Category: News

Latino Center for Health Travel Award Recipients Present at SBM 2019

The 60th Annual Meeting for the Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM), which took place in Washington D.C. from March 6-9th, focuses on the role of behavior in improving health and brings together people from different disciplines and backgrounds—including scientists, practitioners, clinicians, and emerging researchers—to tackle some of the country’s most daunting health challenges.

Among those emerging researchers who presented were Cathea Carey and Francisco Rios-Casas, MPH students in Health Services and Epidemiologyrespectively. Cathea presented her poster titled VIDA PURA II: Treatment Seeking Behavior and Barriers to Care amongst Latino Day Laborers with Unhealthy Alcohol Use as the sample descriptive statistics for her thesis.

“This opportunity was amazing, foremost as a chance to prepare for my thesis presentation, and secondly as my first conference as a substance abuse and health disparities researcher,” comments Cathea.

Francisco presented his poster titled Adapting Measures of Mindfulness: Results from Cognitive Interviews with Latina Immigrant Women. Francisco also won a Meritorious Abstract Award for his work.

“Attending this conference was an invaluable experience, which allowed me to learn about current work in the field of Latino mental health as well as network with a variety of public health professionals in various stages of their career, including graduate students and early career professors and investigators,” says Francisco.

LCH Student Travel Awards are meant to promote academic scholarship at the University of Washington by providing financial support to emerging UW researchers, especially those working in the field of Latinx health.

“As a first-generation college student now in graduate school, the financial support from the Latino Center for Health assuaged any fear or worry of the travel aspect and allowed me to focus on the opportunity of professional development,” says Cathea.

“Without support from LCH, I would not have been able to practice presenting and discussing the importance of our work, the methods we used, and our scientific findings to an academic audience. These skills will surely be instrumental moving forward in academia,” comments Francisco.

Cathea also believes that “more research and political advocacy is necessary among communities of color, and with the support of my advisor Dr. India Ornelas and the Latino Center for Health, I have started my career to amplify the voices of those underserved”.

Congratulations to both Cathea and Francisco for presenting! We at the Latino Center for Health are proud of their work and look forward to their bright futures as they continue to pursue careers in public health and address Latinx health inequities.

Latino Center for Health Travel Award Recipient presents at ASA 2019

The 2019 “Aging in America” conference hosted by the American Society on Aging (ASA), which took place in New Orleans from April 15-18th, is the largest multidisciplinary conference covering issues of aging and quality of life for older adults.

Among the presenters at the conference was Alisa Tirado Strayer, MPH-MSW dual degree student at UW and one of the recipients of the Latino Center for Health Student Travel Awards. Alisa co-presented her research with Wendy Lustbader, Affiliate Associate Professor at UW’s School of Social Work, and Dr. Sarah Jen, Assistant Professor at the School of Social Welfare at the University of Kansas, on The Aging Female Body and Late Life Sexuality. Her segment of the presentation covered the ways in which older women’s socialization, including constantly being told they are not sexual beings, affects their sexual health.

“It felt great to have a space to connect my education with an area that I care very much about, older women’s health, while bringing in nuances around race that often aren’t included in the conversation,” comments Alisa.

LCH Student Travel Awards are meant to promote academic scholarship at the University of Washington by providing financial support to emerging UW researchers, especially those working in the field of Latinx health.

“It was a very empowering and exciting experience, especially since public speaking is an area I have not had much opportunity to practice,” says Alisa. She also mentioned that “it was a great experience learning from other practitioners and knowledgeable people in the field, talking on such a wide range of issues that elders face in the U.S.”

However, Alisa did express some disappointment on the dearth of sessions specifically focusing on older Latinx health at this four-day conference. “Being [at this conference] taught me so much about my field, how to fit into the professional world, and how these spaces need to change [with regards to representation of Latinxs].”

Congratulations to Alisa for presenting! We at the Latino Center for Health are proud of her work and look forward to her bright future as she continues to address older Latinx health inequities.

Latino Center for Health is now accepting applications for the 2019 Small Grants Program

The Latino Center for Health is excited to announce the 2019 Small Grants Program, which provides funding to projects and partnerships benefiting Latino communities in Washington state.

Two levels of funding are currently available through the program:

1. Academic and community partners that are in the early stages of collaboration can apply for grants of up to $5,000 to continue their planning for future research projects

2. Proposals to conduct pilot research projects can apply for up to $15,000

Principal Investigators can be either staff at community organizations or researchers at academic institutions. Academic researchers serving as Principal Investigators must be at one of our affiliated institutions, the University of Washington and Heritage University.

To be considered for this award, you must first submit a 1-page letter of intent (LOI) using the template found at the end of the Request for Applications (RFA) document. This letter may be submitted by either the researcher or the community organization and should include background for the project, project goals, members of the project team, expected outcomes, and level of funding request. Please submit your letter of intent by May 1st, 2019 to latcntr@uw.edu with “Latino Center for Health Small Grants Program” in the subject title. Full applications must be received by June 7th, 2019.

