Health Equity

Achieving health equity and eliminating health-related disparities are essential work of the health professions. Nursing has the capacity to make a significant impact. Barriers to health equity – including social, economic, demographic and structural – must be overcome so all populations have access and opportunity to be healthy. Small-scale interventions can provide relief but engineering broad social and political reform to erase health inequities is the ultimate goal.

Major Projects

Major projects within this research theme that are being led by School of Nursing faculty include:

  • Motivating Interdisciplinary Lactation Knowledge (MILK) Research Lab (principal investigator: Ifeyinwa Asiodu)
  • Advancing Best Practices to Improve Postpartum Care in and Beyond the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit — Care for NICU Families (principal investigator: Ifeyinwa Asiodu)
  • Developing a Community-Driven Innovation Agenda to Prevent Severe Maternal Morbidity and Other Serious Complications of Pregnancy and Postpartum and Advance Health Equity (multiple principal investigator: Ifeyinwa Asiodu)
  • A Trauma-Informed Approach to Increase HIV Prevention and Care Engagement in a Population with Elevated HIV Burden (principal investigator: Glenda Baguso) 
  • Integrating Tobacco Use Cessation into Family AIDS Care (principal investigator: Stella Bialous) 
  • Addressing Disparities in Tobacco-Related Diseases by Understanding the Tobacco Industry Strategies (principal investigator: Stella Bialous) 
  • Preferences, Barriers, and Syndemic Influences for HIV and STI Testing Among Latine Young Adults (principal investigator: Calvin Chiu) 
  • Next Generation Nurse Scientists Ending the HIV Epidemic (principal investigator: Carol Dawson-Rose) 
  • Collaborative Research:  PROmoting Geoscience Research, Education, and SuccesS (PROGRESS) (principal investigator: Mica Estrada)
  • Studying Inclusive Mentor Networks to Diversify the Biomedical Workforce (principal investigator: Mica Estrada) 
  • Mentorship of Individuals from Historically Under-Represented Groups in Health Sciences Research (principal investigator: Elena Flowers) 
  • Empirically Based Career Development Program for Historically Under-Represented Early Career Trainees Supported by NIDDK (principal investigator: Elena Flowers) 
  • Jamaica CARES Project: Connecting HIV/AIDS Resources to Engage Jamaican Sexual and Gender Minorities (principal investigator: Orlando Harris)
  • Intervention for Hearing Health Among Native Americans (principal investigator: Oi Saeng Hong) 
  • Women, Intersectionality, Substance Use and HIV (WISH) (principal investigator: Jennifer Jain) 
  • CARE: Community Action Research for Equity - Understanding care and decision making for Incarcerated Patients (principal investigator: Jennifer James)
  • Healthcare Decision-Making in California Women's Prisons: Historical Legacies of Injustice and Modern Regulatory Constraints (principal investigator: Jennifer James)
  • MWOTAJI: Making women's options for HIV prevention in Tanzania accessible and joining in implementation science capacity building (principal investigator Jenny Liu) 
  • The Contribution of Structural Racism to the Long-Term Effects of Natural Disaster on Behavioral Health Outcomes (SALENDO) (principal investigator Erin McCauley) 
  • We Are Together (WAT):Development and testing of an intervention to reduce HIV-related stigma among pregnant and postpartum women (principal investigator Jerry John Ouner) 
  • Collaborative Approach for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders Research and Education (CARE) 2.0 (principal investigator Van Ta Park) 
  • Asian Americans & Racism: Individual and Structural Experiences (ARISE) (principal investigator Van Ta Park) 
  • Koreans Invested in Making Caregivers Health Important (KIMCHI) 2.0 (principal investigator Van Ta Park) 
  • PHARMA-GIRL: Empowering adolescent girls and young women with choice and prevention in pharmacy-based HIV interventions (principal investigator Lila Sheira) 
  • The Ethics of Inclusion: Diversity in Precision Medicine Research (principal investigator: Janet Shim)

Partnerships and Resources