Supporting Underserved Workers through Collaborative Research
The purpose of the Work Equity Research Center (WERC) is to work with communities to co-create research projects and develop solutions to improve work-related outcomes for historically and currently underserved workers. We do this by bringing together stakeholders to focus attention and invest resources on the work-related concerns, needs, barriers, and solutions for communities that are currently underserved.
At WERC, we:
- Center the needs and voices of workers who have been and continue to be marginalized in occupational safety and health research, job related inequities, return to work barriers, interventions, and outcomes.
- Support the right to safe and respectful workplaces.
- Collaborate internally to ensure equity in all agency policies, procedures, and expectations.
WERC will rely on our strengths in:
- Data collection, analyses, and interpretation.
- Field studies.
- Training and evaluation.
- Developing novel research methods.
The primary strategies we will use are:
- Participatory Action Research.
- Translational Research.
- Epidemiologic research methods.
- Continuous effort and opportunities for introspection, cultural humility, and growth.
WERC Conceptual framework (In English and Spanish)
Work Equity Research Center – Core team
Dr. Caroline Smith
Dr. Caroline Smith is the Director of the Work Equity Research Center (WERC) and has worked at the Department of Labor & Industries for over 25 years. Dr. Smith developed the Center with the idea of centering underserved workers and communities in the co-creation of research that improves the lives of all workers in Washington.
Dr. Smith, a third generation Japanese American (sansei) and first generation college graduate, serendipitously fell into occupational safety and health (OSH) research as a profession in large part due to the mentorship of Dr. Barbara Silverstein. Learning at the feet of an OSH giant, Dr. Smith quickly understood that occupational health and safety are cornerstones of any thriving equitable society.
Using the daily lessons taught by her mentor and other colleagues, Dr. Smith pursued a Master’s in Public Health from the University of Washington, and a Doctorate in Medical Sociology from Portland State University, all while working and learning in the Safety & Health Assessment & Research for Prevention (SHARP) Program, an internationally recognized occupational health and safety research group, where WERC is housed.
Dr. Smith’s passions include improving workplace equity for racialized workers and working with community organizations and other interested parties to develop novel solutions to seemingly intractable problems in workplace safety & health, workers’ compensation, and health services.
During her 25+ year career at Labor & Industries, Dr. Smith came to realize that by understanding and improving the situations of our most marginalized workers we could elevate the safety and health of the entire workforce. In addition, working with labor and business leaders in manufacturing, healthcare, janitorial services and trucking, she began to see that workers frequently had the best ideas on how to improve their workplaces. Dr. Smith hopes to utilize mixed methods, participatory action research, and work and learn alongside experts, both internal to the Department of Labor & Industries, and external in the community, to identify not only disparities, but also solutions we can implement to improve the working lives of all workers. Dr. Smith firmly believes that all jobs can be safe and fulfilling and that all workers have the right to safe and healthy workplaces.
Dr. Smith also enjoys knitting, gardening (playing in the dirt), hanging out with her dogs, watching baseball (go Mariners!) and continuously learning.
Dr. Stephanie Colter
Dr. Stephanie Colter is the Lead Epidemiologist of Data Science and Health Equity Research at the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries Work Equity Research Center. With a focus on advancing equity, Dr. Colter leads initiatives that leverage data to improve workplace conditions and outcomes for all workers in Washington.
Before joining the Department of Labor and Industries, Dr. Colter served as a Regional Epidemiologist in Health-care Associated Infections for the Florida Department of Health. In this role, she developed and implemented infection control strategies that significantly reduced healthcare-associated infections across multiple healthcare facilities. Additionally, she championed health equity initiatives, ensuring that infection control measures were effectively tailored to meet the needs of diverse populations, thereby improving healthcare outcomes for underserved communities.
Dr. Colter earned her doctorate in Biostatistics and Epidemiology from Florida A&M University, where her research focused on the social determinants of health and the intersection of epidemiology and data science. Her work specifically examined how physical activity influenced health outcomes among African Americans compared to their white counterparts. She also holds a Biomedical Science certification from Florida State University.
As the Lead Epidemiologist at WERC, Dr. Colter aims to utilize data-driven approaches to identify and address health disparities in the workplace, promote policies that enhance worker safety and well-being, and foster a more equitable work environment for all employees across Washington State.
When she's not delving into data and advocating for health equity, Dr. Colter enjoys exploring Seattle's vibrant food scene, playing with her puppy, fitness, modeling and experimenting with new recipes in her kitchen.
Dr. Érica Chavez Santos
Dr. Érica Chavez Santos is an occupational health researcher with the Work Equity Research Center (WERC) She received her MPH in Sociomedical Sciences from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and PhD in Health Services from the University of Washington. Erica is Mexicana Americana and the proud daughter of farmworkers. These are some aspects of her identity and upbringing that fueled her passion for public health.
