As depicted in the graphic below, the EQUITY Research Group works closely with community organizations, representatives from the community, promotores (health promoters), community health workers, and academic partners to achieve mental health equity. We receive input and advice from both a multidisciplinary Community Advisory Board as well as a Scientific Advisory Board.

Representatives from the community, promotores (health promoters), and community health workers are advocates and leaders within their local communities. They encompass a broad range of professional and lived experiences, yet are unified by their passion for improving the health of their communities. Some have worked in these capacities long before becoming affiliated with our research group. Others have newly discovered their passion for achieving mental health equity. Nonetheless, we continually learn from them and their collective wisdom to ensure our interventions and strategies are relevant, attuned, responsible, and sustainable. And, importantly, they are our close partners as we co-develop solutions (i.e., interventions and strategies) to complex and entrenched inequities.

We collaborate with a range of community organizations that encompass community health centers/clinics, community centers, food distribution centers, government agencies, and educational centers, among others. Our partners work in a range of sectors and address distinct social drivers of health, which are known to give rise to and maintain health inequities.

We have developed long-standing collaborations with scholars from a range of disciplines, including psychology, psychiatry, nursing, social work/welfare, sociology, and the humanities at our institution, nationally, and internationally. We approach our work from a “team science” approach levering the unique skillsets of our distinct collaborators.