Community participation in health research serves as a catalyst for the development of best practices, systemic changes in healthcare delivery, and improved health outcomes [2, 28, 32]. Despite major advances in medicine and public health due to research , diverse representation in research participation remains a challenge. Researchers struggle to access, engage, recruit, and retain underrepresented populations such as racial and ethnic minorities, those from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and/or individuals with disabilities [3, 6, 15, 29]. From the research perspective, this limits understanding of the effectiveness of a given treatment across populations, discovery of new drugs and devices, improved healthcare delivery, and knowledge of behavioral and physical science [1, 3]. From the patient perspective, there is limited understanding of underrepresented population needs, and could be a major component of the observed health and healthcare disparities. Studies have suggested that their absence in research exacerbates their vulnerability to poor health outcomes and reduced access to healthcare services [1, 3]. Hence, increasing diversity in research via engaging underrepresented populations is important for reducing the unequal burden of disparities in health and healthcare .