Uthealth Houston associate professor aims to improve people’s lives in hometowns like her own

得克萨斯州圣地亚哥是一个安静的两站小镇，在农业，牧场和石油和天然气方面拥有悠久的历史。这是邻居认识邻居的地方，人们互相寻找。

It’s also a place where health disparities are visible, and the hometown of Melissa Valerio-Shewmaker, PhD, an associate professor at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (Uthealth Houston).

The county seat of Duval County, San Diego, sits west of Corpus Christi and east of Laredo on Highway 44. Its 1,500 households are overwhelmingly Hispanic, 96.8%, with an annual median household income of $25,000 in 2010. Nearly a third of families live below the poverty line.

Valerio-Shewmaker is the associate dean of Faculty Affairs, Development, and Diversity atUTHealth公共卫生学院以及学校布朗斯维尔校园的健康促进与行为科学副教授。她还是健康促进与预防研究中心的成员，此前曾担任学校圣安东尼奥校园的区域院长六年。beplay苹果手机能用吗她是Uthealth公共卫生学院的第一位全校副院长，其位置在休斯顿校园外。

Her body of work emphasizes the identification of effective and culturally sensitive strategies for promotion of chronic disease prevention and management in marginalized and underserved populations. She works with community partners to design and implement educational interventions to improve health outcomes and organizational practice in community settings.

Her hope is that the research and practice work helps understand and provide care to all living in communities like San Diego, which is considered a medically underserved area. Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases are common in the community, impacting generations over time, she said.

“Depending on the need for specialized health care, people in my hometown would have to drive to Corpus Christi, which is about a two-hour round trip,” Valerio-Shewmaker said. “I realized early that some people in the community were less likely to have access to transportation and may have trouble gaining access to specialist care. For many, specialized health care may be a luxury given the need to have a means to drive there, as well as the time off from work to make the trip.”

This has led to work analyzing the challenge transportation has in health care access.

“在德克萨斯州的爱丽丝（位于德克萨斯州杜瓦尔县的吉姆·威尔斯县），我们正在与Real，Inc。合作测试一个框架，以确定如何将农村运输权力纳入改善医疗保健访问，“ 她说。“过境机构在将人们与医疗保健联系起来，以及满足严重精神疾病或需要运输援助的合并症的人的需求，包括食物，处方和社交活动，以更好地达到这些人的需求，以更好地达到这些需求谁可能被隔离。”

Valerio-Shewmaker said the drive to give back was modeled after her parents.

“I was really lucky to have parents who were very involved in the community,” she said. “My dad served as a school board member for the local independent school district for over 30 years. Both of my parents were employed by the state. My dad worked for the Texas Department of Transportation, my mom at Health and Human Services. I learned a lot about work ethic, developing connections with the community, and service from them.”

Valerio-Shewmaker completed her undergraduate degree at The University of Texas at Austin, and then her Master of Public Health and PhD at the University of Michigan. She said her mentors, who helped shape her research methods and encourage her to be more involved with vulnerable communities, have been instrumental in her success.

“I remember one of my mentors insisting that I ‘think like a scientist,’ and pushing me to incorporate the training, strategies, and approaches that lead to a deeper understanding to better serve and reach vulnerable communities,” she said.

为了有效，研究人员必须与社区建立深beplay苹果手机能用吗厚的联系，并与已经沉浸在该地区的团体进行协作方法。在Covid-19期间，研究人员看beplay苹果手机能用吗到了迅速引入感染和预防策略，这些策略需要解释整个社区的风险降低，无论种族，种族，性别或性别如何，都会影响所有人。Covid-19曾是准备，培训和学习以更好地达到和服务不同人群的案例研究。

她说，她最伟大的学习时刻之一是职业生涯的早期。她制定了一项针对哮喘护理管理中健康素养的计划。他们说，在提出社区顾问委员会时，他们说他们想关注青少年预防糖尿病。

她说：“当时我意识到，我创建了这个出色的建议和方法 - 当时它不符合社区的优先事项。”“不仅如此，我还没有遵循真正的社区参与过程。那是我最后一次做这样的事情。当您从事真实，真实的社区参与工作时，您将从一开始将其共同建立。”

She said it’s also important to listen — not only to what is said, but to what isn’t.

“Listening remains an important aspect of my work and approach,” she said. “When you work with vulnerable populations, they may not always feel like their voice matters. Listening to what people are not saying is critical.”

在Covid-19大流行期间，Valerio-Shewmaker一直是一支团队的一部分，其工作帮助弱势群体获得了抗体测试的机会。她还在制定一项在儿童发展领域的倡议，以评估父亲在孩子的大脑发育中所扮演的角色。

Community health work is hands-on and takes time, but it is deeply rewarding.

“Seeing the difference our work makes in communities is what drives me,” she said. “You may not be able to calculate a change and see a significant p-value, but you can see an individual and group change over time in the way they interact, communicate and build resilience — that is what really drives me. A p-value is very important and we need to be able to calculate significant changes, but we want to make sure we are understanding what the p-value represents for the communities.”

Valerio-Shewmaker resides in Harlingen, Texas with her husband, Troy, and stepdaughters, Abigail and Coral, as well as their black lab, Trigger.