I am broadly interested in social and structural drivers of health, such as the labor market, work conditions, education, neighborhood/community and the impacts on health and health disparities. My current research centers on multilevel social risk context, maternal-infant health, and community-partnered interventions. I am particularly interested in evaluating and understanding how community-engaged interventions can mitigate the impact of social and structural drivers of maternal-infant health and racial/ethnic disparities. 

Google Scholar

• The Effectiveness of Community Health Worker Home Visiting in Improving Maternal and Infant Health 

Persistent racial and ethnic disparities in perinatal health remain a public health crisis and call for culturally responsive approaches to address these challenges. Community health workers (CHWs) are vital healthcare providers, trusted for their deep community understanding. This line of research seeks to examine whether CHW-delivered home visiting (HV) may provide potential solutions to improving the care and health and mitigating disparities. Specifically, my research examines whether CHW-engaged interventions can 1) increase HV engagement of high-risk women in segregated neighborhoods, 2) improve maternal care and birth outcomes, 3) help mitigate the negative association between neighborhood segregation and birth outcomes, and 4) mitigate maternal health disparities through the mechanisms of social determinants of health and perinatal care utilization. 

• Neighborhood Context, Severe Maternal Morbidity, and Maternal Health Disparities 

The troubling rise in severe maternal morbidity (SMM) in the United States and the disproportionate burden shared by racial minoritized women call attention to the root causes beyond individual risk factors. Neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation is a critical social driver of health manifesting at the community level. This line of research examines 1) whether neighborhood deprivation was associated with SMM and SMM disparities in already socioeconomically disadvantaged population (Medicaid), and 2) whether SMM disparities widened during the pandemic across all neighborhoods or mainly in highly deprived neighborhoods. 

• Complex Care Needs, Maternal-Infant Health, and Community-Engaged Interventions 

The US maternal and infant mortality rates have gone from bad to worse in recent years with persistent racial disparities. The alarming rise in maternal and infant mortality may reflect increasing complexity underlying maternal health. This line of research examines 1) whether women with physical, behavioral health, and social complexity are associated with heightened risks of adverse maternal-infant outcomes and racial/ethnic disparities, and 2) whether community health worker (CHW)-delivered home visiting can improve program engagement, perinatal care utilization, and maternal-infant health for those with complex care needs. I recently received pilot funding and collaborated with healthcare clinicians and community partners to evaluate the effectiveness of a community-clinical partnered care model, including CHW-delivered HV, on improving maternal-infant health among pregnant individuals with health-related social needs and complex care needs in Detroit, Michigan.  

• Multilevel Social Risk Context and Variability in Home Visiting Quality and Intervention Effectiveness  

Evidence-based early childhood home visiting (HV) programs, while promising for promoting maternal-infant health, face challenges engaging and keeping families in services. How community and individual social risk contexts, including their interactions, influence HV usage and intervention effectiveness, remains understudied. This line of research aims to 1) evaluate the associations of community and individual social risks, including their interactions, with HV usage, and 2) whether multilevel social risks moderate HV effectiveness on maternal-infant health through selected behaviors. By shed light on the contextual factors, this line of research aims to inform precision HV in tailoring of services and making adaptations for families with complex social risk contexts.