Projects

• Role: Co-Investigator (Co-I)

• Partner & Sponsoring Organization: International Council for Refugees and Immigrants (ICRI); Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)

• Focus Population: Refugee and Migrant Populations in Global South Communities in Colombia and Haitian Regions

• Timeline: 2025–2028

This international, community-engaged research project examines culturally grounded trauma-healing practices among refugee and migrant communities, with a particular focus on Venezuelan and Haitian populations across the Global South and the United States. Refugees and immigrants often experience layered trauma across pre-migration, migration, and resettlement contexts, yet U.S. behavioral health systems frequently rely on Western clinical models that are misaligned with community values, lived experience, and culturally embedded pathways to healing.

As a Co-Investigator, my contribution centers on the conceptual and analytical integration of trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and community-based healing frameworks. This work involves synthesizing qualitative data from participatory research activities, including survey design, data collection, and data analysis, to identify how trauma recovery is understood and practiced within community, ritual, narrative, and relational contexts. Particular attention is given to reframing trauma and healing beyond diagnostic and biomedical paradigms, emphasizing collective resilience, meaning-making, and peer- and community-driven processes.

Findings from this project inform the development of a multilingual, translatable trauma-healing framework intended to guide refugee-serving systems in the United States. By elevating Global South knowledge as legitimate and essential to mental health practice, the project contributes to equity-centered models of care and advances alternative, culturally grounded approaches to supporting refugee and immigrant well-being at community, provider, and policy levels.