Meet our new Senior Research Associate: Dr. Angie Mejia

This summer Research in Action was delighted to welcome our new Senior Research Associate and Research Design Manager, Dr. Angie P. Mejia! Learn more about Dr. Mejia in the short interview below.

What is your passion for equity and justice in the community?

As a cisgender woman of Mexican and Central American descent who embodies multiple disabilities and has survived incidents of reproductive oppression, I believe in the transformative power of synthesizing research tools with testimonio and other forms of speaking truth to power in creating just worlds. Working for RIA is the space where I can use my training as an activist-scholar in ways that have actionable outcomes.

I come from a background where my parents were involved in the civil rights and women's health movements, and I grew up with tios, cousins, sobrinas, and other familia who became activists during the AIDS epidemic. This interesting and complex history, dotted with my family having to navigate the carceral economy as well as the child welfare system, instilled in me the necessity to seek spaces and engage in practices that promote accountability and justice.

Further, my goals as a researcher are enhanced by the ethos and vision of nepantlerismo – a Nahualt term used by Mexican feminist and queer theorist Gloria Anzaldúa to describe the ability to stand between and straddle multiple worlds and the desire to build puentes (bridges) and facilitate passages between them.

What would you like to share about your educational and professional background?

My Ph.D. training as a sociologist allowed me to connect reproductive justice, creative methods and women of color epistemologies with my desire for collective social transformation. In 2019, my plan was to be a scholar-teacher-activist. I envisioned using my background to support others in pursuing intersectional research projects in academia. I wanted to make it possible for student to be activists while also forging their professional paths.

Up until the day the Supreme Court ruling repealing Roe vs Wade leaked, my research agenda focused on how larger social formations and institutions affect U.S. youth when they engage with sexual health and related policies. In 2022-2023, I contributed a book chapter in "Health Humanities in Application" that explored how university undergraduates perceived the impact of U.S. sexual/reproductive health policy in their lives. The chapter also presented a model that combined community-engaged classroom learning, performance methods, and intersectional analyses of U.S. sexual health policy to examine how structural forms of oppression affect undergraduate students’ identities as future healthcare professionals.

But the Dobbs ruling demanded that those of us standing at the sidelines of sexual and reproductive health movements in the U.S. do more to counteract the effects on local clinics. Instead of remaining an academic researcher and asking how “embodying intersectional identities in a political moment is defined by rising White pan-nationalism and political dispossession affects youth,” I shifted. How can communities shape and engage in health as a matter of social justice? How can health and research be used as tools for social future building?

I took three steps. First, I poured my energy into co-founding and supporting a student-centered and student-led initiative, Just in Case. Second, having previously volunteered with Planned Parenthood and various independent abortion clinics, I decided to be more active and joined the Board of Directors of Just the Pill/Abortion Delivered. (Last year, I was honored by the Board’s decision to elect me as their Board President.) And finally, I left academia to find a space and place where I can live my values and do research that matters.

What specific skill sets are you excited to bring to your position at RIA? 

As RIA’s Research Design Manager, I am particularly excited about using my expertise in melding art-based and creativity-centered approaches to mixed research methods — for instance, focus groups using performance vignettes. I also bring knowledge in specific community engagement tools — like Photovoice, charettes, and participatory budgeting — and more advanced qualitative analytical approaches like phenomenology. I am also delighted to continue using my skills as an educator by working with RIA’s future interns and fellows. I hope that as RIA grows, I can share more of my expertise and activism around sexual health and reproductive justice.

What are you excited about most about your job at RIA?

As a nepantlera, I am always seeking to be a vulnerable co-learner and co-creator while ensuring that our communities are empowered to demand accountability, especially from those with more socially advantaged identities. I believe that the opportunity and space that RIA has provided will allow me to engage in this work while using my fifteen plus years of training in community-based participatory research.

I have left academia seeking a place that will nurture within me the ability to be a courageous researcher. I believe RIA is that place and I am deeply honored to be part of this work.

Connect with Dr. Mejia at angiemejia@researchinaction.com.