As a community psychologist, I research interactions between people and their environments in order to improve community and individual wellbeing. For over a decade, my research has focused primarily on the effects of extreme poverty—particularly, housing and food insecurity—and the ways in which poverty’s systematic and disproportionate impacts contribute to physical and behavioral health disparities. I conceptualize poverty as complex trauma that can have long lasting and complex impacts beyond material deprivation. To fully understand these impacts, my work takes an ecological, multilevel approach, from investigating policy impacts to assessing community interventions. Additional characteristics of my work include a commitment to rigorous, innovative methods (e.g., advanced quantitative method sand arts-based methods) as well as to community-based participatory research (CBPR) approaches that ensure equity and inclusion of marginalized communities and individuals. Poverty results from a lack of access to power and resources, and producing research that promotes wellbeing necessitates an equitable access to resources and a voice in research and decision-making processes.

I have conducted extensive research on poverty, homelessness, and health at local and national levels. I have worked collaboratively with community organizations, including homeless service providers, health centers, and houseless advocates, to develop and evaluate programs and provide consultation on best practices and methods. Additionally, I have on-the-ground experience working closely with houseless populations in Hawaiʻi, helping them design and conduct investigations of their communities’ health and wellbeing. We have co-presented on these studies nationally. As a poverty research specialist with the Social Science Research Institute at UHM and the Interim Director for the Office for Poverty Research and Action at UHM, I currently serve as the co-principal investigator on multiple investigations of local housing and social services programs and on the evaluation of the Med-QUEST 1115 Waiver evaluation. In particular, I have worked closely with state and federal partners to develop a health and housing collaboration to ensure the effect use of Medicaid dollars for homelessness and housing programs. In an effort to improve access to housing, anti-poverty, and health services for marginalized groups, I have investigated racial disparities in service provision and barriers to service access. I have published and presented on this work, locally, nationally, and internationally.