Together, we can ensure that the conditions of work promote the

health and well-being of workers and communities.

May 2022 Newsletter

Community Members Help Shape U-POWER Agenda

Thank you to those who presented and attended the Spring Community Conference (with special thanks to Health Choice Utah, who generously sponsored the conference to help keep it free to all community members). We were pleased to share U-POWER’s aims with so many representatives from local community-based organizations and health departments, as well as Community Health Workers and individuals from the University of Utah. Conference attendees shared thoughts, stories of work, and ideas for U-POWER priorities throughout the day. We also featured posters from our current research project, Incorporating Worksite Interventions in Safety and Health (IWISH).

At lunch, Expresion Andina, a local dance group, performed from a number of Latin American cultural traditions featuring beautiful costumes, folkloric music, and engaging narratives. If you missed the conference or would like to follow up on the discussions, check out the rest of the newsletter below! 

The Future of Utah and Total Worker Health®

Dr. Emily Ahonen, U-POWER key personnel, gave this year’s keynote talk, an introduction to Total Worker Health® and work equity. She began with an explanation of how the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) defines Total Worker Health (TWH): protection against work-related hazards and promotion of worker well-being. Most of those in the workforce recognize the guidelines and rules that protect worker health, including fire codes, ladder safety, and personal protective equipment. But well-being is harder to define. TWH, she noted, is a goal state: an envisioned future where workers feel satisfied with their lives and careers and are able to flourish in mental and physical health.

That future can only be created with ideas, research, and action to improve work equity. Past activists won American workers the right to a minimum wage, worker’s compensation, time off, and safe work. However, like all progress, workers’ rights can erode. Gig workers, such as those who deliver our packages and food, do not enjoy access to the same legal rights as does a full-time government employee. Work must be done to prevent and resolve discrimination, create equitable access to health care and paid leave, ensure that workers have affordable and safe housing, and other changes that will promote the well-being of workers, their families, and their communities. 

Dr. Ahonen ended her keynote talk by asking attendees to imagine an ideal future in which TWH has a strong presence in Utah. Future visions included an increase in Utah's worker happiness, access to paid leave, prioritization of health, and unionization. 

Community Health Workers Describe Outreach and Equity

Teresa Sanchez, a Community Health Worker (CHW), moderated an invited panel of Utah CHWs as they discussed outreach, equity, and power in the workplace. CHWs often find themselves caught between their work to serve their communities—which can take place at the grocery store, at a wedding, at a funeral, or anywhere else—and the need for time for themselves, which is a vital part of worker well-being. This dilemma, though, is one that they share with many members of their communities, who often work multiple low-wage jobs and have little time for their own care or their families. Jeannette Villalta, who provides consulting through MJV Diversity, described how these working conditions force workers to work only for survival (housing, food, and medical care), and not for prosperity, comfort, and creativity.

Several CHW panelists identified how discrimination and inequity outside the workplace infiltrate working conditions and even a choice in careers. Farida Ghulam-Jillani Rhuani Popal described how many of the Afghan refugees she serves come to the United States with professional degrees and years of work experience as doctors, scientists, and engineers, only to find themselves working low-wage jobs that often lack benefits and fair compensation. Inequity denies workers the chance to improve their lives and prevents society from benefiting from their contributions. 

Community Organizations and Leaders Talk Research, Advocacy, and Humility



Representatives from Alliance Community Services, the Utah Health Policy Project, the Community Health Worker Coalition, and Community Faces of Utah joined Dr. Ivette Lopez to discuss their organizations and experiences with community-based participatory research (CBPR). CBPR is a research approach that makes all parties equal partners across each step of the research process, from conceptualization to data collection to analysis to dissemination. Increasingly, researchers have embraced this process as a way to reach communities that have typically been mistreated or exploited by scientific researchers in the past.

Power differentials, whether they stem from historic marginalization or researchers who fail to make the work equitable, can hamper research that would otherwise contribute to the well-being of communities. As Dr. Lopez discussed CBPR with the panelists, many noted that it was key that researchers approach communities with a sense of cultural humility. Researchers must self-reflect on their understanding and ideas, and acknowledge the biases that they possess. Finally, researchers must embrace the idea that they may not know everything, and that power must be shared between themselves and their community partners.  

Researchers who worked with Community Faces of Utah (represented by Valentine Mukundente and O. Fahina Tavake-Pasi) found that their community partners were often the experts, and substantially improved the research design and implementation. Community members and partners can—and indeed, should—be consulted when the idea for the research is germinated. It’s not enough, panelists noted, to come to a community with funding in hand, ready to study them. Researchers must work with communities to establish priorities (what matters to the community? What are they concerned about?) before applying for a grant. The panel ended with a call to advocacy and engagement with communities. 

May U-POWER Seminar Series: Employment Precarity and Occupational Hazard Exposure

For this month's Seminar Series, Dr. Geri Miller-Fox will present her research with public safety officers in training. As a former public safety officer, Dr. Miller-Fox is familiar with the risk of burnout among those who work in corrections, who are expected to perform emotional labor by maintaining composure in intense situations. While we are familiar with the emotional impacts of burnout, Dr. Miller-Fox’s research investigates whether mind-body interactions modify the psychological and physiological effects of emotion regulation. Her work builds atop mounting evidence that points to a neurochemical link between the hormonal release of cortisol and stress as well as self-reported burnout.

Dr. Miller-Fox will detail her work implementing a mindfulness meditation program in a public safety officer training academy to investigate emotional labor and psychological well-being and corresponding clinical measures, including cortisol saliva samples. Her research investigates whether self-reports of burnout and clinical measures (physiological measures) reveal bio-directional connections. Variables such as anger, anxiety, attentiveness, physical performance, and academic performance will also be discussed.

This event will be held on May 19, 2022 at 4:00 pm (MST). Events in our Seminar Series are free and open to all! Members of the public are invited to attend to learn more about burnout, emotional labor, and potential interventions. 

Join us at: https://utah.zoom.us/j/91067867585 

Passcode: 203849

Worker Stories

At the 2022 Spring Community Conference, we asked attendees to anonymously share their experiences with power at work. Check out a few of their responses below.

Do you feel like you are treated equally by your employer and leaders in your company? For example, are you included in meetings, do you receive proper credit for your work, do you feel heard? Why or why not?

"When I did not speak English it was very difficult, now I use my voice but still have difficulties due to either too little or too much education for some jobs."

"Yes, I feel like I am treated equally and included. It could be due to my whiteness and other privileges. I do feel my employer (government) is very structured and inclusive. There is a clear structure for payment, reporting, etc."

"Yes, however because I am 21 sometimes I feel like because of my age I have to try twice as hard to be taken seriously." 

"Most of the time. Some other supervisors don't like the fact that I am moving up because of my gender. They view me as a threat to them in upward movement, but they don't want any more education, but I have gotten more education." 

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Total Worker Health® is a registered trademark of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Participation by the Utah Center for Promotion of Work Equity Research (U-POWER) does not imply endorsement by HHS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.