Cal State LA names Fil-Am professor Faculty Fellow for the Public Good

Melanie Sabado-Liwag. CAL STATE LA

LOS ANGELES – California State University in Los Angeles named Assistant Professors Melanie Sabado-Liwag and Shikha Upadhyaya as the 2018-20 Faculty Fellows for the Public Good.

A team of former faculty fellows chose Sabado-Liwag and Upadhyaya in a competitive review process.

Sabado-Liwag and Upadhyaya are collaborating with community partners and the university’s Center for Engagement, Service, and the Public Good to address social, economic and health disparities.

The Faculty Fellows for the Public Good program encourages and promotes engaged scholarship and interdisciplinary interaction on the central theme of the university and the public good.

Cal State LA is designated an anchor institution by the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. As an anchor institution, Cal State LA plays a central role in uplifting and transforming the economy and social well-being of the communities it serves.

The faculty fellows have received funding to complete their research projects during the summers of 2019 and 2020.

An assistant professor of public health, Sabado-Liwag is working with the Filipino American Services Group, Inc. (FASGI) and other community organizations to understand their roles in the community. FASGI is one of the few non-governmental organizations serving low- income, marginalized, and underserved Filipinos in Los Angeles County.

“The role of a culturally-specific organization, such as FASGI, has a pivotal place in addressing social inequalities and social services gap created by health disparities,” she said.

Through the faculty fellowship, Sabado-Liwag is studying gaps in services to marginalized groups and creating strategic plans to guide the enhancement and development of community projects.

According to Sabado-Liwag, despite being one of the third-largest and rapidly expanding ethnic groups, the health needs of Filipinos are poorly understood and underestimated.

“The social and economic diversity of Asian American and Pacific Islander ethnic groups are often masked, overlooked and deemed as unproblematic,” she said.

Her objective is to inform and build services and resources for the community and existing research on health promotion.

A West Covina resident, Sabado-Liwag holds a Ph.D. in health promotion sciences from the School of Community and Global Health at Claremont Graduate University. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities in Bethesda, Maryland.