Dr. Charles R. Rogers

03/13/2026

This week’s is different.

My friend Devin Jordan recently passed away unexpectedly at 43.

We grew up together through music, conversation, and life.

His death forced me to confront a question every father should ask:

If something happened to me unexpectedly, would my wife and son truly be taken care of?

This reflection is about friendship, fatherhood, and the reality that Black men are still dying far too young.

Full reflection here: https://open.substack.com/pub/drcharlesrrogers/p/fatherhoodfriday-when-a-brother-dies?r=5y89ei&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

03/11/2026

Over the past6️⃣ years, Trinity Church NYC’s Mission Real Estate Development (MRED) initiative has demonstrated what becomes possible when faith, stewardship, and community investment come together.

Today, this work is reaching 93,000 people annually across 21 countries, supporting churches as they transform underutilized assets into opportunities for housing, economic empowerment, education, and healthier communities.

What makes this work extremely inspiring is a simple principle: when churches steward their assets well, they expand their capacity to serve.

At Rogers Solutions Group (RSG), it was an honor to support Trinity’s team in documenting this journey and helping share the story of how MRED is strengthening ministries and communities around the world.

I am very grateful for the talented RSG colleagues who helped bring this work forward:

• Dr. Tiana N. Rogers

• Khalida Saalim, MSPH, CD

• Dr. Nzinga Broussard

• The many partners who shared their stories & experiences from around the world.

Special appreciation goes to Rev. James Clark III and the Trinity MRED team for their leadership in advancing a model that helps churches move from being “land rich but cash poor” toward sustainable, mission aligned impact.

Those interested in seeing how faith based institutions can steward property in ways that strengthen communities are encouraged to explore Trinity’s Impact at a Glance report: https://lnkd.in/eb8zrpgg

Work like this is a reminder that real estate can be more than buildings. It can be a ministry of transformation.

03/08/2026

A preventable cancer should never become the #1 cancer killer of Americans under 50.

Yet that is where we are.

Earlier this week, the Colorectal Cancer Equity Foundation was honored to stand alongside 30 national organizations under Fight Colorectal Cancer’s leadership in helping secure White House recognition of March as Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month once again.

This recognition matters.

Not because awareness alone saves lives.
But because it shines a national spotlight on a growing public health crisis.

Colorectal cancer is preventable, beatable, and treatable when caught early.

Still, far too many people are diagnosed at advanced stages due to gaps in awareness, access to screening, and equitable care.

Behind every statistic are lives that should still be unfolding.

Parents raising children.
Young professionals building careers.
Families planning futures that are interrupted far too soon.

National recognition is an important step.
What comes next matters even more.

Real progress requires stronger partnerships, expanded screening access, and systems that prioritize prevention in every community.

As our Founder and President Dr. Charles R. Rogers shared:

“Preventable cancers should never become leading causes of death. This moment calls for urgency, partnership, and collective action to ensure early detection reaches every community.”

The Colorectal Cancer Equity Foundation remains committed to working with partners across the country to ensure early detection becomes the norm, not the exception.

Read the White House message here:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/2026/03/presidential-message-on-colorectal-cancer-awareness-month/

Together, we can prevent the preventable. 💙

03/07/2026

Some research is personal.

Some interviews are personal too.

I am grateful to journalist Jennifer Porter Gore and the team at Word In Black for publishing this powerful story about breast cancer disparities affecting Black women and why this issue is deeply personal for me and my family.

For many people, cancer statistics live in reports and academic journals.

For my family, those statistics have names and faces.

I lost my grandmother to breast cancer while I was an undergraduate student at North Carolina State University. Years later, my wife Dr. Tiana N. Rogers, became a two time early-onset breast cancer thriver. Walking beside her through diagnosis, treatment decisions, and survivorship changed how I see this work forever.

Cancer disparities stopped being an academic question. They became a lived reality.

Jennifer’s story captures something that does not always make it into research papers. Black women are navigating fear, structural barriers, medical mistrust, and often not being heard when they speak about their own bodies.

Yet the story is also about strength, advocacy, and the power of early detection.

Word In Black continues to produce some of the most important journalism in the country when it comes to Black health, equity, and the lived experiences of our communities. Their reporting consistently centers voices that are too often ignored.

I hope you will take a moment to read this piece. 💕

If you work in health systems, philanthropy, media, or policy and are serious about advancing equitable cancer prevention, screening, and care, these conversations matter.

Prevention saves lives. Listening saves lives. Early detection saves lives.

Read the full story here: https://lnkd.in/evkcfmFR

Thank you again to Jennifer Porter Gore and Word In Black for telling stories that matter for the culture and for the future of health equity.

03/06/2026

5️⃣ years ago this month, I launched the Colorectal Cancer Equity Foundation.

At the time, Black men had already been dying from colorectal cancer at the highest rates in the United States for more than 25 years. The pattern was not new. The data had been clear for decades.

