Close
Enter your
text here

Featured Researcher: Laura Chavez, PhD, MPH

Featured Researcher: Laura Chavez, PhD, MPH 150 150 Gina Vitale, PTA

Improving access to health care for all, regardless of age, race, gender and socioeconomic background, is essential for numerous health and economic reasons — especially for children. It’s vital to understand and prevent health disparities from impacting children to ensure the best outcomes for physical and mental health into adulthood.

Laura Chavez, PhD, MPH, is a behavioral health scientist, a health policy expert and a principal investigator at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in the Center for Child Health Equity and Outcomes Research. Her work evaluates policies and programs addressing poverty and assesses their impact on child health outcomes. Dr. Chavez’s research has studied interventions to improve behavioral health outcomes of youth diagnosed with opioid use disorder (OUD) and youth experiencing homelessness. She is currently involved in noteworthy research regarding understanding the impact of the 2021 Child Tax Credit changes that were introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic and their effects on mental health for adolescents enrolled in Medicaid. Her goal is to address population behavioral health and improve understanding of the social drivers of outcomes for adolescents and young adults.

Read on to learn more about Dr. Chavez’s work and research career.

Why did you decide to pursue a career in your field?

I became interested in the field of public health generally because I was interested in thinking about population health, how to use policies or programs to impact outcomes for large groups of people, and target those towards the most vulnerable individuals. I was interested in environmental factors in our daily lives that impact health and the clinical care that patients receive.

I earned my doctorate at the University of Washington. I worked in the Veterans Administration (VA) health care system as a project coordinator throughout graduate school. I worked with investigators there who were focused on access to treatment for addiction in the VA system and trying to expand access in primary care settings. This motivated my pivot to mental health and addiction studies. Thinking about what we’ve seen in the VA system, where we see older veterans, what if we could reach people earlier in their life course, such as adolescents who are struggling with mental health or substance use disorders? Could we change their trajectories?

I became drawn to research opportunities and contributing to evidence on how we can improve health, and what the impacts of policies are on individuals or individual groups of children. This led me to the opportunity to work at Nationwide Children’s in 2019.

What is your favorite part of your job?

The people I work with and the opportunity to engage with different community groups throughout Columbus. I’m enjoying being part of the advisory group for the city’s Economic Mobility Accelerators demonstration. It’s been cool to make new connections with different groups that are focused on how we lift families out of poverty and improve economic opportunities, which also have important implications for child health. Just seeing all that is happening across the city and within our health system and primary care network is exciting.

How does your research serve our patients and our community? 

I think my research is building that case for how health systems and policies can impact mental health outcomes for adolescents. Through evaluating policies that were introduced during the pandemic, such as the Child Tax Credit, and evaluating improved access to tax credits through pre-tax filing services through our hospitals, a lot of my work now is focused on that programming to address poverty and programming to address economic mobility.  I think that has direct impacts on the families that are served, but also impacts the larger community as well.

Fun Facts About Dr. Chavez

What’s your favorite word, and why?

That is hard. I don’t know if I’ve ever thought about my favorite word. I guess opportunity. Kind of in line with my research, it’s like hoping that to increase opportunity for families and see how that improves child outcomes as well.

And then in my own life, I am ready to seize those opportunities as they come up. I feel very fortunate and hope to be a good mentor in my role now as an investigator to help the next generation of future scientists who are interested in public health and health policy.

What would be your dream job if you didn’t work in research?

I’d work in a library or be a librarian. I love to read fiction. I just think that would be fun to be around books and volunteer with all the programs that libraries have these days.

What’s your favorite food?

I am originally from eastern North Carolina, so I probably have to say North Carolina barbecue.

Favorite band/music?

I really enjoy listening to bluegrass music live.

Favorite way to relax?

Probably a yoga class or going on a walk.

About the author

Gina is a licensed physical therapist assistant with 30 years of direct patient care experience treating all ages in outpatient orthopedics and sports medicine rehabilitation, and post-acute home health care settings. Having a background as a competitive gymnast, and the injuries that accompany sport spurred her into a career in physical therapy and rehabilitation. She is also a certified mat Pilates instructor.

Gina began health content writing in 2021 focusing on informational writing such as blogs, web pages and articles for health care, health and wellness businesses and publications. She believes educating everyone about evidence-based health and wellness is essential to improving health awareness and quality of life.

You might also like