CHET Spotlight: Jimmy Robinson

Jimmy Robinson is a graduate research assistant in the Center for Health Equity Transformation and a first year PhD student in Sociology at the University of Kentucky. Jimmy graduated from Centre College with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and a minor in Environmental Studies. During his senior year, Jimmy conducted a research project on farming in central and eastern Kentucky in which he interviewed farmers about their farming practices, identities, and histories. After graduating from Centre College, he decided to expand his research to include both community development and the sociology of education within rural contexts. Prior to joining CHET and beginning his doctoral program, Jimmy was a Research and Evaluation Program Manager at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. As an aspiring rural sociologist, Jimmy has noticed the numerous links between rural sociology and health equity research. This led him to pursue a research assistantship with CHET to explore the relationship between these two fields of study.  

Jimmy became a graduate research assistant with UK’s Center for Health Equity Transformation because it gave him the opportunity to coordinate the Research Scholars Program, a faculty success initiative that CHET helped to create and run. Through his work with CHET, Jimmy hopes to gain experience in transdisciplinary research and work alongside colleagues that are conducting research in fields of study that he has yet to explore. He also believes that because everyone in CHET offers their own perspective while working toward a similar aim, he can contribute his own unique research background and interests in order to help maintain CHET’s transdisciplinary environment.   

Jimmy states, “CHET’s emphasis on community based participatory research, which is one of the most important aspects of health equity research that many people miss, allows them to put the needs of the community first,” which helps CHET to advance the vision of health equity at UK and beyond.  

Interview and Transcription by Haley Shepherd