Dr. Raymona H. Lawrence's main research focus is community engagement in rural, hard to reach populations-especially those with Sickle Cell Disease. Her approach to research is primarily qualitative.  Dr. Lawrence has been an investigator on numerous rural health and sickle cell disease-related grants.  Dr. Lawrence is currently a dual principal investigator with Dr. Ify Osunkwo on a $9.7 million Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) grant entitled, Comparative effectiveness of peer mentoring versus structured education based transition programming for the management of care transitions in emerging adults with sickle cell disease. Dr. Lawrence also serves as the Director of Research for the Sickle Cell Community Consortium and the Editor in Chief of the Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association.

Dr. Lawrence began her work, professionally, with sickle cell disease (SCD) in 2000 when she worked as a Research Professional in the Titus H.J. Huisman Hemoglobinopathy Laboratory at the Medical College of Georgia (now Augusta University). She began to focus her research on SCD during her doctoral studies and as a result was awarded the American Public Health Association Genomics Forum’s New Investigator award for her dissertation research abstract, “National Collegiate Athletic Association mandated sickle cell trait screening policy:  Implications for the athlete.”  She has also received training in functional and applied genetics and genomics as a member of the 2012 Cohort of the Programs to Increase Diversity in Individuals Engaged in Health Related Research (PRIDE)-a two-year program for junior faculty sponsored by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute.  As a public health practitioner,

Dr. Lawrence’s work utilizes the principles of community based participatory research and community engagement to facilitate change within rural communities. She has worked as the project coordinator for the W. K. Kellogg Foundation’s New Tools, New Visions 2 initiative that was being evaluated by the Jiann Ping Hsu College of Public Health and the Chatham County Safety Net Planning Council’s project to evaluate patient and physician readiness to implement electronic medical records. Dr. Lawrence has served as Co-Principal Investigator for the Georgia Department of Community Health’s Community Health Assessment grant which assisted 18 rural hospitals across the state of Georgia in assessing the health related needs of their communities.  Dr. Lawrence’s passion is to empower individuals to express their voice in health related environments and to use her academic and personal experience as a platform to make the world a healthier place for those who are less fortunate. 

Disciplines: Community Health Behavior and Education

Teaching Interests: CBPR/community based research methods, Theoretical perspectives of the social and behavioral sciences, health promotion program planning