Professional Title:
Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology
Email:
Bio:
For 14 years I have worked to build our new campus’ infrastructure to foster community-engaged research. I am the founder and faculty director of UC Merced’s Resource Center for Community Engaged Scholarship (ReCCES) and we have achieved success in creating and sustaining regional research collaborations. I participate in campus, community, University of California system-wide, and national conversations regarding barriers and opportunities for increasing mutually beneficial community engaged research (e.g., DeLugan, Roussos & Skram, 2014, Linking Academic and Community Guidelines for Community-Engaged Scholarship, Journal of Higher Education, Outreach and Engagement 18(1): 155-167). I was PI on a NIH Academic-Community Partnership Conference Series R13 grant to address obesity disparities for Latinos in the San Joaquin Valley. The grant which ended in December 2017 laid a solid foundation for future research collaborations with rural and ethnic communities. As co-PI, I have also been instrumental in transforming graduate education in the Humanities at UC Merced by integrating training in community engaged research. My involvement in other rural and ethnic San Joaquin Valley research has focused on topics such as quality of life, civic engagement, youth, and environmental threats to wellbeing