Please refer to the RFA for full details on how to apply. Any questions may be directed to Daron Ryan, Research Coordinator, at dryan89@uw.edu or at 206-685-3583.

To learn more about the 2018 Small Grant awardees and their projects, click here.

Latino Center for Health featured in CHA Para La Comunidad Magazine

CHA Para La Comunidad, a news publication that shares information about programs, laws, legislation and important issues concerning the Hispanic/Latinx community, featured the Latino Center for Health in their March 2019 issue. It is available both in English and in Spanish.

Award-winning Documentary Screening & Discussion

This year, Northwest Health Law Advocates is celebrating 20 years of working to improve access to health care for all Washington residents and fighting to make health a human right. First up, NoHLA’s Health Care at the Movies features The Providers, an award-winning documentary, followed by a panel discussion with local leaders that explores the challenges low-income and rural families face while trying to access health care.

NoHLA 20th Anniversary Event: Health Care at the Movies
March 14, 2019, 6pm @ UW Ethnic Cultural Theater
3931 Brooklyn Avenue NE, Seattle 98105 

While the event is free, donations to support NoHLA’s advocacy are encouraged.

Set against the backdrop of the physician shortage and opioid epidemic in rural America, The Providers follows healthcare providers who work safety-net clinics that offer care to all who walk through the doors, regardless of ability to pay. With intimate access, the documentary shows the transformative power of providers’ relationships with marginalized patients who would otherwise be left out of the healthcare system. After the short film, a panel discusion will be hosted, featuring:

  • Janet Varon, Executive Director, NoHLA
  • Aaron Katz, Principal Lecturer, UW Department of Health Services
  • Laura Green & Anna Moot-Levin, Directors and Producers, The Providers (via Skype)

The event is sponsored by the Social Justice Film Institute and the Latino Center for Health at the UW School of Public Health.

Reserve your free tickers here!

Congratulations to Our Affiliated Students for Presenting and Being Awarded at SBM 2019!

Three of the Center’s affiliated students, Cathea Carey, Francisco Rios-Casas, and Vanessa Torres, presented their research at the 2019 Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM) Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, which took place on March 6-9th. 

Cathea Carey, MPH student in Health Services, presented her work titled “Vida PURA II: Treatment Seeking Behavior and Barriers to Care amongst Latino Day Laborers with Unhealthy Alcohol Use,” co-authored with her mentor and LCH Research Director Dr. India Ornelas.

Francisco Rios-Casas, MPH student in Epidemiology, presented his work titled “Adapting Measures of Mindfulness: Results from Cognitive Interviews with Latina Immigrant Women,” which is part of his mentor Dr. Ornelas’ ALMA study.

Vanessa Torres, PhD student in Health Services, presented her work titled “Assessing Acceptability of a Culturally Adapted Brief Intervention to Reduce Unhealthy Alcohol Use Among Latino Immigrant Men,” which is also part of her mentor Dr. Ornelas’ Vida PURA study.

Congratulations to all who presented, and to Vanessa and Francisco, who won Meritorious Abstract Awards for their work!

If you want to learn more about the Vida PURA (Puede Usted Reducir su consumo de Alcohol) and ALMA (Amigas Latinas Motivando el Alma) studies, click here. 

Welcome New Health Services Faculty Member and LCH Affiliate!

We welcome a new faculty member to the Department of Health Services, Dr. Barbara Baquero, who will be collaborating with the Latino Center for Health in her research activities. Dr. Baquero is committed towards reducing health disparities and advancing health equity among underserved populations–particularly Latinx living in urban and rural communities in the US–with an emphasis on promoting active lifestyles and healthy diets. She does this by designing and implementing effective community-based interventions through community-based participatory research (CBPR), behavior change intervention research, and implementation science.

To learn more about Dr. Baquero and her research, click here.

Community-Academic Partnership Assessing Agricultural Workers’ Health

Featuring Latino Center for Health co-director Dr. Gino Aisenberg, this article talks about how the Schools of Social Work, Public Health, and Medicine are collaborating with Community to Community Development (C2C)–a woman-led grassroots organization in Bellingham, WA–to assess health disparities among Washington state agricultural workers.

News Link

Welcome New LCH Faculty and Staff!

We welcome two new members to the LCH team–Dr. Maggie Ramirez and Mikaela Freundlich. Dr. Ramirez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Services at the UW School of Public Health and was recently selected on the inaugural cohort of the CATALyST K12 Scholar Program. Mikaela joins us as the Center’s new Program Coordinator. We are excited to have them on board advancing the Center’s mission to promote evidence-based, community-engaged research and culturally responsive practices for the Latinx community in Washington.

To learn more about the CATALyST Scholar Program, click here.

To learn more about Dr. Ramirez’s research, click here and here.