RTI uses cookies to offer you the best experience online. By clicking “accept” on this website, you opt in and you agree to the use of cookies. If you would like to know more about how RTI uses cookies and how to manage them please view our Privacy Policy here. You can “opt out” or change your mind by visiting: http://optout.aboutads.info/. Click “accept” to agree.

Transformative Research Unit for Equity​

What We Are About

The Transformative Research Unit for Equity (TRUE) is turning practice into impact through transformative research that leverages power, influence and resources to advance equity.​​

We Are

  • an interdisciplinary team of dedicated experts leading a new way forward with equity-centered transformative research.
  • accountable to our vision to move from practice to impact.
  • accountable to the communities that bear the burden of injustice.  
  • accountable to our privilege as scientists and changemakers with the power to shift narratives and dismantle oppressive systems. 
  • accountable to the clients who have entrusted us to find solutions to society's most challenging problems. 

Centering Equity In Research

Equity exists when the intersections of your social identities, residence in marginalized communities, and/or experience with oppressive systems does not determine your opportunities, access to resources, and outcomes in life.  

RTI is committed to centering equity at 3 levels – in our values as researchers, in the process of conducting research, and in the outcomes of our research. This requires acknowledging, addressing & dismantling systemic biases in mindsets, practices, and policies.

Integrated Workstreams

Get in touch with the TRUE team

Are you interested in more information about TRUE or working with one of our workstreams?

Email us today

Meet TRUE’s Founding Director: Dr. Stephanie Hawkins

“I am a servant leader who believes it’s our passion coupled with our expertise that leads to impact. My colleagues and I are passionate about the role of research in making systems more just. Through TRUE, we will use innovative, equity-centered and culturally responsive research practices to develop solutions to some of the most important challenges of our time”.


TRUE Stories

People holding hands in a circle, viewed from below, with the sky in the background.

Equitable Economic Development Idea Lab

The Equitable Economic Development Idea Lab is a virtual platform for sharing ideas, perspectives, and experiences that can contribute to advancing the field of practice and creating more equitable economies. 

Male Survivors of Community Violence

A concerted effort is needed to link Black male survivors of community violence to services that can help them begin to heal and protect them from the risks of victimization. 

The Long Arm of Redlining: Health Inequities in the Digital Divide

The link between historical redlining and access to broadband internet should inform new policies ensuring that where you live doesn't determine if you live. 


Equity Across the Institute

Health Equity

Health equity is achieved when your social identities, residence in marginalized communities, and experience with structural racism and other oppressive systems do not determine your health outcomes.

Environmental Justice

Climate equity works to balance both access to key resources, while protecting vulnerable communities and populations from environmental hazards, regardless of race, income, or other characteristics.

Forward Promise

The Robert Wood Foundation selected RTI and Chapin Hall to evaluate through a culturally responsive lens the impact of Forward Promise's effort to address trauma and healing among boys and young men of color. 

Empowering Haitian Women

Women farmers play a vital but unheralded role in agriculture in Haiti. The Haiti MAIS program, in partnership with RTI, is working to improve opportunities for women farmers from the ground up. The program focuses on practical education for farmers, while prioritizing women’s economic empowerment.