Alicia Helion, Department of Psychology, UW-Milwaukee - "Prevention of HIV/AIDS in African-American Women: Using Multicultural Content in Persuasive Messages."
     Helion's research combines her interests in the reduction of racial disparities in health and the impact of health messages. In one study that is currently underway, she is evaluating the efficacy of narrative messages in increasing underserved women's likelihood to access health care.
     Her dissertation examines the role of the messenger's race in its efficacy. The major aim of this work is to begin to understand why HIV interventions are not as consistently effective for African-American women as they are for other ethnic groups. Specifically, this research explores the possibility that including a white speaker in HIV/STD prevention messages may decrease the efficacy of the message for African-American women. Her dissertation compares one DVD in which two African-American women present a health appeal to use condoms to two other DVDs in which an African-American woman is paired with a white woman. In one of these videos, the white woman serves as a primary presenter, presenting about two-thirds of the information, and in the other she serves as a secondary presenter. African-American women will watch one of the DVDs, complete several questionnaires regarding the effectiveness of the DVD, and answer a number of questions about their previous condom use and intentions to use condoms for the protection of HIV and other STDs in the future. Two and four weeks after watching the DVDs, the women will be contacted and asked about their condom use in the time period since watching the DVDs.

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Armando Xavier Mejia, Department of Political Science, UW-Madison - "Environmentalism of the Urban Poor: A Study of Grassroots Political Organization and Mobilization for Environmental Justice in Multiethnic Los Angeles, California."
     Over the past two decades, there has been growing academic research and grassroots political mobilization regarding urban environmental inequalities, particularly pollution problems affecting poor and ethnic minority communities in the United States and abroad. Mejia's research uses organizational case studies from Los Angeles - one of the world's most ethnically, culturally, and socio-economically diverse global areas - to offer a political science perspective on environmental justice advocacy and mobilization among the urban poor. The study involves a comparative analysis of three multi-ethnic environmental justice movement organizations active in Los Angeles. Mejia is employing a variety of qualitative research methodologies at these organizations. His study will include analysis of demographic, socioeconomic, environmental, and financial contribution data drawn from the U.S. Census, local and regional governmental reports, as well as financial records of various regional philanthropic foundations supportive of environmental justice advocacy in Los Angeles and nationally.
     Among Mejia's research accomplishments is an edited book, Latino/a Americans and Political Participation: A Reference Handbook. Published in 2004 by ABC-CLIO Press, it won the 2005 Choice Book Award.

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Julie Minikel-Lacocque, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, UW-Madison - "Transitioning to University: Latino/a Students' Experiences and Perceptions."
     Miniket-Lacocque's research interests include college access for students of color and language minority students; urban education; second language acquisition; and social constructions of "success" in school for adolescent English Language Learners (ELLs). Her dissertation is a qualitative case study that examines the transition to a large, Midwestern university as experienced by six Latino/a students from low-income backgrounds. Interviews, observations, and document analysis are used to gain a better understanding of what her participants believe is effective in supporting their success at the college level. She is primarily interested in these students' identity shifts during the transition period, as well as their perceptions of the various academic and other sorts of support available on campus for students of color. Her study also examines the acquisition and role of academic literacies in the transition to college, as well as student perceptions of race relations on campus.
     Minikel-Lacocque's hope is that this study will help get more Latino/a college students' voices into academic literature, and that the findings will have implications not only for colleges and universities, but for K-12 schooling as well.

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