Dr. Hawkins' research agenda concerns two interrelated areas of research: 1) an examination of barriers and facilitators to chronic illness self-management among Latino and African American men; and 2) tailoring chronic illness self-management interventions and social work practice techniques to account for gender and racial/ethnic differences in health behaviors and health outcomes. Ultimately, this work will help to understand the social causes of race- and gender-based health disparities and to identify practical solutions; particularly given the current environment of health care reform that requires research on implementation and evaluation of evidence-based interventions in 'real world' settings. As a faculty member, Dr. Hawkins received funding from the Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research to explore barriers and facilitators to diabetes self-management and preferences for diabetes interventions for old African American men with type 2 diabetes. Based on this and previous work, Dr. Hawkins has developed and submitted a grant to conduct a peer-led diabetes self-management intervention to the National Institutes of Health. In this grant, Dr. Hawkins has proposed to develop a program to help African American men better manage their type 2 diabetes.