PROJECT: Develop a “Research-Practice Consensus” program to connect researchers and community organizations working with older immigrant adults to bridge the gap in health care and social services and build trust and solidarity with each other.

Lei Chen, MS, MSP, is a doctoral candidate at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs in the Social Welfare Department and a graduate student researcher at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR). As a trans-disciplinary and cross-cultural researcher, Chen’s research interest focuses on health and aging policy, long-term services and supports, immigrants’ access to health care, older adults’ psychological well-being, and cross-cultural studies. She has worked on grant-funded research projects, published articles in peer-reviewed journals, and presented research at national conferences related to older adults’ social support and psychological well=being, immigrants’ law enforcement experiences and access to health care, cross-cultural researchers’ positionality in conducting research with immigrants, etc.

Apart from being an academic, Chen actively engages in policy-related work at state and national levels. As a researcher, she always thinks about bridging the gap between health-related research and policy/practice for marginalized older adults. Her high-level aspiration for reducing health care disparities is to connect and build the partnership between researchers and community organizations by 1) translating research findings and using data to serve local communities and 2) identifying difficulties that marginalized older adults face based on community organizations’ day-to-day field experiences, which will inform further research.