Distinguished professor makes big research, service impact through INSPIRED Lab
by Matthew Smith
Growing up in a town situated more than an hour-and-a-half away from the nearest “big city,” Trenette Clark Goings directly experienced the impact health care access had on family members and friends.
“I grew up in rural eastern North Carolina in a county without a hospital,” said the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work Sandra Reeves Spears and John B. Turner Distinguished Professor. “Even now my dad drives more than an hour to see a primary care physician.
“Seeing the economic and health disparities faced by people in my hometown, I knew part of my purpose was to help improve health outcomes.”
As a faculty member at the School of Social Work, she uses her research to increase access to health care, especially for those in impoverished and rural areas.
“My ultimate goal is to prevent health disparities,” she said.
Goings is doing that through her research lab at the School. This fall, her efforts are being recognized at the University level with one of Carolina’s top public service awards.
Journey to social work
Along with her family’s experiences with the state’s rural health care system, Goings saw social workers in action through the state’s child welfare program.
“Early in my life I got a glimpse of how the child welfare system worked,” Goings said. “That’s when I first became familiar with social work. I saw social workers as facilitators and coordinators helping to fill the gap and support children. I knew I wanted to join a profession that helps children and families live healthy lives.”
Her love for working with children grew during her undergraduate years at Elizabeth City State University when she volunteered with the city’s Boys and Girls Club and Girl’s Inc., served as a law clerk, and participated in guardian ad litem training.
She always wanted to go to graduate school and knew just the place to enroll. Goings became a Tar Heel — for the first time — enrolling in the School of Social Work’s master of social work program.
“Carolina has always been a school I’ve loved and adored,” Goings said. “It was a no-brainer for me.”
Although her interests involved helping children and their families, Goings’ practicum placement at Carolina stretched her idea of what a social worker could be.
“When I talked to my practicum instructor, I mentioned that I had two preferences,” Goings said. “I’m very flexible, but I would rather not be placed in a medical setting or with an elderly population.”
Goings laughed, “I got both.”
She was placed with the Joseph and Kathleen Bryan Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at Duke University Medical Center.
“It ended up being an amazing experience,” Goings said. “I had a great experience at UNC as it relates to my practicum, my course work, and the leadership opportunities I was able to gain. It really set me up to become a well-rounded social worker.”
She turned that practicum placement into a job with the clinic, graduating with her MSW while getting enough clinical experience to help her become a licensed clinical social worker.
Expanding her research
After Carolina, Goings set her sights on Virginia Commonwealth University and her doctoral degree.
“VCU is where I learned to think critically,” she said. “It’s where I learned to be a scholar and where I found community.”
She flourished at VCU, learning how to analyze data and use it meaningfully to help others.
“I was doing community-engaged research in rural and urban areas in Virginia,” Goings said. “It shaped me into the type of researcher I wanted to become.”
She earned her Ph.D. in social work in 2008 and said she was “really open to anything” after graduation.
“I considered staying in higher education, going into the private arena, and working for the federal government,” she said.
Faye Belgrave, Goings’ mentor in VCU’s Department of Psychology and now Chief Diversity Officer at VCU, told her that she would make an excellent professor. Belgrave said Goings was thoughtful and organized and reminded Goings that she enjoyed research.
“The more I talked to her, the more I realized academia was where I wanted to be,” Goings said.
Goings joined the University of Maryland at Baltimore School of Social Work as a research assistant professor.
“I enjoyed it, but I realized that I also enjoyed teaching,” Goings said. “Maryland was an amazing experience, but I was missing the classroom. I wanted to be at a place where I could do all three — research, teach and serve.
“And that,” she added, “was why I came back to UNC.”
Feeling INSPIRED
Goings returned to Carolina as a faculty member in 2010, first as an assistant professor before being promoted to associate professor five years later and full professor in 2020.
During that time, she earned numerous honors, including the 2015 Society for Social Work and Research Deborah K. Padgett Early Career Achievement Award and Carolina’s Wallace Kuralt Early Career Professorship.
What she has been most proud of has been the work of the Innovative and Strategic Prevention in Racial and Ethnic Disparities (INSPIRED) Lab. Goings leads the lab’s nearly 20 team members.
