diana ruggiero

Diana Ruggiero is Associate Professor of Spanish at the University of Memphis where she currently specializes in Spanish for specific purposes and community service learning. Her research interests to date include heritage language learners, cultural competence and intercultural sensitivity development, service-learning project design and assessment, language interpreting and body language, graduate curriculum development, and issues and methods in L2 and heritage language learner pedagogy. Other research interests include Afro-Hispanic literature and culture. Dr. Ruggiero’s research appears in the Revista de Languages para fines específicos(RLFE), Journal of Languages for Specific Purposes (JLSP), Global Business Languages, ADFL Bulletin, Hispania, and Latin American Music Review (LAMR)among other peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes.

Current outreach programs by organizations such as Church Health address the issues of language barrier, education, and accessibility and are generally targeted toward specific medical interventions. Yet there remains a need to develop programs that address broader health and wellness challenges, such as mental, emotional, and physical health. Addressing these issues in addition to providing traditional medical interventions and education will go a long way toward meeting the overall health and wellness needs of immigrants and other underserved populations. To this end, this project brings together diverse faculty and community partners in collaborative dialogue toward the development of new research and community engagement projects engaging these problems. It is likely that meeting these challenges may impact the wellbeing of the broader Memphis community in reducing the current strain on the healthcare system, improving productivity in the workplace and school, reducing poverty and crime, increasing positive visibility of immigrant populations, and fostering meaningful cross-cultural encounters and exchanges.  

            Proposed project activities will include monthly sessions on the topic and will feature guest presentations by local community organizations such as Church Health, Mid-South Peace and Justice, Latino Memphis, the YMCA, and el Centro Cultural. Participants include faculty from such diverse areas as public health, earth science, marketing, theatre & dance, health studies, counseling, nursing, languages, and business as well as interested community partners and graduate students. Group discussion will follow community partner presentations to workshop ideas for developing research and community engagement initiatives related to the topic. One specific project (RED Fitness, see below) initiated by Dr. Diana Ruggiero and currently in the needs assessment stage may be further developed in collaboration with the grant participants, for example. Other collaborative research and outreach projects may also emerge as a part of the dialogue. Grant funds will be used to facilitate group meetings in the way of an honorarium for guest community speakers, food and beverages for participants, supplies (i.e., pens, paper, poster board, etc.), and transportation and childcare for participants in need. Among the questions addressed by this project are the following:

• What are the health and wellness needs of local immigrants and other underserved populations?
• What are the demographics health characteristics of these communities?
• What are the current challenges to meeting the health and wellness needs of immigrant and other underserved populations?
• How might we think more broadly and creatively about addressing these needs?
• What role might community engagement alongside community partners have in meeting these needs?
• How might we develop a Nonprofit fitness program like RED fitness that helps the immigrant, underserved, and low-income population get fit?
• What role might the University have in sponsoring programs like RED fitness?
• How might fitness certification for instructors of programs like RED fitness empower our community? Could such a certificate be sponsored by the University in conjunction with community partners to make it affordable and sustainable? What would be an ideal business model for such a program?
• Can we rethink the way fitness is presented to participants to transition to a more inclusive program?

Given the recent social and political focus on the issues of immigration and health and wellness, this project is both timely and relevant. In addition, the outcomes of these discussions may have significant implications for academic and community partner understandings and responses to these issues, which may subsequently lead to an improved quality of life for individuals and families in need as well as for the broader Memphis community.