1976
1976 - Program for Research on Black Americans Founded
- The Program for Research on Black Americans (PRBA) established by an interdisciplinary team of social scientists and graduate students to address the need for high quality national data on African Americans, and to provide research and training opportunities for social scientists and students of color.
- PRBA has been a leader in creating new and innovative research methods in African American communities.
1979
1979 - National Survey of Black Americans
- The first truly representative look at Black America.
- Worked with focus groups to develop language for questionnaires that have been used in many studies.
- Survey begun in 1979 and continued through several successive, interrelated studies in the 1980s and 1990s.
1997
1997 - Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research Founded
- Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research (MCUAAAR) is a collaborative research, community outreach, and faculty mentoring program.
- Funded by the National Institute on Aging to increase and enhance the future scientific research workforce; mentoring promising new faculty and research scientists for sustained careers in aging-related behavioral research.
2001-2003
2001-2003 - National Survey of American Life in the field
- Interviewers met with over 7,000 people all across the United States
- Participants included African Americans, blacks of Caribbean descent, non-Hispanic whites, and adolescents who lived in the same households as some of the adult participants.
2007
2007-Present - NSAL Data Published & Used for Research
- Nearly 800 academic articles published using the NSAL data.
- Over 80 students have used NSAL data for their doctoral dissertations
- Data was used to develop new national prevalence rates for many mental health conditions
2026-2027
2026-2027 - 25 Year Follow-up
- Returning to the original participants to learn how life has changed over the last 25 years
- Newly revised and updated questionnaire seeks to understand more about aging risks and resilience