Irene Padasas
My involvement on the Refugee Women’s Health Project project has expanded my knowledge about refugees and U.S. resettlement, particularly factors related to health perceptions and accessibility as well as the importance of sense of community and belonging to individuals who have experienced involuntary migration. Currently, I am one of the graduate students helping Dr. Tippens explore indicators of health promotion and disparities among two groups of refugee women based in Omaha and Lincoln. Using photovoice and focus group discussions as primary research tools, our team aims to elicit women refugees’ perceptions of health and its tacit meanings shared within their community.
My other research work is focused on exploring environmental factors that influence children’s nutritional health in childcare centers and the quality of life of families in rural communities:
- - My work for the Ecological Approach to Family Style Dining Project (Dr. Dipti Dev) is to analyze both quantitative and qualitative data for the implementation and evaluation of the program. I have been helping with the project since I started in the program in 2017, and have acquired specific training focused on implementation science using the RE-AIM framework.
- - Youth Entrepreneurship Clinics (Dr. Maria de Guzman and Dr. Surin Kim) aims to teach rural high school students with STEAM/Entrepreneurial skills to develop a sense of connection between their skills and opportunities within their local communities. My current work for the project is focused on the evaluation of our multisite pilot study and ongoing curriculum improvement both for the youth participants and program facilitators.