Naseh awarded grant to improve refugee health in Missouri

Mitra Naseh, an assistant professor at the Brown School, has received a three-year, $463,654 grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health to study and improve the health of refugees in Missouri.

Naseh’s project, titled “Structural Barriers and Health Outcomes of New Missourians,” will focus on identifying and addressing the challenges refugees face when seeking initial assistance. The goal is to develop and test community-led solutions to improve health outcomes for newly resettled refugees across the state.

“The development of this grant is the result of over two years of collaboration and consultation with community partners and refugees in St. Louis,” Naseh said. “I am deeply grateful for the contributions and patience of the refugees, refugee-serving organizations, and community partners I have the privilege of working with in Missouri.”

The project is particularly timely, as Missouri’s refugee population continues to grow, especially in the St. Louis metro area, Springfield, Columbia, and Joplin. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), forced displacement remains one of the world’s most significant crises, affecting an estimated one in every 69 by the end of 2023. Missouri’s refugee settlement numbers in 2023 were nearly double the state’s average from 2016 to 2023, according to the Missouri Office of Refugee Admissions.

While foreign-born individuals make up 4.7% of St. Louis’s population, U.S. Census Bureau data shows that this demographic is growing at a faster rate than in most other major metropolitan areas in the country. So far in 2024, Missouri has resettled 3,273 refugees.

The grant is in partnership with the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), Monarch Immigrant Services, and the Immigrant Service Providers Network. Proscovia Nabunya, assistant professor and co-director of the International Center for Child Health and Development (ICHAD) at the Brown School, will serve as co-principal investigator. 

Naseh is also the director of the Initiative on Social Work and Forced Migration, which focuses on advancing and coordinating social work and social welfare research, education, and training to improve the lives of forcibly displaced populations, specifically refugees, worldwide. 

The grant was awarded through the Missouri Foundation for Health’s highly competitive Opportunity Fund, which supports innovative approaches to emerging issues, prioritizing initiatives that address challenges unique to the state.