Since 1987, Sharon Brown has generated $6.7 million in extramural research funding (14 funded research studies, 7 from the National Institutes of Health). Projects involved meta-analysis or testing of health promotion interventions with diabetic Mexican Americans. The current study is a five-year (1999-2004, NIH) randomized clinical study of a family-centered, community-based diabetes self-management intervention for Mexican Americans residing on the Texas-Mexico border in Starr County, the poorest county in Texas. Previous studies in Starr County have shown the culturally competent interventions to be effective in improving glucose control. The present study is aimed as strengthening and testing a more intensive form of the intervention, one that could be offerred in clinical settings. Brown's research findings have been cited in 275 articles, and reprints have been requested by over 150 researchers from 20 countries and 30 states. Brown served as an abstract reviewer, chairperson, and/or member of several research conference planning committees, including the 1998 and 1999 Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association. She has served as an ad hoc grant reviewer for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NIH) and is a grant reviewer for the British Columbia Health Research Foundation and the Hong Kong Hospital Authority. She reviews for three journals: "JAMA," "Research in Nursing and Health," and "Diabetes Care." She is on the editorial board of the "Journal of Border Health" (a WHO journal) and was guest editor for "Patient Education and Counseling" (1990) and "Diabetes Spectrum" (1998). She was an invited member of an expert panel to develop research priorities for the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (1992). She is a member of the Executive Committee of The University of Texas System Border Health Advisory Council and the Rio Grande Valley Diabetes Task Force, a state committee to plan a proactive agenda for prevention and control of diabetes in South Texas. She is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing.