Meet the Team

Dr. Minjin Kim, a tenure-track assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Nursing is dedicated to promoting health equity by reducing health disparities and enhancing health outcomes for underserved populations. Her approach to fostering better health outcomes in diverse communities emphasizes human-centered interventions. Dr. Kim harnesses the power of storytelling to amplify health communication and employs innovative digital health technologies, such as AI Chatbots, to ensure that marginalized populations have access to high-quality health care information and services. By prioritizing individuals' needs and experiences, Dr. Kim's interventions focus on the human aspect of health care and strive to establish equitable access to health care resources for everyone.

Dr. Kim has been awarded the NIH/NINR K23 (K23NR020342-01) grant for her pioneering work on increasing HPV vaccine uptake. Her grant revolves around creating a culturally tailored storytelling intervention incorporating AI chatbot technology to enable timely, effective and sustained motivation for HPV vaccination.

Furthermore, she serves as the Principal Investigator for the project titled "The Effect of Mini-Mindfulness and Narrative Nursing Interventions to Promote Nurse Leaders' Resilience and Well-being." This project, funded by the Association for Leadership Science in Nursing, investigates the impact of a three-minute mindfulness breathing intervention (3MBS) and a narrative nursing (NN) intervention on nurse leaders' well-being and resilience through a three-arm randomized controlled trial.

Since 2020, Dr. Kim has also spearheaded a storytelling project aimed at combating COVID-19-related racism and stigma, promoting social cohesion, and fostering community healing. To achieve health equity through storytelling interventions, her team has produced over 30 videos capturing the experiences of Asian, Latinx and international students affected by racism and discrimination.

Additionally, Dr. Kim is a co-editor and co-author of "The 1.5 Generation Korean Diaspora: A Comparative Understanding of Identity, Culture, and Transnationalism." This comprehensive work delves into the experiences of 1.5-generation Koreans, highlighting the unique challenges they encounter as they navigate their identity and culture across borders.

Louisette Abikou is a PhD student at UC College of Nursing focusing on health and social inequalities related to gender-based discrimination. With her extensive nursing background, Louisette is deeply committed to conducting research that is both culturally and situationally tailored to women's needs. Her overarching aim is to improve the health outcomes of women on both national and global levels. Louisette will be serving as the president of the International Future Nurse Leaders (IFNL) organization for the 2023-24 academic year.

Narmada has a bachelor's in medicine and surgery with a service focus. She is pursuing her master's in public health with a focus in epidemiology at UC. In the past, she completed practicum work with Dr. Kim as part of the Racial Experiences of Asian Nurses Life (REAL) project and participated in a three-month IMUN (International Model United Nations) internship that covered global issues. She is excited about the SHARE project and aims to reduce health disparities among minorities by promoting knowledge and research through this project.

Natasha Rodriguez is a recent graduate of UC master's in public health program. She earned a bachelor's in liberal arts: medicine, health and society and completed certificates in minority health, medical humanities and pre-medicine at UC. She founded PASO, UC's Filipino cultural organization, and has worked with university and local organizations to cultivate Asian American culture in the Cincinnati area. She is interested in health equity and has worked with Cincinnati Children's, the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition and Crossroads Health Center and others to conduct research and gain experience workthin with and for underserved populations. Near the end of her graduate program, she began working with Dr. Kim on her Racism Storytelling Project and has joined the team to continue this work. Natasha hopes to advance minority health disparities through education and research.

Ayşe Guler has been a registered midwife for 10 years and a registered nurse for seven years in Turkey. Her clinical experience as a midwife involves working at various departments of women’s health for six years. She has worked as a women’s health educator, clinical nurse mentor and nurse researcher. Her research program focuses on the development, implementation and evaluation of culturally appropriate interventions for women who experience intimate partner violence (IPV). Her dissertation research is focused on examining risk and protective factors associated with women’s exposure to IPV and the help-seeking process in women from different demographic and cultural backgrounds. As a nurse scientist, she is passionate about promoting health equity for women by identifying unique factors associated with IPV exposure in women from underprivileged minority groups. Her focus of research is to develop interdisciplinary, culturally appropriate IPV prevention programs to address barriers and facilitators in the help-seeking for IPV from formal resources among women from underprivileged minority groups. During her doctoral studies, she worked as a research assistant on several interdisciplinary research projects, including Minjin Kim's project on HPV studies. In addition, she served as the first president of an international student organization at the University of Cincinnati College of Nursing.

Francisco Javier de la Garza Iga is a recent graduate of the University of Cincinnati's master's in public health program. His capstone project focused on comparing two different point-of-water filtration systems' practicality and microbiological efficiency to address water needs in rural Guatemala. He graduated from Xavier University with a B.A. in philosophy, politics and the public (an interdisciplinary honors program) and a B.S. in Biology with a minor in chemistry. He is an international research assistant from Monterrey, Mexico. Since he moved to the United States for college, he has come to the realization that many minority groups are heavily discriminated against and lack opportunities for work and education due to their ethnicity and/or migration status. With this in mind, he opted to join Kim's project to address disparities faced by the Latino community.

Ellie Kim is an undergraduate student at Penn State University studying biochemistry/molecular biology and piano. Since the beginning of her college career, she has delved into research to get a better understanding of human health. Currently, her interests lie in understanding infectious disease through basic science research, as well as advocating for vaccinations for her local community through the student organization Vaccinate America. Kim is also a part of the professional organization Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Association (KSEA) where she has had the opportunity to get to know and work with fellow Korean-American students and mentors. With her interest in vaccine advocacy and her Korean-American community, she opted to join Minjin Kim's project to address health disparities within the Korean-American community.