In the Summer of 2004, Carmen was challenged by a mentor who asked the following question, "How can professionals who are engaged in their communities improve the intellectual environment of our work?" She began to think about ways that students could connect across geographic and professional boundaries, share best practices and evaluate the work they do. The result was Context. As an online journal Context enhances the quality of student work while putting community-based work on par with scientific excellence. Originally intended as a Georgia-based journal, it quickly became apparent that Context might offer enormous possibility to students all over the country.

With the help of Arun Mohan, HealthSTAT's President at the time, Carmen drafted a small proposal for the project which Arun passed along to Chris Day, the Coordinator of the Student Health Alliance whom Arun had met three years before at the Paul Ambrose Leadership Symposium sponsored by the American Teachers of Preventive Medicine (an event that Carmen, Arun and Chris all attended albeit in separate years). Chris was immediately enthusiastic about the idea and equated the concept of Context to a journal that SHA had agreed to establish. He also saw the value of a partnership, one that connected the local work in which HealthSTAT engages to the national work in which SHA is involved.

With Chris on board, Carmen shopped the proposal around to several donors and subsequently submitted to the Arnold P. Gold Foundation. The Gold Foundation responded favorably with a matching grant for $5,000 and Carmen and Arun began vigorously fundraising and began working with Anish Parekh and Carolyn Louth to design the site.

With the support of Jeff Koplan, former Director of the CDC and current Executive Vice-President for Health Affairs at Emory University, Dean Tom Lawley of the Emory University School of Medicine and Dean Marla Salmon of the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University, Arun and Carmen were quickly able to connect with foundations such as the Marcus Foundation to grow the Gold Foundation's initial investment and raise sufficient funding for Context's first year.

In March of 2005, Chris invited Arun to Chicago to speak about Context with the Student Health Alliance. The leaders present were excited about Context and agreed to support Arun and Carmen as they pursued the idea. With SHA's support, Arun solicited the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, who ultimately supported Context with multi-year support.

Today, Context continues to grow. In the fall 2005, Carmen will be recruiting Context's first editorial board and peer reviewers. By March 2006, we will produce our first issue.