2020 SIMRM

Kevin Lee

Graduate Student at University of California, Berkeley

Kevin Lee is a second-year Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) student at the University of California, Berkeley. His research interest is in conceptualizing and operationalizing the effects of structural discrimination on immigrant worker health through an examination of immigration and labor policy. His previous multidisciplinary work includes conducting research and evaluation related to sexual health and HIV, sex and labor trafficking, access to health care services, financial savings behavior, and workforce development, often among underserved immigrant communities. He currently...

Dr. Kristina Lovato

Assistant Professor of Social Work at California State University

Dr. Kristina Lovato, PhD, MSW, joined the CSULB School of Social Work faculty as an Assistant Professor in the Fall of 2017. Her research focuses on enhancing child and family well-being among vulnerable and undocumented immigrant families, particularly those subject to immigration and/or public child welfare involvement. Through her research, she aims to develop culturally grounded interventions to increase services and supports for immigrant families at risk of child welfare involvement. Dr. Lovato’s scholarly work has been published in peer-reviewed journals and she has presented at...

Adrian Matias Bacong

Doctoral Student at University of California, Los Angeles

Adrian Matias Bacong (He/His/Him), MPH, is a 3rd year doctoral student in Community Health Sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. As the son of immigrant parents, Adrian's research focuses on both pre-migration and post-migration factors that affect immigrant health across the migration course and life course. Specifically, Adrian is interested in the role and fluidity of legal status and how legal status is racialized. Adrian's other research interests include the role of racism on health inequities among people of color and Asian American health.

Frania Mendoza Lua

Doctoral Student at University of Chicago

Frania Mendoza Lua is a Doctoral Student at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration. Her research focuses on how the socio-political construction of “illegality” is a key determinant of the health and well-being of U.S. citizen adolescents in mixed-status families. She is interested in examining how deportation threat and parental deportation shape the mental and sexual health of second-generation Latino adolescents. Furthermore, she is also interested in understanding the relationships that adolescents have with their deported parent, how technology and social...

J. Nalubega Ross

Graduate Student at Arizona State University

J. Nalubega Ross is a Ugandan American living in the dry dry desert of Arizona. She is currently pursuing a graduate degree at Arizona State University, with a focus on how refugees from Sub-Saharan Africa living in the United States, throughout their migration journey, look for and use information about sex and reproduction. Nalubega's interest in immigration comes from the fact she is an immigrant herself, and a childhood in Uganda observing the Rwanda Genocide, and the civil wars in Sudan, Somalia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Nalubega has a bachelor's degree from the...

Denise N. Obinna

Assistant Professor of Sociology at Mount St. Mary's University

Denise N. Obinna is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Mount St. Mary’s University in Maryland. Her research focuses on the complexities of the migration experience. Particularly on the fact that migration is often multifaceted and spans social, economic and legal divides. This means that the assimilation and integration of newcomers is often fraught with challenges based on national origins, race and legality. As such, a significant part of immigrant integration concerns legality as well as the ability to regularize status. Amid increases in enforcement and renewed scrutiny on...

Fulya Pinar

PhD Candidate at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey

I am a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate at Rutgers University, Cultural Anthropology department. I have been conducting my field research for around 24 months in total in the different cities and districts of Turkey, on social and online connections created and used by migrants. I have also been moderating art sessions (http://beyond-museum.com) and Turkish classes with migrant women in the peripheral districts of Istanbul. I had my MA in Comparative Studies in History and Society and my BA in Business Administration and Economics in...

Mahesh Somashekhar

Assistant Professor of Sociology at University of Illinois

Mahesh Somashekhar is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is interested in the effects of immigrant entrepreneurship on economic development, labor markets, and urban neighborhoods. His current research project aims to understand the unique challenges faced by undocumented immigrant entrepreneurs. While it is illegal to employ undocumented immigrants in the United States, it is legal for undocumented immigrants to own businesses in the formal economy. In previous work, he analyzed how retail chains gentrify immigrant business corridors as...

Ivy Torres

PhD Student at University of California, Irvine

Ivy Torres, MA is a third year PhD student in the Program in Public Health at the University of California, Irvine. Her research interests lie at the intersection of racial stratification, occupational health inequities, aging, and the Latina/o/x community. In her academic work, she explores questions related to the concentration of Latina/o immigrants in low-wage and high-risk jobs; the role of racialization and gender processes in shaping the conditions under which Latina/o/x immigrants work; and the long-term health consequences for Latina/o/x employed in these jobs. She received her M....

Justin Vinneau

Doctoral Candidate at University of Colorado Boulder

Justin Vinneau Palarino is a Ph.D. Candidate in sociology and a graduate affiliate of the Population Program with the Institute of Behavioral Science at the University of Colorado Boulder. His areas of research interest are international migration, population health and aging, and quantitative methods. His dissertation work examines the health of racially black immigrants from the Caribbean and across Africa living in the United States. He is also involved in several other collaborative projects examining both the mental and physical health of Mexican, Central/South American, and Caribbean...