Empowering Asian and Pacific Islander Communities Through Data, Partnership, and Purpose
While the Alcohol Research Group (ARG) is well known for its population-level analyses on how alcohol and drug use impact our health, it’s also a place where scientists are deeply committed to engaging with communities, partnering with local organizations to support the people they serve in meaningful, practical ways.
One such scientist is Scientist Camillia K. Lui, PhD, whose career has focused on understanding and addressing health disparities among racial/ethnic groups, adolescents, and young adults. Whether she’s measuring drinking rates or evaluating treatment outcomes, Lui returns to two guiding questions: Why do some communities experience worse health outcomes than others and what can we do about it?
That second question is at the heart of her latest project: a collaboration with the California Reducing Disparities Project (CRDP). As a sub-contractor, Lui is supporting Special Services for Groups (SSG) in their work to help community-based organizations design and implement evidence-based programs (EBPs). Centered on serving Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities in California, the project is uniquely community-driven, designed from the ground up, not imposed from the top down. Its goal: equip organizations with the tools and support they need to create programs that are both evidence-informed and culturally relevant.
The CRDP, a five-year initiative of the California Department of Public Health’s Office of Health Equity, aims to reduce mental health disparities across five target populations. SSG serves as one of several technical assistance providers, offering support in planning, implementation, evaluation, and capacity-building efforts.
“This project offers an opportunity for me to work with Asian American and Pacific Islander communities from a research and evaluation lens,” Lui said. “It’s such critical work, and I’m honored to be a part of it.”
This isn’t Lui’s first time working at the intersection of research and real-world impact. As a program evaluator with the Asian American Drug Abuse Program (AADAP) in Los Angeles, she contributed to community efforts aimed at reducing youth access to alcohol, marijuana, and other substances through organizing, education, and local policy change.
“One of the things AADAP really values is using data to inform their work,” Lui explained. “My role has been to help them find or collect data, interpret what it means for their community, and use it to educate youth, parents, and policymakers. While they’re learning about research and data collection strategies, I’m learning about their concerns, their priorities, and how to communicate findings in a way that’s user-friendly and relevant.”
At ARG, Lui continues to apply this dual lens—bridging science and community—across several major projects. She is part of the research team for the National Alcohol Research Center’s policy project, led by Scientist Nina Mulia, which examines whether policies like the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act and the Affordable Care Act have had unintended consequences in access to substance use treatment, particularly among underserved populations. Lui’s contributions center on analyzing socioeconomic disparities and build on her dissertation work that used national longitudinal data to explore how changes in socioeconomic status during the transition to adulthood shape heavy drinking and smoking patterns.
She’s also evaluating differences in treatment participation and long-term outcomes among adolescents in outpatient substance use treatment programs at Kaiser Permanente Northern California, with a particular focus on how socioeconomic status impacts access and outcomes.
Looking ahead, Lui plans to explore alcohol-related disparities among college-aged youth in both treatment and general population samples. She hopes this research will deepen our understanding of how education, a key driver of socioeconomic status, shapes not just substance use behavior, but people’s ability to access services, navigate systems, and recover.
I want my work to support communities by giving them access to data, knowledge of what the data mean, and empowering them to use that data in their work. Community-based organizations want that—they want data to better inform what they do so that the programs and services they deliver are effective and reach the people who need them most.
–Camillia K. Lui, ARG Scientist
Wherever Lui’s research leads her next, one thing is clear: she’ll continue searching for answers and delivering impact, one community at a time.
Further Reading
Invisible struggles: Data disaggregation reveals hidden suicide risk among Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander youth
Project Update: Smoke-free Policy Adoption at Community Colleges
Childhood adversity before age 5 associated with greater cannabis use in early adolescence
