Welcome to the West Virginia Prevention Research Center!  We, the faculty, staff and Community Partnership Board of the WV PRC, are honoured to serve the State of West Virginia by conducting innovative health promotion and disease prevention research to enhance the health and well being of its citizens, and of the nation.

We are one of 33 Prevention Research Center competitively funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since 1998, the WV PRC has achieved national recognition for innovative community-based research and exceptional university-state-community partnerships, a consistent track record of national leadership within the CDC’s Prevention Research Center Program, and generated over $35 million in external funding.  Our Community Advisory board is among the most active in the nation. It is no surprise that a member of our Community Advisory Board believes that, “[the WV PRC Community Partnership Board] raises the national conscience about what community participatory research should be in a perfect world.”

Our research agenda focuses on the three most critical chronic disease risk factors - tobacco use, sedentary lifestyle, and poor nutrition.  To ensure that our research makes a difference, we work closely with our state and community partners throughout the research process. Our partners inform our research so that we address the health priorities and disparities most critical to our state, frame our research questions for scientific and practical relevance. Importantly, our partners help us conduct our research and communicate our findings in a manner that can best inform public health policy and practice. WV’s Chronic Disease Director, Tom Sims, commented that “The PRC has been invaluable to the Bureau for Public Health in accomplishing our mission…I can't image health promotion in WV without the PRC.”

I hope you enjoy your visit to our website. If you have any questions about our work, or if we can be of assistance, please do contact me. 

Very Truly Yours,

Geri Dino, PhD.