

This program was initially designed for contact tracers, contact tracing supervisors, and resource navigators during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-2021 and was formerly known as Citizen Scientists. Since then, we have transitioned funders more than once and gone through several rounds of program refinement and curriculum revamping. In 2026, the newly renamed Community Scientist program is currently funded by the Chicago Community Trust.

Program Details

  • Stipend available based on attendance

  • Certificate upon completion

  • UIC campus in-person experience

Grounding Program Features

  • Popular Education Co-learning environment where everyone's expertise is valued

  • Asset-Based Building on the strengths of participants

  • Accommodated Learning To acknowledge diverse types of learners

  • Political Education Examining how the world works, past and present, so that we can change it

  • Capacity Building Strengthening the research, critical thinking, and other skills of participants

  • Liberation Pedagogy Dismantling systems of oppression by empowering learners to question, critique, and change the world around them

Spring 2026 Course Topics

  • Unit 1

    Community Scientists

  • Unit 2

    Community Health Work, Organizing, and Accompaniment

  • Unit 3

    Understanding Research as a Tool to Improve Health

  • Unit 4

    Quantitative Research Methods, Bias, and Root Causes

  • Unit 5

    Qualitative Research Methods and Community-Driven Change

  • Unit 6

    Data Can’t Speak: Interpretation and Meaning Making

  • Unit 7

    Messaging and Politics of Trust and Truth in an Era of Mis- and Dis-Information

  • Unit 8

    Environmental Justice and Media Literacy in the Face of AI

  • Unit 9

    Maternal and Child Health and Reproductive Justice

  • Unit 10

    Self Care and Rest as Resistance

Popular Education Tenets

black text on red background with image of people conversing and adding notes to a board

Popular Education challenges unequal power arrangements through 3-way learning practices where the participants learn from the facilitator/trainer(s), the facilitator/trainer(s) learns from participants, and participants learn from each other.

  1. Start with the experience of the participants
  2. Identify patterns
  3. Add new theory and info liked to the patterns of what people know
  4. Practice skills
  5. Take action

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What are the requirements to apply? What characteristics would make me a good fit?
Community Scientists must be:

  1. 18 years or older
  2. A Chicagoland resident
  3. Able to attend most sessions in person
  4. Not employed by the state of Illinois
  5. Not employed by or enrolled at UIC
  6. Not a government employee (i.e., City of Chicago, health department, federal agency)

Contact Us

Questions? Contact the team below:

Caesar Thompson, Curricular Lead / Primary Facilitator | cthom40@uic.edu

Nancy Valentin, Hyperlocal Initiatives Expert / Primary Facilitator | nvale@uic.edu

Emily Etzkorn, Program Coordinator / Supporting Facilitator | eee2@uic.edu

Dr. Jeni Hebert-Beirne, Program Director / Supporting Facilitator | jheber1@uic.edu