Larissa Ramirez | January 22nd, 2025

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is a collaborative approach designed to address health disparities by integrating community members, researchers, and stakeholders into every stage of the research process. Rooted in psychology, sociology, and critical pedagogy, CBPR aims to combine knowledge with action to create lasting social change.

Melissa Luong is a doctoral student in Community Research and Action at Vanderbilt. Her work explores how community organizing can constitute reparative community work and collective healing for individuals and communities experiencing harm and trauma at multiple social-ecological levels. Through exploring community organizing and social movement-building efforts to advance health equity, Melissa focuses on how communities resist, contest, and transform social structures that create and reinforce structural violence. 

As a first-generation college graduate born and raised in Spring Valley, New York, Luong’s family’s complex migration histories of displacement, war, and political and economic upheaval are crucial to both what drives her work and how she understands her work. She received a Master of Public Health in Health Behavior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) and a Bachelor of Arts in Biology and English at Binghamton University. She has now established her own research initiative at Vanderbilt, the Community Power Lab.

The Vanguard: Can you describe your current research focus and how it connects to the needs of the community?

Luong: My research focuses on community organizing as reparative work, addressing structural violence through grassroots efforts and people power. It examines how institutions perpetuate harm and neglect through discriminatory policies and systemic racism.

In community-focused work, it’s about flipping the narrative that only individuals with elite degrees are knowledge-bearers. Participatory-based research (PBR) highlights that people in the community are experts in their own lives. While misconceptions may exist, those impacted by issues understand them best. This approach challenges elitist perspectives that prioritize voices with formal education, which is classed, raced, and gendered.

My goal is to leverage research skills and credentials to partner with communities solving their own issues. Community organizing is about building leadership, creating a strong base, and wrestling with power to drive material change.

The Vanguard: How do you balance the scientific rigor and theory of your research with the practical needs of the community?

Luong: A piece that has inspired me is Theory as Liberatory Practice by Bell Hooks. It frames theory as a tool for community work, especially in how research findings are shared. A lot of research about marginalized communities is exploitative, often reinforcing narratives of helplessness and violence. While it’s true that these communities face discrimination, it’s important not to stop there. Refusing to accept that as the full story and focusing on how people can build power together is where theory comes in. It’s about producing research that doesn’t just repeat the idea that community members are weak.

A strong understanding of theory matters because community needs vary and require different skill sets. Theory helps guide research in a way that critically examines issues while recognizing that people are resilient and capable of creating change.

The Vanguard: What are some challenges you’ve faced in mobilizing community action, and how have you overcome them?

Luong: The first obstacle was myself. Learning about community research and actually doing it in practice can feel very different. I had gained a critical perspective from reading theory, but I was scared.

During a youth forum on gentrification at UNC, I hesitated to impose structure. I questioned who I was, as an academic, to tell people what to do, so I didn’t assign deadlines because I knew they were juggling so much. Eventually, a community member called me out, asking for structure and accountability to make progress. That moment taught me that structure isn’t about control; it’s about supporting the work. There’s always a gap between intentions and practice, and mistakes will happen — that’s okay. Now, when I invite undergraduate students to work in my lab, I remind myself to not fear imposing deadlines but to always remain open to communication. There’s a balance between being overbearing and not driving real change.

The second challenge is understanding that things will inevitably change when working with community members, so flexibility and adaptability are key. I’ve seen this in my own projects — plans can shift when people’s circumstances change. At the university level, there are also structural barriers that make things less streamlined, but keeping the focus on intergenerational well-being and community thriving helps ground the work.

The Vanguard: Are there areas in community research you believe are underexplored and need more attention?

Luong: One underexplored area is creating actual material change in the communities we work with. In academia, for example, there’s a lot of research on health disparities, but after decades, we see little progress in reducing those disparities. This isn’t necessarily the fault of individual researchers — it could be academic systems — but at the end of the day, what’s truly changing for communities often isn’t clear.

For example, efforts like the Lee’s Deli wage settlement, where workers secured compensation for years of wage theft, show what’s possible when research and organizing align with community needs. That’s the kind of tangible impact we need to aim for. Community-driven interventions are important, but they need to go beyond small-scale projects, like a community garden, and tackle systemic issues. For example, who is responsible for decisions that leave a community in a food desert?

We need to be more systematic and structural in leveraging research for real change and stop being afraid to confront stakeholders who have the power to make those decisions. My work combines community organizing and community-based research, with organizing focusing on building people power to drive lasting, structural change.

The Vanguard: What advice would you give to students or early-career researchers interested in community research?

Luong: Get involved! Stay open and critical. It’s important to recognize that some community research perpetuates unhelpful narratives about the very communities it aims to support. Stay grounded by thinking about how we are all human beings working together. Always reflect on whether your research is truly grounded in the needs and realities of the community. Hone your skills in critical reflection. Ask yourself: What is your investment in creating change? Developing this mindset will help you approach community research with purpose and accountability.

References

Collins, Susan E, et al. “Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR): Towards Equitable Involvement of Community in Psychology Research.” The American Psychologist, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Oct. 2018, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6054913/.

Hooks, Bell. Theory as Liberatory Practice, www.csub.edu/~mault/hooks2.pdf. Accessed 27 Nov. 2024.

“Immigrant Workers Win $60K Settlement from Lee’s Deli Restaurants.” Immigrant Workers Win $60K Settlement from Lee’s Deli Restaurants | Asian Law Caucus, www.asianlawcaucus.org/news-resources/news/lees-deli-wage-settlement. Accessed 26 Nov. 2024.