Dr. Chelsea Wentworth is a community-engaged social scientist, drawing on mixed-methods research to study the social determinants that impact health outcomes for children and families. While working both domestically and internationally, her work is united through 1) its grounding in community- engagement and collaboration among diverse stakeholders for policy change and 2) improving health equity through evidence-based recommendations.

Dr. Wentworth’s interdisciplinary research draws on mixed-methods and qualitative methods to advance research that examines hunger and nutrition security, patient/provider/community communication, and the social determinants that impact health outcomes. She is engaged with several projects including: research with the Wiba Anung team studying early relational wellbeing and food sovereignty particularly in early childhood settings in partnership with the Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan; research on food access and nutrition security for families in Flint, Michigan; research examining the impacts of community-based medical education and immersive engaged-learning in shaping patient/provider communication; qualitative research on the impact of militarization on health outcomes for Indigenous CHamoru in Guam; and long-term ethnographic research on health education that can reduce growth stunting in children under age five in partnership with the Vanuatu Ministry of Health.

Emphasis on improving community-engaged research praxis and understanding healthcare access through a systems-based approach run through Dr. Wentworth’s international and US based research. These projects have broader interdisciplinary applications in the fields of gender, health care access, sustainability, and public policy as governments and health care practitioners work to improve holistic health outcomes for communities and build robust and healthy partnerships.

Dr. Wentworth received funding from a variety of grantors including the US Fulbright Program, the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research within the USDA, the Michigan Health Endowment Fund, and the Hewlett Foundation. Her publications appear in a variety of interdisciplinary outlets including: Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Teaching and Learning in Medicine; Environmental Science and Policy, Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, Social Politics, Ecology and Society, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Anthropological Forum, and Medical Anthropology. Dr. Wentworth also publishes extensively in non-academic forums to improve dissemination and accessibility of scholarly work to support policy change.