Lai Sze Tso

Dr. Tso's research, social outreach, and teaching contribute to social justice, community, service, equity, and inclusion by improving healthcare outcomes for vulnerable populations and by building health infrastructure in low-resource settings. Much of her work is highlighted in high impact peer-reviewed journals, public health working groups, and community organizations reports. A concise portfolio is available through the NIH's National Library of Medicine. In the summer of 2022, she began serving as a guest associate editor at Frontiers in Medicine. In September 2022, she was invited to join the Editorial Board of the Asian Journal of Medical Humanities. In October 2022, she was nominated to serve on the Sociologists of Minnesota's Board of Directors as the Faculty Representative for the Southern Region. She is interested in the health and well-being of migrants. Overall, her research explores international migration, transmission of knowledge across space and barriers, and accumulation of resources across diasporas. Her expanding research areas look at social media health interventions to support migrant health, particularly among vulnerable population subgroups (women, youth, LGBTQ+, high-risk hard to reach groups for STIs/Communicable Diseases). Collectively, her projects focus on four key themes: [1] Implementing Health Interventions to Support Vulnerable Populations; [2] Improving Disease Surveillance + Continuing Education in Health & Medical Professions; [3] Understanding Health, Wellbeing, and Upward Social Mobility of Women from Rural Areas, particularly women undertaking Rural-to-Urban Transitions; [4] Building International Public Health Collaborations by Connecting Community, Academic, Industry, Media, and Governmental Stakeholders.