The lab conducts “rigorous research” to prevent racial and ethnic health disparities using an interdisciplinary research team. It is currently conducting two major research studies, including Substance Use Prevention and Education and Research (SUPER) funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the National Institutes of Health-funded Biracial Substance Use grant.
Carey B.R. Evans, lead evaluator for SUPER, first met Goings in 2020, shortly after the project began.
Trenette is much more than a boss. She is a friend, mentor, role model and cheerleader for everyone on her team. She pushes all of us, in a kind and gentle way, to be our best.
— Carey B.R. Evans, lead evaluator for SUPER
“Trenette is much more than a boss,” Evans said. “She is a friend, mentor, role model and cheerleader for everyone on her team. She pushes all of us, in a kind and gentle way, to be our best.
“I sometimes ask her questions because I’m unsure about how something should be done. She will turn it back to me and ask me what I think. That’s her way of saying, ‘You’ve got this. You don’t need me to answer this for you — you have the skills and knowledge to figure this out.’”
Goings has a guiding principle that direct the lab’s work.
“Our research has to be significant,” Goings said. “We are people-focused, so the work we do has to fill a gap that leads to impactful, real-world interventions.”
She said the work must also be accessible.
“We try to ensure our publications are available in languages and formats that are accessible to the broader community,” she said. “That may mean converting findings from a peer-reviewed article into an infographic, making them into a sound bite for social media, or sharing them at a town hall meeting. Our research is meant to help people and that means ensuring we are working with the community.”
Demeisha Carlton-Brown, a doctoral student at the School and a research assistant in the INSPIRED Lab, said having an opportunity to explore and strengthen interventions among Black populations was important for her. Goings and the lab are helping her achieve that.
“Trenette is a driven, dedicated scholar who cares deeply about the communities that she serves,” Carlton-Brown said. “Bridging the gap between research and community is challenging, but the lab remains equally committed to both. Trenette exemplifies the remarkable achievements possible when we are committed to doing meaningful work.”
Service impact
Goings’ service will be recognized next month by the University. She’s been selected as this year’s recipient of the Edward Kidder Graham Faculty Service Award.
One of two major faculty and staff awards presented on University Day, the honor was established in 2010 to recognize outstanding service by a member of the UNC voting faculty.
“We are so proud of Dr. Goings and the work she is doing to provide health equity opportunities for local, state and global communities that have often been overlooked,” School of Social Work Dean Ramona Denby-Brinson said. “She has made such a difference already in her career and it’s special for the University community to recognize her work.”
The award, named after former UNC President Edward Kidder Graham, recognizes those who embrace Graham’s ambition “to make the campus co‐extensive with the boundaries of the state,” in the context of the University’s modern mission to extend knowledge‐based service worldwide.
Goings is just the second School of Social Work recipient of the award. Professor and Associate Dean for Doctoral Education Mimi Chapman was a co-recipient of the award in 2016.
“Receiving the award is an honor,” Goings said. “I sincerely appreciate the INSPIRED Lab team members, our study participants, and our partners who have supported our efforts to achieve global health equity.”
Clinical Assistant Professor Karon Johnson, who was a part of the team that nominated Goings for the award, said she “has a heart for people” and that her research is conducted with humility, intention and integrity.
“Trenette embodies social work values and consistently demonstrates commitment to serving, whether on the local, national or global level,” Johnson said. “She’s a strong advocate who remains connected to local community even as she engages in world-class research.”
More to do
Goings said that despite the accolades, $17 million in funding, and nearly 90 publications, there’s still work to do.
“One of the most powerful experiences I’ve had as a researcher recently came from a substance use prevention intervention we are implementing and testing in North Carolina schools,” Goings said. “One of the students in the intervention shared what she learned from the program with her cousin who was vaping on a regular basis. Throughout the course of the intervention, she kept passing along what she was learning.
“Her cousin eventually stopped vaping. Our participant told us that she helped save a life thanks to the work we are doing. That’s what I believe in and what gives me hope.”
For Goings and her team, that fact is enough to keep pushing to achieve more.
As Evans put it, “we are helping improve kids’ and their family’s lives.”
“Trenette is truly one of the most remarkable people I’ve ever worked with,” Evans said. “Thanks to her leadership and the lab, I get to help make the world a better place every day.”
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