Investing in future public health changemakers

Not one, not two, but six scholarships/fellowships have been awarded to Juan Carlos Ruiz Malagon, a doctoral student in his second year of his 5-year journey towards earning a PhD degree in Public Health from the UCI Program in Public Health. Under the mentorship of Alana LeBrón, PhD, associate professor of health, society, & behavior, these scholarships will help off-set living costs and other expenses while he focuses on research that hits close to home: the health and well-being of migrant and laborer communities.

Reflecting on their family’s history and community

Originally from Mexico, Ruiz Malagon and his family immigrated to the Central Valley of California when he was seven years old. Many of his family members are laborers and farm workers, but none have gone onto college. In fact, he never saw people who looked like him go any further than high school and he was even told by high school and college counselors that people like him, Latino, LGBTQIA+, and immigrants, don’t become doctors or researchers. Despite these circumstances, Ruiz Malagon didn’t let any of that deter him from enrolling in a program during high school, which allowed him to simultaneously take community college classes. This high level of academic rigor early on set the stage for the academic trajectory he now finds himself on. As a first-generation/low-income college student, Ruiz Malagon is not only proud to represent the community he comes from in an academic setting but also conducting research that will ultimately alleviate the burdens he, his family, and community have endured.

“My research is centralized around my own lived experiences and history,” says Ruiz Malagon. “I often reflect on the fact that the space I hold in academia is because of the sacrifices my parents made to get me into a place that was originally never meant for people like me.”

As a recipient of these scholarships and fellowships, I have protected time to do much needed community-led research like exposing the prevalence of gun violence within the farm working community and how land degradation ultimately impacts marginalized communities the most.”

– Juan Carlos Ruiz Malagon, MS, MA

Conducting research close to home

Ruiz Malagon’s research is focused on the health and well-being of migrant and laborer communities, which is especially relevant given that California is home to nearly 4 million migrants (about twice the population of New Mexico) and laborers. The core of their research is to utilize a model of care and healing among migrant and laborer communities. Many of these individuals and families face astonishing hardships, such as migration trauma, structural racism, and health disparities.

Ruiz Malagon’s impact and potential as a researcher has clearly been established as is evidenced by the awards he’s received, including the Northgate Gonzalez Scholarship, an H&H Lee Charitable Foundation Scholarship, a Health Equity Research Summer Scholarship, a Graduate Division Fellowship, an Environmental and Health Equity Fellowship, and an NSF funded fellowship called the Climate Justice Initiative.

“As a recipient of these scholarships and fellowships, I have protected time to do much needed community-led research like exposing the prevalence of gun violence within the farm working community and how land degradation ultimately impacts marginalized communities the most,” explains Ruiz Malagon. “It also helps pay off debt that I have accumulated throughout my academic career and will keep me afloat for years to come.”

In addition to these scholarships, Ruiz Malagon and mentor, Dr. LeBrón, have already secured extramural grant funding from the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health for their work shedding light on the invisible suffering of farmworkers. Much of this population’s burdens can be attributed to structural stratification based on racial/ethnic identity, documentation status, and low socioeconomic levels reinforced through inequitable policies and laws.

“Farmworkers, like my family, are essential to the nation’s food supply, yet we have limited social support services that contribute to the disparities we face socially, economically, and politically,” says Ruiz Malagon. “Through this study, the team and I will capture the lived experiences of farmworkers to assess how structural violence is manifesting within occupational settings and beyond.”