Research

Meet Our PI: 
Dr. Rebecca Campbell-Montalvo’s
Research Spotlight

Dr. Campbell-Montalvo is a medical anthropologist whose research examines how social relationships, culture, and healthcare systems shape access to care and health outcomes. As Director of the AQUASS Research Laboratory, she integrates qualitative and mixed-methods research with implementation science to develop patient-centered interventions that improve healthcare access, shared decision-making, and health equity. Her work bridges anthropology, health services research, and implementation science, with a particular emphasis on Veterans and other underserved populations.

Earlier in her career, Dr. Campbell-Montalvo conducted ethnographic research examining educational and healthcare access among migrant and Indigenous communities in the United States. She explored how schools perceive and process demographic information, including how those perceptions may erase Indigeneity and impact resource access in her book The Latinization of Indigenous Students.

A central focus of Dr. Campbell-Montalvo's current scholarship is understanding how social networks and cultural models influence individuals' ability to access healthcare resources and make informed treatment decisions. Her research has demonstrated that access to care is shaped by personal relationships, community resources, cultural beliefs, and institutional structures. Using ethnographic methods, community-based participatory research, and implementation science frameworks, she identifies barriers to care while developing practical, evidence-based strategies that can be implemented across healthcare systems.

Her work has made important contributions to improving care for Veterans living with chronic kidney disease and kidney failure. Through multiple studies, she has examined how comprehensive kidney disease education changes patients' understanding of their illness, facilitates informed decision-making, and increases the adoption of home dialysis therapies. Her research has provided mechanistic evidence demonstrating how patient education transforms cultural beliefs surrounding kidney disease and empowers Veterans to participate actively in treatment decisions. 

Dr. Campbell-Montalvo has also established a research program focused on improving healthcare access for Veterans and Service Members with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Her work investigates how providers identify patients who would benefit from personal network intervention, develops strategies to improve communication between patients, caregivers, and clinicians, and evaluates innovative approaches to integrating care partners into rehabilitation.