Cori C. Grant, Ph.D., M.B.A., M.S.

Cori C. Grant, Ph.D., M.B.A., M.S., is the director of the Community Engaged Research Core at the University of Houston Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine. She is a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Health Systems and Population Health Sciences and a faculty member of the Humana Integrated Health Systems Sciences Institute. She mentors students in dissemination and implementation science, with a focus on translating evidence-based practices into clinical and community settings.

Grant’s career spans more than 20 years across academia, healthcare, public health and quality improvement, with a focus on chronic disease prevention, community-engaged research and the role of community-based strategies in improving population health. She is the principal investigator for the Third Ward Place of Wellness, a community-based initiative developed in partnership with local organizations and residents to strengthen connections to preventive healthcare, chronic disease management and community resources. Her research also examines community-based disaster resilience and strategies for translating evidence-based interventions into real-world settings.

As director of the Community Engaged Research Core, Grant works in partnership with Community Health to strengthen the college’s capacity for community-engaged research. Her work includes supporting faculty and research teams, fostering collaborative partnerships and promoting approaches that incorporate community perspectives throughout the research process. She is committed to addressing organizational barriers and building authentic, mutually beneficial relationships that connect academic research with community priorities and support meaningful, sustainable improvements in health.

Before joining the University of Houston, Grant served as an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, where she directed dissemination and implementation research for statewide federally funded grants, including those supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

She also worked as a consultant with Cigna/Evernorth, guiding community health initiatives, and as a research associate with the American Medical Group Association, conducting national studies in implementation science. Earlier in her career, Grant held health care quality improvement leadership positions, including vice president of operations at Qsource and director of marketing and health services research at Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare. Her publications appear in journals such as Population Health Management, The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety and Annals of Emergency Medicine.

Grant earned a bachelor’s degree in public health from Texas A&M University, a master’s degree in epidemiology and health care administration from the University of Texas School of Public Health, an M.B.A. from the University of Tennessee, and a Ph.D. in epidemiology from the University of Memphis.