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1. Digital Health–Enabled Community-Centered Care: Scalable Model to Empower Future Community Health Workers Using Human-in-the-Loop Artificial Intelligence

   https://doi.org/10.2196/29535  

   Rodrigues, Sarah M; Kanduri, Anil; Nyamathi, Adeline; Dutt, Nikil; Khargonekar, Pramod; Rahmani, Amir M (January 2022, JMIR Formative Research)

   Digital health–enabled community-centered care (D-CCC) represents a pioneering vision for the future of community-centered care. D-CCC aims to support and amplify the digital footprint of community health workers through a novel artificial intelligence–enabled closed-loop digital health platform designed for, and with, community health workers. By focusing digitalization at the level of the community health worker, D-CCC enables more timely, supported, and individualized community health worker–delivered interventions. D-CCC has the potential to move community-centered care into an expanded, digitally interconnected, and collaborative community-centered health and social care ecosystem of the future, grounded within a robust and digitally empowered community health workforce. 

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2. Dear Scientists: Community Ambassadors’ Perspectives on Community-Engaged Research

   https://doi.org/10.1177/11786302251383263  

   Aboudihaj, Nour-eddine; Ahmed, Asha; Ali, Susu; Amin, Fatima; Chiari, Manon; Igheldane, Mounira; Karappan, Mutthu; Lavila, Piia; Rozycka, Della; Roudette, Wendy; et al (November 2025, Environmental Health Insights)

   There has been growing recognition of the importance of engaging communities in environmental health research. Among the various methods of community-engaged research, one approach is to work with community ambassadors – people who are active and well connected in their communities – to facilitate scientists’ interactions with community members. Drawing on our own experiences as community ambassadors in the WellHome Study, an investigation of indoor air quality in West London, UK, we offer 3 key insights to scientists interested in this model of community-engaged research. We argue, first, that community ambassadors can help scientists build trust and engage research participants. Second, we note the value of fully integrating community ambassadors into a project team and present suggestions for how this may be accomplished. Third, we underscore the importance of remunerating community ambassadors and the need for careful reflection on the amount and form of compensation. While much has been written about the advantages and challenges of community-engaged research, this commentary brings the voice of community members to the fore of these discussions. It highlights how the community ambassador model can bring mutual benefits, furthering research goals while also providing a meaningful experience for community members. 

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3. Spatial vs. temporal controls over soil fungal community similarity at continental and global scales

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-019-0420-1  

   Averill, Colin; Cates, LeAnna L.; Dietze, Michael C.; Bhatnagar, Jennifer M. (April 2019, The ISME Journal)

   Abstract Large-scale environmental sequencing efforts have transformed our understanding of the spatial controls over soil microbial community composition and turnover. Yet, our knowledge of temporal controls is comparatively limited. This is a major uncertainty in microbial ecology, as there is increasing evidence that microbial community composition is important for predicting microbial community function in the future. Here, we use continental- and global-scale soil fungal community surveys, focused within northern temperate latitudes, to estimate the relative contribution of time and space to soil fungal community turnover. We detected large intra-annual temporal differences in soil fungal community similarity, where fungal communities differed most among seasons, equivalent to the community turnover observed over thousands of kilometers in space. inter-annual community turnover was comparatively smaller than intra-annual turnover. Certain environmental covariates, particularly climate covariates, explained some spatial–temporal effects, though it is unlikely the same mechanisms drive spatial vs. temporal turnover. However, these commonly measured environmental covariates could not fully explain relationships between space, time and community composition. These baseline estimates of fungal community turnover in time provide a starting point to estimate the potential duration of legacies in microbial community composition and function. 

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4. Community Monitoring of Natural Resource Systems and the Environment

   https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ-012220-022325  

   Danielsen, Finn; Eicken, Hajo; Funder, Mikkel; Johnson, Noor; Lee, Olivia; Theilade, Ida; Argyriou, Dimitrios; Burgess, Neil D. (October 2022, Annual Review of Environment and Resources)

   Community monitoring can track environmental phenomena, resource use, and natural resource management processes of concern to community members. It can also contribute to planning and decision-making and empower community members in resource management. While community monitoring that addresses the environmental crisis is growing, it also gathers data on other global challenges: climate change, social welfare, and health. Some environmental community monitoring programs are challenged by limited collective action and community participation, insufficient state responsiveness to data and proposals, and lack of sustainability over time. Additionally, community members monitoring the environment are increasingly harassed and sometimes killed. Community monitoring is more effective with improved data collection, improved data management and sharing, andstronger efforts to meet community information needs, enable conflict resolution, and strengthen self-determination. Other promising areas for development are further incorporating governance issues, embracing integrated approaches at the community level, and establishing stronger links to national and global frameworks. 

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5. STEM Scholars’ Sense of Community During the COVID-19 Pandemic

   McGee, Jennifer; Tashakkori, Rahman (September 2021, Journal of college science teaching)

   The purpose of this study was to investigate sense of community (SOC) within a STEM learning community during the COVID-19 pandemic. The STEM learning community that was the setting for this study is funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) S-STEM grant. A mixed methods design was used to investigate levels of SOC and changes in SOC from December 2019 to December 2020. Scholars completed the Sense of Community Index (SCI-2) (Chavis et al., 1986) during this time along with answering questions about their experience in the program. Data showed evidence of a slight increase in SOC, when compared to prepandemic SOC. Three themes emerged from the qualitative data to support this finding: community as access, community as sanctuary, and community as sacred. When data were coded for the presence of these themes across time, a slight decrease in the focus on community as access appeared from December 2019 to December 2020, but there were increases in the focus on sanctuary and sacredness of the community. Triangulation of the data provides evidence for this STEM learning community as an important support system for students during this time of unprecedented uncertainty in higher education. 

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