Paulette Spencer
Paulette Spencer (she/her) is a Black American of Jamaican parents. She was born and raised in the South Bronx. Having lived in the Bronx for 39 years, she spent her first 26 years living in NYCHA housing, and then lived in other parts of NYC until returning to the Bronx in 2009. She worked in international public health and social determinants of health for 17 years at an international development agency, while completing graduate degrees in Global Public Health Policy and Management, and International Political Economy and Development from New York University and Fordham University. Her Bachelor’s degree is in English Literature and Music from Queens College. Her work has focused on health policy and qualitative research in perinatal health and maternal mortality domestically and abroad. Her Bronx communities of interest are Fordham, Northeast Bronx and Morrisania, where there are high rates of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, cancer, asthma, obesity and diabetes.
She is currently the Community Engagement Specialist – Policy Analyst at the Bronx Community Health Network, where she — along with community advisory boards — has led programs to improve community health by increasing community-led physical activities in Bronx parks, and fostered community-led candid dialogue between community residents, CBOs and medical researchers, on benefits and trust factors of clinical trial participation for the Precision Medicine-All of Us Research Program. She has co-hosted a radio program on current affairs for a local community radio station. She is affiliated with the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Social Medicine Rounds Committee at Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Friends of Devoe Park and Bronx Parks Speak Up Forum.
She joined the Bronx Community Research Review Board because she wanted to support direct community dialogue and understanding between community residents and researchers throughout the research process, including post-research results, and support other organizations that seek to create their own research review board. She wants to focus on the ethics of informed consent for Bronx communities and the sharing of research results to improve the health of those participating communities.
Paulette can be reached at [email protected].