Current Projects
Working Alongside Refugees in Mental Health
In collaboration with partners across the state, including Catholic Social Services Refugee Assistance and Immigration Services (RAIS) and the Alaska Office for Refugees, we seek to increase forced migrants’ access to culturally-congruent, linguistically-appropriate, evidence-based mental healthcare via an innovative provider network, ongoing trainings for students and professionals, and resource connections. Please go to warmalaska.org to join our provider network, access materials for your practice, and sign up for our upcoming trainings. Funders of this work include Refugee Assistance and Immigration Services, the Alaska Community Foundation, and the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority. Access the 2023-2024 training series on Refugee Mental Health hosted by Catholic Social Services and UAA Center for Human Development Project ECHO by clicking here.
The Cultural Identity Project
This project examines how systems shape Alaska Native young people's cultural identities and impacts their emotional/behavioral health and well-being. A series of research projects led to the development of an Elder-led cultural identity development program that incorporates ePortfolio technology to promote emotional/behavioral health and academic achievement and persistence. The program was pilot tested through a step-wedge RCT in collaboration with Native Student Services at UAA, further developed into a course, and adapted to new settings. This project was funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) under Award Number U54GM115371. Learn more about the community partners now implementing the project, how it continues to transform, and how you can access the curriculum and get involved by clicking here.
Immigrant Justice
This work strives to promote immigrant justice by (a) understanding the impact of immigration-related public policies and practices on immigrants, families, and communities alongside (b) community organizing and resistance to oppressive policies and practices. Check out our recent policy statements here and here. Learn how you can write your own position statements and public media to promote immigrant justice here. Currently we are co-editing a special issue for the American Journal of Community Psychology - to learn more and submit a paper, click here.
Welcoming: Acculturation in Context
A series of community research-action projects explore how communities' structures, policies, and practices shape the enactment of culture ('acculturation') among new immigrant and refugee community members and what that means for their emotional/behavioral health, well-being, and life satisfaction. Some of this work has been funded by the Society for Community Research and Action.
Multilingual Psychological Services
This project is aimed at improving and increasing access to linguistically-appropriate psychological services (assessment, psychotherapy) by (a) making psychological services available to non-English speakers via interpretation services and (b) developing clinicians' competence delivering multilingual services by providing Clinical Psychology graduate students training and supervised experience providing mental health services through interpreters. As funding sources often impede linguistically accessible servics, currently our team is conducting a review of public reimbursement for interpretation services across the U.S. to inform possible policy changes for language equity. This project is conducted in collaboration with the Psychological Services Center at UAA and is funded by the Mat-Su Valley Health Foundation. Download best practices for working with interpreters here:
My Best Alaskan Life
In collaboration with Lauren Lessard (PI), My Best Alaskan Life is an online health and life planning tool developed by Alaskan adolescents in partnership with The Institute for Circumpolar Health Studies (ICHS), the Alaska Division of Public Health and the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. The tool is the first of its kind to use motivational interviewing techniques in an update-able online journal to support young people of all cultural backgrounds, genders, and sexual orientations to develop life plans to support their sexual health, mental health, and relationship health. A series of projects have tested the efficacy, accessibility, and feasibility of the tool, supported by an Institutional Development Award (IDeA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Grant Number 2P20GM103395. Learn more about the project at mybestalaskanlife.com.
Sense of Community in Context
These primarily qualitative projects are aimed at understanding sense of community in a variety of global contexts and the ways in which sense of community is shaped through global phenomenon, primarily migration.