Eliminating disparities in health and health care is a top priority identified by the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Healthy People 2020 initiative . Increasing the participation of underrepresented populations in research is a mechanism to reduce health disparities . Though there is a long-standing mandate, the National Institute of Health Revitalization Act, for the inclusion of women and minorities in research , few studies have made it a priority to incorporate underrepresented populations throughout the research process . This study illustrates the mutual benefit/shared authority of an academic-community partnership to capture health and research priorities along with research experiences among a diverse group of underrepresented populations.