I engage in community-based research on health-related issues, mainly with sexual and gender minority groups.
My research is focuses on the ways in which social stigma affects access to healthcare. Decades of research point to the negative effects of stigma on health outcomes for marginalized populations. Recently, a growing number of researchers have begun to examine the effects of social stressors specific to sexual- and gender-minority populations, also known as LGBTQ+. Intersecting factors across ecological
contexts affect access for these populations, including widespread individual-level stigma, lack of community support, and limited policy and legal protections.
The core of my work is social-justice oriented, as I seek to diminish disparities in access to care by examining experiences and predictors of healthcare access and working with communities to improve, develop, and implement programs to increase access and wellbeing.