Note: As of February 2013, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Evaluation Fellowship Program has closed. More information about the program can be found at RWJF.org.

Profile Lela Strong

Lela Strong has been interested in the individual, social and environmental factors that influence human behavior and lifestyle choices throughout her academic career. As a graduate student, Lela became interested in the disparate impact of various diseases and chronic conditions within communities of color and the circumstances that contribute to the observed differences. She decided to pursue acceptance in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Evaluation Fellowship with the hopes of further developing the skills necessary to ensure that programs designed to encourage healthy behaviors among people of color are able bring about the desired impact.

Lela’s research interests include minority health disparities, HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, and the prevention of child abuse and neglect. Before beginning her work as a RWJF Evaluation Fellow, she served as a Graduate Research Assistant at the National SafeCare Training and Research Center (NSTRC). At NSTRC, she assisted in the redesign of an intervention aimed at improving the ability of parents to identify their children’s symptoms and illnesses and select the most appropriate treatment. Her thesis work involved the implementation of this module with parents recovering from substance abuse. During her graduate studies, Lela also worked as an intern at the Georgia Center for Child Advocacy. Lela is excited to expand her knowledge of program evaluation and enhance her ability to perform evaluations that are technically sound, responsive to the cultures in which they are conducted, and ultimately help to ameliorate health inequities.

Lela attended Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia where she received a B.A. in Psychology. She then continued her studies at Georgia State University, earning an MPH with a concentration in Health Promotion and Behavior.