Natalia Deeb-Sossa

Natalia Deeb-Sossa is an Assistant Professor in the Sociology Department at UCD.  Natalia, born and raised in Bogota, Colombia, is passionate in her advocacy for women's reproductive rights and is committed to decreasing sexism, heterosexism, racism, and class inequality.

As a long-term volunteer in the Latina/o community, she has accompanied poor Latinas as they seek and obtain abortions. She has observed the barriers Latinas face in accessing services, including lack of money, lack of information about the legality of abortion, who to talk to, and where to go; lack of Spanish-speaking abortion providers and assistants, and lack of information about alternative sources of funds. Additionally, she has worked in the area of reproductive rights by teaching hundreds of students about the importance of maintaining and improving women’s reproductive rights in the U.S. and in Latin America.

Dr. Deeb-Sossa with Dr. Aguilar Gaxiola, from the Center for Reducing Health Disparities at UC Davis, applied and were awarded a CTSC pilot grant to fund the project “Migrant Agricultural Workers’ Mental Health Needs and Barriers to Care:  A Pilot Study.” The purpose of the study is to lay the foundation for ongoing engagement and dialogue on health care issues with Mexican migrant agricultural workers.  This project is being done using PhotoVoice methodology.  They provided donated 35 mm cameras to migrant children, so they could record and reflect on their mental health strengths and problems by taking photographs. Through group discussions of the photographs, they dialogued about issues that are important to the migrant children. A total of 25 children came to the photography class.  Their ages ranged from 6 to 17 years.  As the agricultural season came to an end, the number of children in the class dwindled, as many families left the migrant camp in search of jobs in other states. On October 11, they had a potluck were the children showcased their photographs to their family members and to the Davis/Dixon community.

With Dr. Claudia Diaz Olavarrieta, Senior Researcher at the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico City (Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública), and consultant at the Population Council’s Mexico city office, and Dr. Dan Grossman, Clinical Faculty, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of California, San Francisco, CA and Senior Associate at Ibis Reproductive Health in San Francisco, CA, Dr. Deeb-Sossa applied and was granted a $40,000 grant from Programa de Investigación en Migración y Salud (PIMSA), to fund a research project entitled Experiences of Mexican Women When Accessing Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) in Mexico and California: Effects of Globalization and Immigration Policies in which they will explore how Mexican women ages 18-45 45 in both sites learn about and procure services and supplies from formal (doctors and nurses at clinics) and informal (curanderas, parteras, yerberas, pharmacies, bodegas, or friends and family) sources of healthcare for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), family planning, and abortion.