Professor, Nursing
About
I have impacted the well-being of underrepresented populations worldwide through my global research and work in mental health equity. My research has contributed to the development of policies, interdisciplinary sciences, and public health on a global scale, particularly in Latin America.
In the United States, I have employed multicultural skills, as well as my fluency in Spanish and Portuguese to study mental health disparities that underrepresented, under-studied, and hard-to-reach populations face. These populations include rural Latino immigrants and farmworkers, rural LGBTQ+ adolescents, and internationally diverse persons with communicable diseases. I have integrated and leveraged interdisciplinary knowledge that too often exists in isolated silos, developing unique approaches in research for working with and for minoritized groups. Thus, my studies in the U.S. have impacted community-level science by integrating interdisciplinary methodologies into nursing research, preventing scientific bias, and minimizing injustices for highly stigmatized and under-studied populations (e.g., immigrants and farmworkers).
I am known worldwide for conducting Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) which creates trust in the community culture, fosters respect for values, and promotes sustainability. I also conduct mixed methods research as an approach to studying minoritized people and giving voice to populations who are linguistically, culturally, geographically, and socially isolated. I have developed a new concept of measuring rurality, including personal activity spaces (traveling patterns), moving beyond the zip codes that may be inappropriate for studying health disparities and well-being. Additionally, I have combined socio-spatial approaches for examining community members and locations for the development of community-based health interventions.
I have taught in higher education for more than 25 years, including teaching nursing students and other health professional students in the United States and Latin America. I have developed and taught undergraduate and graduate courses in mental health, evidence-based research practices, research methods, nursing leadership, health disparities, global health, mixed methods research, and qualitative research.
