Wilson Figueroa is discovering the link between stress and poor health outcomes in sexual and gender minorities (SGM), particularly the Black SGM community.
(Left to right) Wilson Figueroa, senior consulting research statistician in the College of Public Health, Bucky Foster, a master's student in the College of Public Health and Courtney Taylor, a graduate research assistant (photo by Jodi Miller).
When Wilson Figueroa learned Columbus had received a perfect 100 on the Human Rights Campaign’s equality index, he was intrigued.
Is Columbus, or anywhere, truly considered a perfect place to live?
With this in mind, Figueroa decided to build on his past research on sexual and gender minorities (SGMs) to focus specifically on the Black SGM community.
“Sexual and gender minorities are at an increased risk for poor mental and physical health outcomes, especially those who are racial minorities,” says Figueroa, a research scientist in the College of Public Health. “Stress may be a risk factor for those disparities.”
With years of experience in social science and research design, Figueroa created the RISE (Examining Race, gender Identity, and Sexual orientation for health Equity) study to examine the effects of daily stressors in queer persons of color residing in Franklin County.
