This month’s research spotlight highlights our 2021-2022 research seed grant recipients. These young scholars were selected for funding from a competitive field of applications from several Boston-area universities. We are excited to support the impact of each of these research projects.
Megan Smith, Doctoral Candidate in Social Work at Boston University. Megan Smith is a social worker who has worked with the homeless community in Rhode Island for twelve years. For the last three years, she was the outreach program manager with the House of Hope CDC, working with adults experiencing street homelessness. She has taught at the Rhode Island College School of Social Work and the Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Her research will work with the State of Rhode Island to merge multiple administrative data sets to track how those who have experienced homelessness interact with the criminal justice system, and whether interactions with one system tend to precede the other.
Nathan L. Hollinsaid, Doctoral Student in Clinical Science at Harvard University. His research focuses on transgender adolescents who have high rates of suicidality and violence victimization, which may result, in part, from anti-transgender discrimination. His research project focuses on how municipal-level outcomes on transgender-related voter referenda predict mental health outcomes in local transgender youth.
Sameera Nayak, Doctoral Candidate in Population Health at Northeastern University. Her research focuses on the effects of the immigration policy climate on the health and well-being of immigrant survivors of domestic violence and domestic violence systems in the Greater Boston Area. Specifically, she will work with Casa Myrna to identify how perceptions of immigration policy climate do or do not deter these individuals from seeking out supports.