Charles Senteio Recognized with the Provost Award for Excellence in Community and Publicly Engaged Scholarship
Rutgers University-New Brunswick's Office of the Provost has named Associate Professor of Library and Information Science Charles Senteio the 2026 recipient of the Provost Award for Excellence in Community and Publicly Engaged Scholarship.
The annual Chancellor and Provost Awards for Faculty Excellence "recognize Rutgers–New Brunswick faculty members who have made outstanding contributions through innovative teaching, cross-disciplinary research, inquiry, or artistic expression, public engagement, and service," the Office of the Provost wrote.
The Provost Award for Excellence in Community and Publicly Engaged Scholarship, according to the Office of the Provost, "honors a faculty member (assistant or associate, tenure track or non-tenure track) whose scholarship integrates community engagement as a vital component of their work. Their work should center on community collaboration, benefit the external community, have significant public and scholarly impact, be disseminated through both traditional and non-traditional outlets, and reflect the mission of Rutgers–New Brunswick."
The Office of the Provost will present the award to Senteio during the Chancellor and Provost Celebration of Faculty Excellence event on March 31, 2026.
Senteio was nominated for the award by the Chair of the SC&I Library and Information Science Department and Associate Professor Rebecca Reynolds and Associate Professor of Communication Shawnika Hull.
"On behalf of all in the LIS Department, we are so delighted to celebrate this prestigious award bestowed to our dear colleague, Professor Charles Senteio, who leads campus- and community-wide health research, practice and policy that identifies and addresses barriers to care with a focus on vulnerable patient populations," Reynolds said. "Professor Senteio's work truly epitomizes community and publicly engaged scholarship and we are so proud to celebrate Charles' well-deserved major recognition. We also dearly thank Professor Shawnika Hull (also a past recipient of this prestigious award), for leading this nomination!"
Hull said, "I am thrilled to learn that Dr. Senteio is being recognized with this prestigious award. Dr. Senteio’s record reflects sustained community engagement; significant scholarly and public impact; and a deep commitment to the public mission of higher education, aligning strongly with Rutgers University’s goals for excellence in engaged scholarship. He is so very deserving of this honor and recognition."
The Office of the Provost will present the award to Senteio during the Chancellor and Provost Celebration of Faculty Excellence event on March 31, 2026.
Through his research, Senteio investigates the collection and use of information to identify causes of persistent racial health inequities and develop approaches to address them. He uses community-engaged approaches at each stage of the research process, from developing research questions to selecting methods to data collection, analysis, and dissemination.
He also teaches graduate students about the challenges and opportunities to engaged scholarship.
Senteio has been the principal investigator (PI) or co-PI on investigations funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), and other funding organizations.
In 2023, he received the Rutgers Public Good Pinnacle Award, a prestigious honor presented by the Committee to Advance Our Common Purposes (CACP) "to recognize university faculty, staff, and organizations for exceptional, sustained community engagement. It highlights collaborative projects that advance diversity, inclusion, and public service, often fostering partnerships that benefit local New Jersey communities."
He also received an honorable mention for the Betty J. Cleckley Minority Issues Research Award from the American Public Health Association (APHA) Aging and Public Health Section for his work promoting Black American elders' use of health technology.
In 2020 the SC&I Library and Information Science Department awarded Senteio its Distinguished Achievement in Research award for 2017-2018 and 2019-2020.
Senteio's first book, "Progress Meets Backlash: Perceptions, Cycles of Backlash, and the Struggle for Racial Health Equity," will be published by Cambridge University Press in late 2026.
Through his research, Senteio investigates the collection and use of information to identify causes of persistent racial health inequities and develop approaches to address them. He uses community-engaged approaches at each stage of the research process, from developing research questions to selecting methods to data collection, analysis, and dissemination.
With Professor of Communication Itzhak Yanovitzky and former SC&I Assistant Professor Gretchen Stahlman (who is currently an assistant professor at Florida State University), Senteio is a co-PI on a RWJF-funded project, “Articulating Clear Principles, Practices, and Tools for Centering Health Equity in Public Health Data Dashboards’ Design and Implementation."
Senteio is also a PI on several other new projects. “Addressing Barriers to Mental Health Care for Young Adults in Africa," is based in Kenya and Ghana and is being funded by the Rutgers Global Health Institute Seed Grant program.
"Invisible Voters, Visible Democracy: Transnational Indigenous Political Belonging, Health Equity, and Emerging Adult Civic Imagination in New Jersey," was recently funded by the Center for Politics and Race in America (CPRA) at Rutgers University-Newark.
"This project investigates how undocumented and mixed-status Indigenous Mexican families in New Jersey shape democracy even when they cannot cast ballots," Senteio said. "Working in partnership with Lazos América Unida, we will combine community storytelling, participatory research with emerging adults (ages 18–24), and civic mapping to document political belonging, transnational practices, and health equity challenges. By framing invisibility as both a civic and health phenomenon, the project addresses how exclusion from voting rolls and from healthcare systems reinforces the racial hierarchy. The public-facing outputs—including a bilingual story map, policy briefs, and a podcast series co-produced with NB Today—are designed to broaden civic understanding and directly inform community organizations, policymakers, and the public."
Learn more about the Library and Information Science Department at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information.
Images provided by Charles Senteio.
