The Latino Center for Health Student Travel Award Program provides award amounts of up to $1000 to cover conference registration and travel-related expenses for UW students. Priority will be given to graduate students, primary authors and presentation topics that address Latino health issues, but others are encouraged to apply.
Application materials should be emailed to latcntr@uw.edu by 5 pm PST on October 10th.
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.