I study how public policies and the organizations that implement them shape access to health care and social services. My work combines policy analysis, qualitative and mixed methods, and community-engaged research to examine where access breaks down and what agencies and community partners can change.
Discuss a research partnership
Selected projects
Cervical cancer disparities and access to care
My collaborators and I study how local governance, eligibility rules, and a fragmented safety net shape access to cervical cancer care for Hispanic immigrant women in Tarrant County. In two first-author articles, I examine how an academic–community partnership brought local advocates together to identify opportunities for action, and how county governance and fiscal priorities shape who can access care.
Read Bridging the Gap Between Research and Policy · Read Cancer Disparities and the Political Economy of Healthcare Access
I also discuss this work in a StoryCorps conversation with Amanda Arizola. Cervical cancer disparities are also covered in the public Health and Immigration Teach-Out I co-developed with Sara Frattaroli.
Explore the Health and Immigration Teach-Out
Immigrant resource access and community navigation
In No sabían que éramos semillas, Leslie Reyna, our coauthors, and I examine how community navigators help immigrant families in Dallas–Fort Worth access health care and social services. Drawing on Gloria Anzaldúa’s nepantlera framework, we explore what this work requires and how institutions can better support it.
Read No sabían que éramos semillas
Community-led photovoice in Texas
My coauthors and I worked with RAICES Texas and Living Hope Wheelchair Association to study health and well-being with undocumented and disabled Latinx immigrants during COVID-19. Community partners helped design the study, review consent materials, interpret findings, and decide how to share them. My first-author methods article explains how trauma-informed practices, partner compensation, and participant control over photographs shaped the study. Related manuscripts examine resilience, mutual aid, and how clinical social work can respond to structural exclusion through community care.
Read Photovoice as Health Justice Infrastructure
Texas CEAL and community health outreach
I served as a co-investigator on an NIH-supported Texas CEAL subcontract. In Tarrant County, an interdisciplinary team trained graduate students in COVID-19 health education and outreach, and community health champions helped the team connect with residents through existing outreach events. I led a published article on how academic teams and community partners can share accountability. A related manuscript examines the relationships and collaborative learning that sustained the outreach.
Read Advancing Shared Accountability for Meaningful Community Engagement
Collaborative governance and community health planning
I was a co-investigator on a Tarrant County action research project examining how hospitals, nonprofits, and other local partners conduct community health needs assessments and how they might coordinate that work. I also served as a co-investigator on an NIH-funded project led by Healthy Tarrant County Collaboration that brought community and academic partners together to address local policing practices as a structural determinant of health.
Read the study on collaborative community health needs assessments
Work with me
I welcome conversations about developing grant proposals, evaluating how policies and programs are implemented, and designing participatory studies with community organizations. My background in social work and nonprofit practice informs how I approach program evaluation, coalition development, and research partnerships.
If you have a project in mind, email me with a brief description of the question, the partners involved, and the timeline.
