Meet the HSAED Lab
Loretta Hsueh, PhD
Dr. Loretta Hsueh (pronounced SHAY) started the HSAED Lab in 2022. She is committed to protecting and improving the health of immigrants and people of color through research and community partnerships. Dr. Hsueh also works with healthcare systems to answer questions whose answers can improve the practice of healthcare for marginalized groups. She collaborates and publishes with colleagues across psychology, medicine, public health, and health systems science. Her research follows two lines of questioning.
1. What accounts for the disproportionate burden of chronic disease observed among immigrants and people of color, and what can be done to prevent it? Her work to understand the factors that put immigrants and people of color at higher risk of developing cardiometabolic conditions examines multi-level factors ranging from the individual (e.g.,acculturation) to the system (e.g., care access). She also examines opportunities for healthcare systems to intervene on health disparities and work to identify care gaps to target in future interventions.
2. How do immigrants and people of color experience healthcare, and how do these experiences impact disease progression? Her work on the healthcare experiences of immigrants and people of color focuses on psychosocial factors in care. In this research line, she has examined how discrimination in healthcare (e.g., among sexual minority men of color, immigrants with diabetes) and health technology (e.g., telemedicine) might exacerbate health disparities.
Additional research interests: Limited English proficiency, stereotypes, stigma/discrimination,interpersonal processes of care, patient-provider communication, behavioral health, healthcare delivery, prevention and intervention, implementation science, diversity and training issues in clinical psychology.
Viviana Uribe, BA
Viviana Uribe is a first-year student in the Clinical Psychology PhD program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her work takes a two-pronged approach to ask questions about increasing access to mental health care for Black and Brown communities. The first approach is through analysis of large epidemiological datasets; the second is through community-based research. Her research questions are informed by her experiences as a Chicago resident and witnessing the mental health disparities in the Black and Brown communities. The ultimate goal of her research is to increase mental health care accessibility for underserved communities through innovative, culturally-adapted solutions, leveraging the strengths and knowledge of these communities along the way. For her first-year project, Viviana used a nationally representative dataset (National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey [NHANES]) to determine the association of WIC enrollment with mental health care engagement. Concurrently, she is working on a master’s thesis proposal on the relationship between social determinants of health and mental health care engagement and the potentially moderating role of racial and ethnic identity.
Maya Lee, BA, BS
Maya Lee is a first year in the Clinical Psychology PhD program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her current work uses large, epidemiological and community-level data to ask questions about how racially/ethnically minoritized and immigrant populations navigate the healthcare system, and to investigate outcomes at the intersection of physical and mental health. Her research interests and activism are influenced by her prior work in primary care, mental healthcare, and community-facing non-profit spaces. Ultimately, her goal is to inform and implement interventions that enhance equitable health and mental health care outcomes for minoritized groups at the system, community, clinical, and individual levels. Maya’s first-year project used a nationally representative dataset (NHANES) to examine the relationship between nativity status (whether someone is born inside or outside of the US) and engagement with or use different types of mental health services among Asian American and Pacific Islanders (API), the fastest growing racial/ethnic group in the US. Her master’s thesis will build on this initial work, first by extending the investigation into the Latine population and second by examining whether the influence of nativity on mental health care engagement varies by race/ethnicity.
Natalie Fick
Natalie is a fourth-year undergraduate majoring in Psychology and minoring in Biological Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Natalie’s goal is to examine both the barriers to receiving psychological treatment and promoting culturally appropriate and affirming interventions for children from marginalized communities. Outside of school, she works as a research intern at the non-profit Children’s Research Triangle in Chicago, where she has furthered her interests in children’s health by exploring the impact of prenatal substance abuse exposure and trauma on children in the foster care system. After graduating in Fall 2023, she will be pursuing graduate school training to become a licensed child and adolescent therapist, where she can make mental health care accessible for the betterment of future generations.