Yet too many people and institutions were still treating this crisis as if it were invisible.

At the same time, other communities were also being dismissed. People facing early-onset colorectal cancer. Patients whose symptoms were minimized. Families who were told to wait. Entire populations navigating a healthcare system that was not built with them in mind.

That reality is what pushed me to act.

Today is , and I am wearing blue to raise awareness, honor survivors, and remind people that colorectal cancer is one of the most preventable cancers when it is detected early.

Screening saves lives.

Yet awareness alone is not enough. Equity requires systems that work for everyone.

Today, I am spending Dress in Blue Day in conversation with leaders across the United States to explore a simple but powerful question.

What does thriving actually require for Black communities?

Answering that question means building the systems we need to support prevention, early detection, and equitable care.

Grateful to Dr. Melicia Whitt Glover and the Council on Black Health for holding space for this powerful convening focused on redefining, reimagining, and realigning around a new vision for health equity.

A vision where all Black people live safe, healthy, and happy lives.

Five years in, the mission of the Colorectal Cancer Equity Foundation is still clear.

Save lives.
Close gaps.
Build systems that work.

If you are working in healthcare, philanthropy, research, media, or policy and want to move colorectal cancer prevention and health equity forward, I would love to connect.

The work ahead requires all of us. 💙

02/28/2026

As Black History Month closes, I’ve been thinking about the kind of leadership that actually lasts.

For months, my son was obsessed with lions.

The roar.

The spotlight.

The visible strength.

Then he saw a life-size T-Rex at the zoo, and everything changed.

Rex now goes everywhere with him — even internationally.

But what stopped me in my tracks wasn’t the dinosaur.

It was how he recently lined them up.

The smaller ones in front.

Rex in the back.

Protecting.

That formation reminded me of something we don’t talk about enough — especially when reflecting on Black history and the leaders who shaped it.

Many of the strongest leaders were not chasing the spotlight.

They were covering generations.

Positioned to guard, not just to be seen.

From my experience, I've learned that the most dangerous leaders are the ones obsessed with being seen, not positioned to serve.

As we honor Black History Month, maybe the deeper question isn’t who roared the loudest but who protected the most.

Today's is about service leadership, self-doubt, seasons of growth, and what my son’s T-Rex taught me about legacy.

👉🏾 See link in the comments to read the full reflection.

02/25/2026

is one of the most preventable cancers, yet screening gaps persist across the United States—especially in safety-net settings.

At the start of , I’m honored to speak at the Connected by Care for Colorectal Cancer Summit taking place on Tuesday, March 3rd from 11:00 AM–4:00 PM EST.

Grateful to Cecilia Corral, Co-founder & Chief Strategy Officer of CareMessage, for her leadership in convening safety-net providers and advancing technology-enabled, equity-centered solutions to improve colorectal cancer screening nationwide.

My session at 12:15 PM EST, titled

“Overcoming Barriers to Colorectal Cancer Screening: Practical Tools to Advance Equity,”

will focus on:

💙 Structural and behavioral barriers to screening
💙 Practical strategies for FQHCs, Free Clinics, and Tribal Health Organizations
💙 Patient engagement approaches that improve colorectal cancer prevention outcomes

If you work in community health, cancer prevention, or health equity, this event is for you.

Register here: https://ow.ly/aePM50Y1OkN

02/12/2026

Some losses feel personal even when you never met the person.

Yesterday, the world lost James Van Der Beek. Six children lost their father. A wife lost her husband. And we lost a man who, in his final chapter, taught millions what truly matters.

I am a husband.

I am a father.

I am a follower of Christ.

And for more than 15 years, I have been ringing the alarm on early-onset .

That is why I founded the Colorectal Cancer Equity Foundation: to confront the inequities that cause people like James to be overlooked, dismissed, or diagnosed too late.

So this one hits differently.

March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. It is also my birth month. My birthday falls just two days after James' birthday yet he shares the exact same date as my Aunt Joann’s. After multiple misdiagnoses at age 52, we lost her to colorectal cancer.

James was 48.

He shared on his birthday last year how cancer stripped away everything he used to define himself. He could not work the same. Could not lift his children the same. Could not show up the same.

And then he asked a question most of us spend our lives avoiding:

If I am none of the things I do, who am I?

His answer:

“I am worthy of God’s love simply because I exist. And if I’m worthy of God’s love, shouldn’t I also be worthy of my own?”

As a man who studies colorectal cancer.

As someone who has watched families bury fathers too soon.

As a dad who tucks his own child into bed at night.

That truth sits heavy.

Colorectal cancer is now the leading cancer killer for men and women under age 50.

Not heart disease.

Not accidents.

Colorectal Cancer.

A cancer that is often preventable, treatable, & beatable when caught early.

But prevention is arriving too late for too many.

We build our identities around what we produce, provide, and protect.

Then cancer comes and reminds us that our worth was never tied to output in the first place.

James left behind a message bigger than his acting career.

