{"id":220458,"date":"2024-10-29T07:01:22","date_gmt":"2024-10-29T11:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=220458"},"modified":"2024-10-29T10:15:01","modified_gmt":"2024-10-29T14:15:01","slug":"from-policy-to-action-anna-michelle-mcsorley-focuses-on-health-equity-for-latinos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2024\/10\/from-policy-to-action-anna-michelle-mcsorley-focuses-on-health-equity-for-latinos\/","title":{"rendered":"From Policy to Action: Anna-Michelle McSorley Focuses on Health Equity for Latinos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anna-Michelle McSorley, assistant professor of allied health sciences<\/a>, joined the faculty of the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources (CAHNR) this fall. Her work focuses on addressing health inequities related to policies and data collection for Latinos, particularly Puerto Ricans.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m well-situated at UConn to engage with the very population that is migrating from that territorial context into the state of Connecticut,\u201d McSorley says.<\/p>\n

\"CAHNRAccording to the most recent U.S. Census data<\/a>, 18.6% of Connecticut\u2019s population is Hispanic or Latino, equating to more than 670,000 people. Puerto Ricans constitute the largest Latino group within this population, representing roughly 45%. Nearly six million Puerto Ricans live outside of Puerto Rico in the States in total.<\/p>\n

McSorley is based at UConn Waterbury. Waterbury has a large Latino population, including more than 110,000 Puerto Ricans. This positions McSorley well to engage directly with the communities her research stands to impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the rigor of research translated into policy action to benefit the people we are trying to serve,\u201d McSorley says.<\/p>\n

Much of McSorley\u2019s work focuses on Puerto Rico, which is neither an independent nation nor a state, but a territory of the United States.<\/p>\n

McSorley, who identifies as a \u201cNuyorican\u201d raised between New York and Puerto Rico, understood this unique status from a young age. She realized there was something about how she was able to travel between the U.S. and Puerto Rico that was distinct from other Latino communities and countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started thinking about that very early in my life,\u201d McSorley says. \u201cThen, through my education, I was able to pinpoint this difference, identify policies and structures that affect it, and have the vocabulary to highlight it as part of my research.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her research, McSorley takes an expansive view of the federal and local policies, systems, and agencies that affect our health.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think of traditional health policies,\u201d McSorley says. \u201cBut I also think of others in our social sphere, like economic policies, that also ultimately shape health outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n

McSorley recently contributed three papers to a historical special edition of the American Journal of Public Health \u2013 the first to exclusively focus on Latino health issues \u2013 in which Puerto Rico is prominently featured.<\/p>\n

McSorley was the first author on one of these papers<\/a> focusing on three key policy areas contributing to health and health care inequities in Puerto Rico: FEMA, Medicaid, and political representation in the island area.<\/p>\n

McSorley and her collaborators assess the ways in which the distribution of FEMA aid and Medicaid funds to the territory perpetuate health disparities.<\/p>\n

McSorley\u2019s paper also highlights the role of political representation, or the lack thereof, in the differential application of federal policies in the territory of Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, these are matters of health policy,\u201d says McSorley. \u201cHowever, it\u2019s also a question of political processes, potential political biases, and power dynamics.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a territory, Puerto Rico is not a self-governing state. Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens but cannot vote in presidential elections. They are governed by policies enacted by the U.S. Congress, thousands of miles away.<\/p>\n

In a major election year, Puerto Rico\u2019s unresolved status as a territory could become a mobilizing issue across the Latino community, McSorley says.<\/p>\n

\"Woman
Anna-Michelle McSorley from the Department of Allied Health Sciences at UConn Waterbury. (Jason Sheldon\/UConn photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAfter all, what is being observed in Puerto Rico also serves as a sort of \u2018canary in the coal mine\u2019 for communities across the States,\u201d says McSorley. \u201cFor instance, the Medicaid block grant structure employed in Puerto Rico has been proposed as an alternative Medicaid funding structure in the States. If applied, this could lead to the same types of cuts to benefits we see in Puerto Rico.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other papers to which McSorley contributed in this edition focus on improving data collected on Latino groups. Data often treats Latino populations as a monolith. However, this group includes dozens of unique populations.<\/p>\n

One paper<\/a> calls for better empirical methods for data collection and health statistics that more accurately represent the population. The second paper<\/a> focuses on Latino reproductive health inequities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to address data gaps,\u201d McSorley says. \u201cHow we collect data on Latinos, and Puerto Ricans specifically in the U.S. or the territory matters in terms of honoring different needs of populations.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This work relates to CAHNR\u2019s Strategic Vision area focused on<\/em>\u00a0Promoting Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice<\/em><\/a> and <\/u><\/em>Enhancing Health and Well-Being Locally, Nationally, and Globally.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Follow\u00a0<\/em>UConn CAHNR<\/em><\/a>\u00a0on social media<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

McSorley’s work goes beyond health policy to study political processes, potential political biases, and power dynamics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":220460,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2296,2224,2460,2467,2231,2269,2194,156,2076,2235,2306,90],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2140],"class_list":["post-220458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-allied-health-sciences","category-cahnr","category-faculty","category-global-cultures-perspectives","category-health-well-being","category-inchip","category-new-haven-county","category-profile","category-research","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-voices","category-uconn-waterbury"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 07:55:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220458"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220494,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220458\/revisions\/220494"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/220460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220458"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=220458"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=220458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}