Research

Active projects

Health Equity

  • Research & Engagement for Community-Led Analysis on Life Course Impacts of Mass Incarceration (RECLAIM): Eliciting community member perceptions of local carceral system data, interest in potential use (such as advocacy, storytelling, education, or accountability) for advancing community priorities, barriers that prevent these groups from accessing or using such data, and co-develop strategies for community ownership, transparency, and ethical use of carceral system data. (Role: Senior Advisor; Leads: Lucy Rios MPH and Olamide Sanuth, MA, MS, Susan Perez, PhD, Yasmine Lewis, Dyson Smith) 
  • Racism and Resilience: Older adults’ experiences with racism over the life course and interpretations of measurement. (PI: Shekinah-Fashaw Walters, PhD, Quinton Cotton, PhD; Role: Senior Investigator)
  • Intersectional exploration of access to healthcare among LGBTQ+ immigrants to the United States, relationships between LGBTQ+ affirming healthcare services and ethnic enclaves (PI: Bobby Chakalov, doctoral dissertation; Role: Advisor, with Noli Brazil, PhD)
  • Structural white advantage as a driver of cognitive health among older adults in the US (PI: Tongtan (Bert) Chantarat, PhD; Role: Senior Investigator)

Health Workforce

  • Predictors of practice in underserved Asian American communities (Role: consultant; National Coalition for Asian American and Pacific Islander Physicians, Marilyn Wong, MD, Nelson Lin, Victoria Ngo, PhD)

Higher Education

  • CAMPUS Care: Coverage, Access, and Medi-Cal Perceptions among UC Davis Students (CAMPUS Care). Identifying information gaps and barriers in access to care and health care coverage for low-income UC Davis students, with subsequent development of an education and outreach campaign under rapidly changing coverage policies. (Co-PI, with Robb Davis, DrPH, Aury Gutierrez-Zavala, Geneva Jost, Olamide Sanuth, Jessica Quiroz-Medina, and summer 2026, Jocelyn Urbina-Diaz, Natalie Grigorutti).

 Projects completed in the last 3 years 

Health Equity

  • Examining the long-term impacts of earlier life exposure to community violence and institutional racism in the criminal justice system, on aging and cognitive decline among African-Americans. (NIA R01-1AG067525, PI. Collaborators: Shekinah Fashaw-Walters, PhD, Kristen George, PhD; Co-investigators: , Paola Gilsanz, ScD, Nicole Kravitz-Wirtz, PhD; Senior investigators: Lisa Barnes, PhD; Rachel Whitmer, PhD; Maria Glymour PhD); Team: Chinomnso Okorie (Kaiser DoR), Olamide Sanuth, MS, MA (UCD), Adia Vega (UCD), Bobby Chakalov (UCD), Carmen Mitchell (ULouisville)
  • Historic redlining practices, residential segregation, contemporary housing discrimination, and associations with neighborhood health outcomes (PI: Jenny Wagner, PhD; Role: Senior Investigator; Co-Investigators: Noli Brazil, PhD, Shani Buggs, PhD)

Healthcare Systems

  • Impact of rural hospital closures on spatial access to care for Black and Latine communities in the US South (PI: Arianna M. Planey, PhD;  Role: Senior Investigator; Co-investigators: Donald Planey, PhD, Sandy Wong, PhD, Sara McLafferty, PhD)

Health Workforce

  • Changes in medical school diversity, equity and inclusion online content during a period of rapid shifting context  (Role: PI; Team: Sreeveda Sreepada). Manuscript forthcoming: JAMA Network Open
  • Examining spatial relationships between facilities, labor markets, training, and certified nurse assistant workforce supply and geographic distribution (PI: Mallory Johnson, MPA, Doctoral dissertation; Co-advisor, with Noli Brazil, PhD)
  • Experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic, preparing and applying for graduate programs in the health professions (Role: PI; Co-investigators: Maribel Ortega BS, Yelitza Campos MPH, Bozhidar Chakalov, MA, Efrain Talamantes, MD, MBA, MS)
  • Overview of Asian Americans within the healthcare workforce: positionality, diversity, history (Role: PI; Co-investigators: Victoria Ngo, PhD, Monica Hahn, MD, Angela Zhang, MD, Russyan Mark Mabeza, MD, MPH, Sarah Iv, Kevin Dinh)
  • Asian Americans in surgery (Role: Senior advisor; Team: Jamie Ko, MD, Russyan Mark Mabeza, MD, MPH

Higher Education

  • Experiences of low-income college students with disabilities in navigation of education, health and accommodations services (Team: Nimra Nazar, Vicky Vong, MSPH)