I speak with public agencies, health systems, community organizations, and universities about how policy shapes access to services and how partners can improve the way those services are delivered.
Invite me to speak. Please include your event date, audience, and the topic or format you have in mind.
Talks and panels
When Immigration Policy Reaches the Clinic
For health systems, public health groups, and policy audiences. Drawing on my Texas research, I explain how immigration policy and institutional decisions affect whether families seek and receive care.
Why Access Breaks Down Between Policy and Practice
For public agencies, nonprofits, and public service audiences. I show how eligibility rules, frontline procedures, and gaps between organizations affect access to health and social services, using community navigation as an example.
Sharing Decisions in Community-Engaged Research
For research teams, funders, and community organizations. I share practical ways to involve partners in study design, compensate their work, and decide together how findings are shared. Available as a talk or workshop.
Faculty-development workshop
Designing Public-Service Cases with AI
Participants draft a public-service case that asks students to weigh evidence, make a decision, and explain their reasoning. I facilitated an APPAM Peer Learning Lab on this topic.
Hear me discuss my research
Watch my keynote at the JPS Research and Quality Symposium. In Politically Conscious Research and Medicine, I discuss shared accountability for community health. Recorded in 2022.
Listen to my StoryCorps conversation with Amanda Arizola about cervical cancer disparities in Tarrant County and how local policy shapes access to care.
For event organizers
Marcela Nava, PhD, MPP, MSSW, is an Assistant Professor of Public Administration at Tarleton State University in Fort Worth and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at The University of Texas at Arlington. She studies how public policy and the organizations that implement it shape health equity and access to care and social services. Her research spans immigrant health, cancer disparities, and community-engaged approaches to improving services.
