Public health faculty involved in Seed Fund for Racial Justice projects

Ohio State funds second round of research combatting racial inequities

Julianna Nemeth, Andy Ni

Twelve research projects — two of which involve faculty in the College of Public Health — were awarded funding in the second round of Ohio State’s Seed Fund for Racial Justice.

Assistant Professor of Health Behavior and Health Promotion Julianna Nemeth will help lead a project focusing on immigrant women of color experiencing domestic violence. Nemeth’s community-research partnerships with the Ohio Domestic Violence Network have shone a light on brain injury from interpersonal violence that has helped survivors get the support and services they need, and this seed grant will help focus these efforts onto marginalized populations.

Assistant Professor of Biostatistics Andy Ni — an expert on the design and analysis of large-scale observational studies — will join a project to evaluate the effectiveness of educational programs about anti-Asian American racism. The study involves an interdisciplinary team of researchers from the colleges of Arts and Sciences, Public Health and Social Work.

The Ohio State Seed Fund for Racial Justice seeks to develop exploratory research approaches and creative ideas that will help contribute to the elimination of racism and solve its underlying causes and consequences on Ohio State’s campuses, in our communities and across the nation. Of the 44 concept papers submitted in this round, 12 were awarded a combined $536,044. Each project was required to have multi-disciplinary investigators and a community partner to ensure solutions have real-world applicability.

Find details regarding the projects that include Public Health faculty below:

Immigrant Women of Color Experiences with Intimate Partner Violence and Service Access: Race and Ethnicity Perspectives Held by Service Providers

This project will explore the experiences of immigrant women of color experiencing intimate partner violence and discrimination, as well as structural inequality issues encountered when accessing needed services in central Ohio from the viewpoint of formal and informal service providers who work with these women. 

  • Principal Investigator: Cecilia Mengo, College of Social Work
  • Co-Investigator: Julianna Nemeth, College of Public Health, Division of Health Behavior and Health Promotion
  • Community Partners: Norah Bagirinka, Refugee Women in Action; Rachel Ramirez, the Ohio Domestic Violence Network Center of Partner-Inflicted Brain Injury

Rise Above Anti-Asian Hate: Developing and Disseminating Evidence-Based Educational Programs

Utilizing community-engaged and interdisciplinary approaches, this project will examine the efficacy of theory-based educational programs designed to reduce anti-Asian American racism. This project is innovative as it investigates the action potential and social diffusion outcomes of anti-racism education.

  • Principal Investigator: Hyunyi Cho, College of Arts and Sciences
  • Co-Investigators: Sharvari Karandikar, College of Social Work; Andy Ni, College of Public Health; Osei Appiah and Wenbo Li, College of Arts and Sciences
  • Community Partners: Russell Jeung, StopAAPIHate; Elyse McConnell, Asian American Community Services; Vincent Wang, Ohio Chinese American Association; Yi Chen, c35 Films

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About The Ohio State University College of Public Health

The Ohio State University College of Public Health is a leader in educating students, creating new knowledge through research, and improving the livelihoods and well-being of people in Ohio and beyond. The College's divisions include biostatistics, environmental health sciences, epidemiology, health behavior and health promotion, and health services management and policy. It is ranked 29th among all colleges and programs of public health in the nation, and first in Ohio, by U.S. News and World Report. Its specialty programs are also considered among the best in the country. The MHA program is ranked 8th, the biostatistics specialty is ranked 22nd, the epidemiology specialty is ranked 25th and the health policy and management specialty is ranked 17th.