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Research at USEF

USEF Community Research Center

Established in 2026 to build something the Central Valley has never had: a research center that belongs to the communities it studies.

2026
Established
Research labs
Researchers
Our mission

USEF’s research exists for one reason: to do community health research that benefits the communities it comes from.

Our work centers South Asian, Southwest Asian and North African (SSWANA) communities. These are families whose health needs are real and whose numbers are significant, and who remain among the most understudied populations in American health research. National datasets rarely describe them. Programs are rarely designed with them in mind. Findings rarely make their way back to them.

The Center was established in 2026 to change that, starting here in California’s Central Valley.

Alongside SSWANA families, our work includes Spanish-speaking families and African American, low-income urban and rural communities across Fresno, Madera, Tulare and Kings counties, in English, Spanish, Arabic, Dari, Pashto, Punjabi and Urdu/Hindi.

Our Labs

Our labs

Each lab owns a field of its own. All of them work the same way.

Lab 01 · Youth Substance Use

USEF Valley Youth Substance-Use Alliance Lab (VYSA)

Protecting a generation of Central Valley young people from tobacco, nicotine and other substance use, in their own language and in their own communities.

View the lab →
Lab 02 · Nutrition & Mobility

USEF Nutrition & Musculoskeletal Health Lab

Working so that growing older in our community does not mean losing independence, strength or the ability to live on your own terms.

View the lab →
Lab 03 · Orthopedics

USEF Community Orthopedics Lab

Keeping older adults on their feet, by bringing proven falls and fracture prevention out of the clinic and into the places our community already gathers.

View the lab →
Lab 04 · Vision

USEF Diabetic Eye Disease Lab

Stopping preventable blindness. Diabetes is common in our community; a regular eye exam is not. This lab works to close that gap.

View the lab →
Lab 05 · Cardiovascular Health

USEF Immigrant Cardiovascular Health Lab

High blood pressure is common in our communities and counted almost nowhere. This lab measures it and then does something about it.

View the lab →
Our researchers

Researchers

The researchers and lab directors behind the work across every lab.

SQ
Dr. Syed Qadri
Board Member · Chief, USEF Community Research Center
Abdallah Said Ahmed
Research Assistant
AM
Abdulsamad Mohammed
Director, Diabetic Eye Disease Lab
AA
Alhassan Alhassan
Research Lead, Sinonasal Health
AB
Alicia Betancourt
Research Assistant
Calvin Watkins
Research Assistant
HA
Hanadi Ali
Research Assistant
IA
Isabella Aguirre
Research Assistant
Kashish Manglani
Research Assistant
KC
Khadijah Chaudhry
Research Assistant
Kimberly Salinas
Research Assistant
Kudrut Ladhar
Research Assistant
MA
Malak Abandeh
Research Assistant
Malik Alhadi
Director, Nutrition & Musculoskeletal Health Lab
MY
Maysam Yasin
Research Assistant
PS
Pushaan Singh
Research Assistant
RA
Reema Alabdullah
Research Assistant
RP
Rishita Pemminati
Research Assistant
Sharndeep Kaur
Research Assistant
TA
Taleen Alkhayyat
Research Assistant
Our partners

Academic partners

Everyone the Center works with, across all our labs.

LH
Lisa Henriksen, PhD
Associate Professor of Medicine (Research) · Stanford Prevention Research Center, Stanford University School of Medicine
Valley Youth Substance-Use Alliance Lab (VYSA)
BH
Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, PhD
Founder and Director, Stanford REACH Lab · Division of Adolescent Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine
Valley Youth Substance-Use Alliance Lab (VYSA)
Community partnerships

The Alliance and Coalition the Center Works With

A community alliance and a community coalition help turn research into work shaped by the people it serves.

Community allianceValley Youth Substance-Use Alliance (VYSA)Our community alliance on youth substance use. Twelve sectors of the Central Valley at one table, from schools and clinics to employers, parents and young people themselves.See the alliance →Community coalitionCentral Valley HEAL CoalitionA Fresno County partnership for chronic disease prevention and health equity, shaped with immigrant and refugee communities.Explore the coalition →
Our approach

What makes this Center different

Research with our communities, not on them

The questions are set together with the people concerned, and what we learn comes back to them.

Populations research has overlooked

We exist specifically to study communities that national research has left undescribed, and to make them visible in the evidence that shapes policy and practice.

Built on trust that already exists

USEF has served these families since 2021 through welfare, education and business programs. Research here begins with a relationship, not a recruitment flyer.

Serious partnerships

We work alongside university investigators and clinicians, and hold our work to the standard the field expects of it.

A pipeline for new researchers

Students from these same communities do real research here, are supported while they do it, and are credited for what they contribute.

One Center, one standard

Each lab owns its own field. All of them share the same commitment to the communities the work is for.

Safeguards

How we protect people

Ethics review first

Before any study uses an identifiable interview, an independent ethics board must approve it.

A parent signs for anyone under 18

No one under 18 takes part, or is photographed, until a parent or guardian has signed.

Every consent form is checked

Every consent form is reviewed by Nida Ali, our Operations and Grant Compliance Manager, or Mohammad Sheikh, our Chief Financial Officer, before it is used.

Our programs are open to all, without discrimination. Read our nondiscrimination policy

Work with us

Three ways to reach the Center

Funders

We work with funders whose priorities include health equity, community-partnered research, and populations conventional research misses. We are glad to speak to any of our labs and share what we are building.

Academic partners

We are actively seeking faculty investigators and clinician partners. What we bring is the community relationships, the trust and the reach that a research proposal is usually missing.

Student researchers

Undergraduate, graduate and medical students join a lab, take on real research, and are credited for what they contribute. No prior research experience is required.

Apply to join a lab

Research that starts where people live

United Services & Equity Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in Fresno, California. EIN 87‑2737761.

Meet the USEF team