Our Philosophy
Our work is grounded in a commitment to community partnership, scientific rigor, and advancing access to care. We believe that health is a fundamental human right—and that promoting health and well-being requires addressing the broader social conditions that disproportionately impact underserved communities. These include challenges such as cultural adaptation stress, food insecurity, unsafe housing, and discrimination, all of which profoundly shape mental and physical health. When these conditions intersect, they contribute to persistent and preventable disparities in health outcomes.
At the heart of our approach is the understanding that meaningful change stems from collaboration, humility, and mutual respect. We prioritize listening to and learning from the communities we work with, recognizing their lived experiences and insight as vital to shaping effective research and interventions. By engaging communities in the design and implementation of solutions, we ensure our work remains relevant, responsive, and sustainable.
We are also guided by the belief that interventions must be both evidence-based and grounded in cultural, linguistic, and contextual realities. Our approach lives at the intersection of science and lived experience, where innovation and sensitivity to local context are essential for impact. Through this lens, we aim to close the gap between research and practice, ensuring that our efforts are both academically sound and practically meaningful.
In all aspects of our work, we are driven by excellence, ethical responsibility, and a deep commitment to advancing mental health for populations that have been historically overlooked or excluded from high-quality care. We envision a future in which our research contributes to the development, evaluation, and dissemination of interventions that expand access, strengthen community well-being, and support a more just mental health landscape for all.
Core Values
Expanding access to quality mental healthcare
Tackling root causes of health challenges
Removing structural barriers to care
Acting with humility, respect, and reciprocity
Co-creating solutions with communities
Merging scientific rigor with cultural relevance
Translating research into real-world outcomes
Our Research Approach
At the Nagy Lab, we are committed to understanding and addressing the foundational causes of mental health challenges, often referred to as the social drivers of health.
We use quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods to explore these complex issues, guided by human-centered design and community-engaged research principles. This ensures our work is relevant, impactful, and sustainable. Much of our research takes place in healthcare settings, with a focus on improving provider effectiveness and implementing evidence-informed practices. These efforts have led to the development of innovative training curricula for mental health professionals, a multicultural peer-consultation model, and actionable practice recommendations—all aimed at enhancing care for communities historically underserved by the mental health system.
Recognizing the need for interventions that reach beyond individual care to address broader social conditions, we have expanded our work into prevention and mental health promotion. One example is the development of the Cultivating Resilience intervention. We also collaborate with partner teams to strengthen and scale similar efforts.
Our research is rooted in community collaboration. We believe in delivering support where it’s most needed—within trusted, local settings. Our interventions are designed to be contextually, linguistically, and culturally attuned to the populations we serve. Whether adapting existing models or co-creating new ones with community and academic partners, our goal is to develop solutions that are both effective and meaningful.
We also take an implementation science approach to ensure our work is not only evidence-based but also scalable and sustainable across diverse contexts. Central to this is an assets-based framework: rather than focusing solely on challenges, we seek to recognize and build upon the strengths and resources within communities. This orientation allows us to design solutions that are empowering, durable, and truly responsive to the people we serve.
Lines of Research
- Understanding mechanisms of health inequities
- Intervention co-design and adaptation
- Community-engaged implementation of evidence-based practices
- Fostering innovation through multicultural education
Methods
- Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods
- Human-centered design approaches
- Community-engaged methods
- Implementation science
Our Community & Academic Partners
In the context of several collaborations, we have developed strong partnerships with distinct agencies that work across distinct sectors.
Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) testing the "Cultivating Resilience" intervention
We are evaluating the preliminary clinical impact, acceptability, feasibility, and fidelity of the Cultivating Resilience (Cultivando Fortaleza) intervention across various community sites in first- and second-generation Latinos/as (N=50) residing in Milwaukee.
Cultural and Linguistic Adaptation of the "Coping Together" Intervention
We are collaborating with researchers at Duke University to carry out a cultural and linguistic adaptation for Latino families of “Coping Together”, which is a family-strengthening intervention that has been previously tested both in the US and Kenya with families (adults and children).
Program Evaluation of the UWM Roberto Hernandez Center
We have partnered with the UWM Roberto Hernandez Center, a multicultural center serving Latino/Hispanic students, to understand the mechanisms of change and impact of the student services they offer that allow students to have a “home away from home” on the UWM campus.