The California Initiative for Health Equity and Action (Cal-IHEA) was created by the University of California (UC) Office of the President at the request of the California Legislature. Cal-IHEA builds on the university's public service mission and seeks to improve health equity in California by bridging the gap between faculty research and policy and practice. UC Merced is one of the multicampus collaborators (UC Irvine, UC Berkeley, and UC Riverside) to strengthen and expand health equity and policy research capacity.

At UC Merced, in the HOPe lab, two undergraduate research assistants are working with lead investigator Dr. Denise Payán on this research initiative. The undergraduate research assistants routinely meet with Merced County promotoras (community health workers) to become aware of and better understand the issues currently present in the community, as well as what is being done to address them. The purpose of these conversations is to gather more insight on issues that might otherwise be overlooked.

Through this research project, members of our lab team recently attended the annual "Insure the Uninsured Project" (ITUP) conference held in Sacramento, California, in February 2024. At this conference, they had the opportunity to learn about organizations' health insurance efforts and goals. The primary goal organizations have in common is for everyone to have health insurance and to reduce barriers to accessing care. Our team left the ITUP conference more motivated to help individuals extend their life expectancy by removing barriers that can negatively affect them.