My research program contributes to activities and evidence in primary and secondary prevention of mental illness. In primary prevention, my research empowers marginalized populations to be proactive on their own behalf to promote their mental health, remove barriers to social engagement, and advocate for occupational justice. My outcome in secondary prevention is early detection to reduce mental health correlates’ consequences associated with exclusion from society because of disadvantaged and/or health conditions. Second, my research program contributes to raising awareness of mental health and substance misuse issues by disseminating accurate information and sharing the lived experiences of individuals who have struggled and overcome similar problems. Such awareness will alert people to potential problems and enable them to create an environment where peers can communicate their substance use and mental health concerns more freely. Finally, my program of research contributes to destigmatizing marginalized populations. Stigma against mental illness, substance use, forensic clients, people with disabilities, and recent immigrants can cause more devastating consequences than the health conditions. Stigma may damage a person’s self-esteem, impose additional stress, and prevent him or her from calling for help and seeking care. My research program has developed, validated, and implemented antistigma interventions to change public attitudes towards marginalized groups of people and to increase their sense of social inclusion. As we continue to disseminate and test these interventions, we will develop an inclusive environment that reduces social stress.

My current research focus on three major groups of projects:

• Campus mental health promotion: This research theme engages a multi-method approach to establish evidence-based interventions that improve the inclusion, health, and wellbeing of youth in the school settings. In particular, my interest is in prevention and promotion, and building an inclusive campus environment.
• Recovery across the spectrum of health conditions: The concept of recoveryemphasizes that people can live a satisfying, hopeful, and productive life regardless of the limitations attributable to their illnesses. I am expanding the concept of recovery further across the spectrum of different health conditions and practice contexts, including individuals living with mental illness, veterans living with chronic pain, and recovery in the forensic psychiatric rehabilitation context.)
• Occupational safety for immigrant workers: I engage all stakeholders across multiple sectors in open conversation and actions to address immigrant workers’ occupational safety issues. The purpose is to establish a partnership that harnesses relevant stakeholders’ strengths and abilities to empower new immigrant workers to solve their occupational safety issues and promote social inclusion for this marginalized population.

My research aims to elevate the role of effective assessment practices through studies of development, evaluation of quality, and consequences of use, mainly in the context of health professions education. Leveraging my measurement background, my research also involves collaborations with health-oriented research teams to evaluate assessment measures to support clinical practice and improve patient outcomes. The combination of my cross-disciplinary knowledge and skills from occupational therapy, educational measurement, and research methodology is unique, with my research contributions addressing methodological and applied research questions that cut across education and health contexts. Assessment is inherently consequential and can enormously impact people’s lives, affecting program progression, access to services and to societal opportunities. I am driven by the premise that we should always be clear in our purpose for assessing an individual, both in education and clinical practice. As such, our assessment practices should yield useful and actionable high-quality information to support educational and clinical decision-making. I engage in educational and measurement research to support the learning goals and development of competent and capable professionals who pursue lifelong learning and contribute positively to their communities. My research program comprises two related areas of research. My primary research focus, educational assessment and measurement, comprises two areas: assessment of practice-based competencies and communication of assessment results/score reporting. A secondary research focus is the application of methodological approaches to assessing health-related constructs. As a methodologist, I aim to build methodological skills through engagement in projects outside educational assessment. Both areas of research focus inform each other where the application of methodological approaches in one context may be adapted and tested for their applicability within a different research context.