Call your parents.

Hug your kids.

Get screened.

Know your family history.

Advocate for yourself if something feels off.

As a husband, a father, a believer, and a colorectal cancer researcher, I will keep sounding the alarm.

Not for clicks.

Not for attention.

But so fewer families have to learn this lesson the hard way.

May we honor his life by choosing prevention, choosing presence, and choosing love while we still can.

Rest well.

📷 c/o James Van Der Beek 🙏🏾 💙

02/11/2026

02/09/2026

Some people do not just advance a field. They quietly change the lives of everyone who enters it.

More than 15 years ago, during my doctoral training, I first learned the name Dr. Barbara A. Israel. In the world of community-based participatory research (CBPR), she was already a legend. Her scholarship, leadership, and humanity helped define what it meant to do research with communities rather than on them. Over the course of her career, she dedicated herself to building and sustaining community–academic partnerships that addressed social determinants of health, health inequities, and quality of life with rigor, respect, and shared power.

In the summer of 2011, as a fellow in a health disparities immersion program at the University of Michigan, I had the privilege of meeting Dr. Israel in person at the Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center. As its founding director, she built the Center into a national model for CBPR after it was initially funded by the CDC in 1995. The Center brought together community-based organizations, health and human service agencies, and academic partners to produce research, interventions, and policy change grounded in lived experience. That summer helped clarify my own purpose and strengthened my commitment to advancing colorectal cancer equity through authentic community engagement.

From that point forward, whenever I was back in Michigan for training or invited talks, I made a point to connect with her to learn how to sharpen my CBPR skills. An added joy was occasionally running into her at the American Public Health Association annual meeting, where she was always generous with her time, wisdom, and encouragement. She showed so many of us what it looks like to lead with intellectual excellence and humility at the same time.

The time has come where she ran her race with integrity, courage, and grace. She leaves behind far more than publications or programs. She leaves a living legacy carried forward by students, scholars, and communities who learned from her how to center dignity, equity, and empathy in this work.

Rest well, Dr. Israel. Your work continues through all of us who now carry the baton forward. 🙏🏾 🏁

📷 University of Michigan School of Public Health |

02/05/2026

Last summer, my wife and I made a quiet but life-shaping decision.

In Summer 2025, we chose to relocate our family to Atlanta, Georgia by the end of the year—for our faith, for community, for diversity, for warmer weather, and for a better quality of life. It was a move rooted in alignment, not urgency.

When it came time to make that transition real, there was never a question about who I would call.

I reached out to Vin Carboni, CRP to once again lead our relocation, and from the very first conversation, I knew our family was in steady hands. Even with 8️⃣ inches of snow on the ground days before the move and Midwest temperatures that remind you exactly why you’re leaving, Vin and his phenomenal nationwide network at Atlas Van Lines delivered beyond expectation.

The white-glove care given to our personal belongings—and even to our SUV—meant my wife and I could focus on what mattered most: ensuring our three-year-old son experienced this transition with stability, calm, and care. New state. New home. New school. A big moment for a little human.

And then Georgia showed up!!! 🙏🏾

To those here who helped us unpack nearly 95% of our home in just two weeks—thank you!!!

To those who brought meals, sent encouragement, or made it easier for us to feed our family during those first busy days—thank you!!!

Those acts of kindness mattered more than you know.

All of it reminded me that smooth transitions don’t happen by accident. They happen through intentional relationships, trusted expertise, and people who genuinely care.

If you are planning a long-distance move across state lines—or even relocating within the same city and want peace of mind—Vin Carboni is your guy. Period.

I am continually grateful for our relationship, and his number and email will always stay saved in my phone. Android users, you’ll be just fine doing the same too. 🙃 📱

Some moves change your address.

Others change your life.

This one did both.

01/27/2026

As we witness the gutting of academic freedom, relentless attacks on marginalized communities, and a dangerous normalization of racial violence in America…one question keeps rising:

Where are the leaders?

Where are the voices that claim to stand for justice, but stay quiet when it matters most?

Where are the institutions that post MLK Day and Hispanic Heritage Month graphics, but don’t show up for Black and Brown people?

Where are the allies who say “I see you”—but vanish when we are bleeding?

The answer is uncomfortable. But necessary.

Silence is not neutrality. It’s agreement.

Yes, we must be wise with our words.

But discernment without trust becomes paranoia.

And discernment without action becomes complicity.

This is a time for righteous disruption—not just reflection.

Leadership isn't about writing statements.

It’s about standing when it’s inconvenient.

Speaking when it’s unpopular.

Showing up when it costs.

If you only advocate when it’s safe, you’re not advocating.

You’re managing your image.

To be clear: I’m not asking everyone to be loud.

But I am asking those with power, privilege, and platforms to stop hiding behind fear or comfort.

People are watching.

Especially the next generation.

🎯 The full reflection and challenge is now live on The Purpose Pause

📍[Link in bio or comments]