March 30, 2022 | covid-19, program evaluation
Center for HOPES Research Evaluator Saira Nawaz recently co-presented a lecture for the Educating the Whole Physician Lecture Series at Notre Dame University’s John J. Reilly Center. On March 23, 2022, Nawaz and Dr. Gloria Itzel Montiel gave their talk titled “Centering Community to Advance Health Equity: Lessons from Evaluation of Co-Developed Interventions in Latinx Communities.” Drs. Nawaz and Montiel presented a story of community resilience, using community-based participatory research and implementation science to mobilize and activate communities for social change and health equity in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Spanning community organizing and research engagement, their work highlights the importance of research that centers community and works with partners to develop evaluations that will generate relevant and actionable learnings to address entrenched social inequities and structural vulnerabilities.
Together with student research associate Kyle Moon, Dr. Nawaz has co-authored a number of articles about the promotores program with Dr. Montiel. Most recently, La Equidad en Tiempos de Pandemia: A Case Study of Promotores on the Frontline of COVID-19 Response in Latinx Communities in Orange County, California appeared in the 2021 edition of Border-Lines.