Nina Wallerstein
Nina Wallerstein
Director: Center of Participatory Research
Nina Wallerstein is a public health scholar whose work centers on community empowerment, health equity, and collaborative research with underserved communities. At UNM, she leads efforts to transform public health through participatory research methods that elevate community voices and foster systemic change.
Nina Wallerstein is a public health scholar whose work centers on community empowerment, health equity, and collaborative research with underserved communities. At UNM, she leads efforts to transform public health through participatory research methods that elevate community voices and foster systemic change.
Dr. Nina Wallerstein is a Professor in the College of Population Health and Director of the Center for Participatory Research at the University of New Mexico. For over 35 years, she has advanced community-based participatory research (CBPR), creating culturally rooted interventions that promote health and social justice. Her approach blends Paulo Freire’s emancipatory education with public health practice-empowering communities to co-create solutions for lasting change.
Through national and global partnerships, Dr. Wallerstein leads major research initiatives like Engage for Equity, an NIH-funded study that identifies best practices in community-academic partnerships. She also collaborates with Southwest tribal nations on intergenerational prevention programs grounded in culture and family. As a co-creator of an internationally recognized train-the-trainer curriculum on empowerment and participatory health, she has helped shape practices from New Mexico to Latin America.
At UNM, she teaches courses on public health equity and Indigenous methodologies, mentoring future practitioners to work inclusively and ethically with diverse communities. She has authored over 150 publications, including the widely used textbook Community-Based Participatory Research for Health, now in its third edition.
Beyond campus, Nina serves on the National Academies committee developing metrics for community-engaged health science, and is a founding leader in global networks like the International Collaboration for Participatory Health Research. Her legacy is one of collaboration, cultural humility, and an unwavering belief in the power of communities to lead their own health futures.
