Health Equity

Health equity is the state in which everyone has a fair and just opportunity to attain their highest level of health.” CDC, 2022. More.

One important step toward health equity is the promotion of health literacy. With funding from the National Library of Medicine G08 LM014109, the Refugee Reproductive Health Network promotes digital sexual and reproductive health literacy among Afghan and Arab refugees in Sacramento, California, and beyond.

Our Aims

Create a publicly available digital library of multilingual (Dari, Pashto, and Arabic) reproductive health resources for Afghan and Arab refugee populations

Compile and curate resources in Dari, Pashto, and Arabic for audiences with limited literacy skills using standardized instruments to ensure that the materials are evidence-based, accurate, and culturally appropriate. The online library targets refugee women and service providers who work with refugees.

Enhance Afghan and Arab refugee’s reproductive health literacy (RHL) in Sacramento, California.

Conduct a series of 12 in-person and 12 online reproductive health education training sessions in coordination with the Sacramento Public Library and ReproNet partners in Sacramento. The training sessions adapt the ReproNet resource materials (i.e., PowerPoint presentations, YouTube videoclips, online education training) and integrate additional didactic materials to develop and implement a three-session Reproductive Health Education program. All Dari-, Pashto-, Arabic-, and English-language materials used in this program are literacy, linguistically, and culturally appropriate.

Increase the capacity of refugee providers to integrate reproductive health education into their programs

Disseminate reproductive health education resources nationwide through the National Medical Library, the ReproNet network and partners. Offer webinars to build capacities across the United States to integrate reproductive health education into clinical care, English as a Second or Other Language (ESOL), cultural awareness, and culturally competent health promotion programs.

Core Executive Team

Heike Thiel de Bocanegra, PhD, MPH

Principal Investigator

University of California, Irvine

Asiya Yama, BS

Project Coordinator

University of California, Irvine

Madelynn Dickerson

Head, Digital Scholarship Services

University of California, Irvine

Marius Koga, MD, MPH

Co-investigator and Associate Professor

University of California Davis

Zahra Goliaei MD, MPH, PhD

Co-investigator and Assistant Professor

Touro University Public Health Sciences

Haidy Neamaallah, MD, MPH

Content Expert, Arabic & Visiting Professor

University of California Davis

Ahmad Fahim Pirzada, MD, MPH

Content Expert, Dari/Pashto, & Visiting Professor

University of California Davis

Katie Ball, BA

Partner and Special Projects Associate

Sacramento Public Library

Gulshan Yusufzai

Co-investigator and CEO

Muslim American Society – Social Services Foundation (MAS-SSF)

Molly Milazzo, MLIS

Partner and Librarian

Sacramento Public Library

Reproductive Health Equity Scholars

Arabic | العربية

Taia Abusham

Taia is our current undergraduate lab manager. She is an aspiring occupational therapist majoring in Biological Sciences. She is a Arabic speaker that is passionate about giving back to her community.

Vietnamese

Eden Nguyen

Eden Nguyen is a pre-med Biological Sciences student focused on women’s health, obstetrics and gynecology, and emergency medicine. She hopes to contribute to research that can improve care and heath outcomes for women.

Pashto | پښتو

Shaunzeh Shah

Shaunzeh is a Public Health Science major at UCI, aspiring towards a career in medicine. With Pashtun roots in Pakistan, she is passionate about providing equitable access to healthcare and effective resources for immigrants and refugees to utilize.

armenian

Eric Mnatsakanyan

Eric is a Biological Sciences major at UC Irvine with a passion for making health information more accessible. In the lab, he focuses on developing Armenian-language health resources for refugee communities, a project inspired by his own roots and the unmet needs he’s witnessed. Outside the lab, he volunteers both locally and abroad, joining medical relief efforts in Southern California, Colorado,...

Arabic | العربية

Salma Fadda

Salma is a Human Biology major at UCI with aspirations of attending dental school. As a Palestinian, she is deeply motivated by the challenges faced by displaced communities and aims to give back to communities facing similar struggles. Salma wants to improve health literacy by organizing health education resources and contributing to Repronet’s website.

Arabic | العربية

Sarah Alkatib

For the 2025–2026 academic year, my group and I in Dr. Thiel’s Family Planning Lab is investigating knowledge, awareness, and diagnosis of endometriosis among Arab and Vietnamese women.

Arabic | العربية

Sarah Abdullah

Sarah is our current undergraduate lab manager. She is majoring in Biological Sciences and aspiring to pursue a career in medicine. Coming from an Indian/Bangladeshi background, Sarah is passionate about helping refugees and immigrants achieve quality health.

All Health Equity Scholars

2022-2023;

Pontea Doroudian, Amanda Hoang, Ameryl Loi, Laila Zaib, Sima Naderi, Israa Zaidi, Noor Abushaban

2023-2024;

Usra Wasil, Tariq Mukatash, Donya Mohammadi, Saria Nassar, Adiba Safiri, Gabriela De Lara, Razan Al-Obaidy, Nashrah Mariam, Layla Dalati, Amira Zayed, Taj Najjar, Roseanne De Guzman

2025-2026

Sarah Abdullah, Taia Abusham, Salma Fadda, Sarah Alkatib, Eden Nguyen, Eric Mnatsakanyan, Shaunzeh Shah, Lana Ashre, Samy Ayesh, Ilia Jorhadzedah, Natalie Sargisyan, Jade Hamati, Tolin Safadi, Henah Durrani

References

“What Is Health Equity?” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 July 2022, www.cdc.gov/healthequity/whatis/index.html#:~:text=Health%20equity%20is%20the%20state,health%20and%20health%20care%3B%20and.
“Health Literacy in Healthy People 2030.” Health Literacy in Healthy People 2030 – Healthy People 2030, health.gov/healthypeople/priority-areas/health-literacy-healthy-people-2030. Accessed 24 July 2023.
National Library of Medicine (NLM), NLM Strategic Plan for 2017-2027: A platform for Biomedical Discovery and Data Powered Health, 2017.