2026 Grantees
The Allergists’ Foundation Community Grant Program inspires practicing allergists to develop creative solutions for challenges related to allergy care within their communities. Below are six outstanding projects that have been selected for funding in 2026. You can also browse our past grantees’ project summaries to learn more about their work.
Nicole M. Chase, MD, FACAAI
St. Paul, MN
AI-ready Allergy (AIRA): A National Needs Assessment of AI-powered Practice Management Priorities Among Community Allergists
Nicole Chase, MD, FACAAI, and her research team are conducting a needs assessment to determine how community allergists perceive, prioritize and use artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Most AI research in allergy/immunology targets diagnosis inside academic centers, not the administrative burden driving burnout and threatening the sustainability of independent practices. AI-Ready Allergy (AIRA) aims to answer the question: How do community allergists actually envision AI helping their practice operations? AIRA is the first national needs assessment to characterize AI practice-management awareness, attitudes, barriers, and prioritized use cases among community-practicing allergists. Through a nationally distributed ACAAI survey, the team will rank which operational AI use cases matter most and surface the barriers that shape adoption. The team’s goal is to give community practices an evidence base to guide their own AI investments and lay the groundwork for a future multi-site implementation study.
Brinda Prasaana Kumar, MBBS
Lebanon, NH
Building Bravery: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Program to Empower Families and Children With Food Allergy Anxiety (FAA)
Brinda Prasanna Kumar, MBBS, is developing a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) program to address food allergy anxiety (FAA) in patients and their families. The program is designed to address a critical need for integrated, accessible, and affordable mental health resources to empower food allergy patients. Dr. Kumar is collaborating with a child psychologist specializing in anxiety to co-design a comprehensive, four-session group CBT curriculum for children 7-18 years old and their families. Each session integrates psychoeducation, skill-building, hands-on exposure practice, and family engagement. The program will be developmentally tailored, interactive, and use the standard CBT framework adapted for the unique context of food allergy. The team has successfully piloted a virtual CBT cohort and is now ready to implement the program. Dr. Kumar’s goal is to develop and disseminate a manualized CBT protocol with patient workbooks to translate their findings into a structured, replicable intervention for other allergist-psychologist collaborations.
Amal Musa, MD (FIT Member)
Galveston, TX
GLP-1 Receptor Agonist Therapy as Add-on Treatment in Adults With Obesity and Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial
Amal Musa, MD, is conducting a pilot randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to evaluate the feasibility, safety, and preliminary efficacy of adding a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA) tirzepatide, to standard therapy in adults with obesity and inadequately controlled chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU). Growing evidence suggests that obesity-related chronic inflammation may contribute to CSU disease activity, highlighting a potential upstream therapeutic target beyond current symptom-directed treatments. In the trial, participants will receive tirzepatide or placebo for 20 weeks while continuing standard-of-care treatment. Dr. Musa’s project will assess the intervention’s preliminary effects on CSU disease activity, quality of life, and metabolic health, while generating feasibility and safety data to inform future larger trials. By targeting obesity-related inflammation as a modifiable contributor to CSU, this project has the potential to establish a novel, personalized treatment strategy that improves both disease control and overall metabolic health in this challenging patient population.
Lillian Nwanah, MD, MBA (FIT Member)
Chicago, IL
An Implementation Study on the Use of Indoor Air Purification in an Environmental Justice Community in Chicago
Lillian Nwanah, MD, MBA, is partnering with community-based organizations in Chicago to improve indoor air quality for children with asthma who are living in environmental injustice communities (EJCs) that are burdened by pollution. Her team is conducting an exploratory study to assess the feasibility and acceptability of using High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) purifiers in homes of children with asthma in the East Side Community in Chicago. This project builds on an ongoing observational study that found unsafe indoor and outdoor fine particulate matter levels in homes. The team will recruit 8-10 children with asthma, ages 7-18, to evaluate the impact of in-home HEPA purifiers that they’ve installed. Over a four-week period, the team will monitor the indoor air quality and patients’ asthma outcomes. They will also provide informational individual teach-backs and measure pre- and post- environmental health literacy. The goal of the study is to provide evidence-based strategies that allergists can offer to their patients to address the impacts of indoor air quality and improve asthma management. Dr. Nwanah is mentored by Dr. Sharmilee Nyenhuis and is collaborating with Mobile Care Chicago, Southeast Environmental Task Force and Illinois Institute of Technology.
James P. Senter, MD, MPH (FIT Member)
Chicago, IL
Reducing Language Barriers in Food Allergy Care Through Multilingual Patient and Family Education
James P. Senter, MD, MPH, aims to reduce language-related disparities in food allergy care by developing and evaluating multilingual educational resources for patients, families, and clinicians. Dr. Senter will develop an educational toolkit that includes a visual guidebook covering recognition and daily management of food allergies. The accompanying video series will help patients recognize allergic reactions and learn how to properly use epinephrine devices. Materials will be developed in English, Spanish, and Arabic using culturally informed, committee-based translation methods, with the goal of including additional languages in the future. The educational toolkit will be evaluated in a randomized study comparing it with standard educational materials, measuring improvements in food allergy knowledge, confidence, and quality of life among families with food allergies. The goal is to provide community allergists with ready-to-use, evidence-based multilingual resources that improve communication and promote more equitable food allergy care.
Hunter G. Smith, MD, MPH (FIT Member)
Chapel Hill, NC
Adolescent and Caregiver Anxiety, Quality of Life, and Treatment Selection Across Food Allergy Management Strategies: A Cross Sectional Dyadic Study
Hunter G. Smith, MD, MPH, is leading a cross-sectional dyadic study to examine the influence of food allergy management approaches on psychosocial outcomes among adolescents and their caregivers. Dr. Smith’s research team will recruit approximately 100 adolescent–caregiver pairs through the University of North Carolina Food Allergy Registry. Participants will complete linked surveys assessing generalized anxiety, food allergy-specific quality of life, and perceptions of treatment. Pairs will be grouped by current management strategy, including avoidance, oral immunotherapy, sublingual immunotherapy, and anti-IgE biologic therapy. The study will also examine how socioeconomic context and pre-clinic decision-making influence treatment selection and outcomes. By capturing the interconnected nature of patient and caregiver experiences, the study will generate new insights to help allergists provide more patient-centered, psychosocially informed food allergy management for adolescents as part of routine care.