Her research addresses health disparities among Latine and communities of color, especially occupational health disparities, and she strives to use community-based participatory action and mixed methods to conduct research that informs equitable policy changes.
More recently, her dissertation was focused on understanding the extent of state-level agricultural exceptionalism and how it is associated with agricultural worker health, using a combination of community based participatory research (CBPR), qualitative interviews, legal epidemiology, and quantitative methods.
Erica hopes to address the gap in what we know about how labor laws shape health, not just for agricultural workers, but for all groups of workers. She loves being a part of the WERC team because of their focus on addressing occupational health inequities in Washington using equity and community-centered research.
During her free time, Érica loves reading, traveling, watching movies, walking and hiking with her pup, Owen, and trying new coffee shops and restaurants.
Kevin Le
Kevin is a Geospatial Demographer with the Work Equity Research Center (WERC) at the Department of Labor and Industries Safety & Health Assessment for Research and Prevention (SHARP). He holds a BS in Geology from the University of Puget Sound and an MS in Geographic Information Sciences (GIS) from the University of Southern California.
Kevin is Vietnamese and Chinese-American and is a child of refugees of the Vietnam War. His background and education informs an equity-focused view of the world, examining how systems and the built environment can be improved to serve all peoples. His past research has examined housing disparities in Tacoma, Washington and methods of increasing housing access and affordability through the lens of GIS. Housing in Tacoma was not only the subject of his master’s thesis but also the focus of multiple articles he has written for The Urbanist, a Seattle-based publication.
Kevin views GIS as one way of distilling complex data into formats that are understandable while revealing patterns in space-time that one would not see simply staring at a spreadsheet. One of his personal goals in life is leaving the world a better place than how he entered it and Kevin sees that being a part of the WERC team and improving occupational health inequities for workers in Washington as an excellent way to accomplish that.
When he is not wrestling with ArcGIS Pro, Kevin enjoys hanging out with his cat and dog, playing Dungeons and Dragons and building Gunpla model kits.
Chelsea Wright
Chelsea has been with Labor & Industries (L&I) for almost 5 years. Chelsea started as an office manager at one of the regional offices, she then moved into the role of a contract specialist 2 where she performed journey level work in procuring goods and services for the employees of L&I.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion is a passion of hers, so she views being part of WERC, as a Program Specialist, to be an incredible opportunity.
Currently, Chelsea sits on L&I's Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging Employee Advisory Committee, where she work on initiatives to make L&I more Diverse, Equitable, Inclusive and where everyone belongs. She is also part of B.U.I.L.D (Blacks United In Leadership & Diversity; statewide Business Resource Group), the L&I Women's Resource Group, and Co-Executive Secretary of the Interagency Committee of State Employed Women.
In her personal life, she has two amazing grown sons and two little Chihuahuas. She is President of the Alpha Beta Chapter of Rho Sigma Alpha Sorority, Inc and a Sigma Gamma Rho Philo Affiliate.
Stefani Florez-Acevado
Stefani is a psychologist and an occupational health researcher interested in improving and promoting the well-being of historically marginalized groups, especially Latine workers.
At WERC, Stefani enjoys the opportunity to interact and engage with a diverse group of collaborators and partners, including workers, researchers, policymakers, and community organizations to understand and address the multifaceted challenges faced by historically underrepresented and marginalized workers.
Stefani is currently a Health Service PhD student at the Health Systems and Population Health Department at the University of Washington. For her research dissertation, she is interested in how to foster positive workplace mental health. She also holds an MPH in Health Services from the University of Washington, and a master’s degree in psychology from the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá- Colombia.
In her research, Stefani uses conceptual frameworks that acknowledge how different socioeconomic contexts create health outcome disparities within and between groups. She has ample experience in health promotion research and research evaluation where she tends to use methods that draw attention towards invisibilized groups including mixed methods, qualitative methods, and CBPR.
Stefani is from Bogotá-Colombia, and she enjoys hiking the PNW, traveling, and spending quality time with her family, friends, and her beautiful rescue dog.
If you would like more information or have any questions or comments, please reach out to us via email at WERC@Lni.wa.gov.
Current Projects
Ensuring Success in Vocational Rehabilitation
Evaluating the new Skill Enhancement Training (SET) program for L&I’s Vocational Rehabilitation program. This new component is intended to better prepare workers for successful transitions into alternative careers.
Community Snapshots
Short reports summarizing various communities in Washington State.
Community Driven
We work with agency programs and communities to address systemic occupational safety and health inequities with an emphasis on supporting businesses to create a work environment that prioritizes employee safety and well-being. The 5Ws of Racial Equity inform our work (Bentley-Edwards, et al).
5Ws of Racial Equity in Research
Ensuring equity in research is critical for the Work Equity Research Center; the 5Ws put forth by Dr. Keisha L. Bentley-Edwards and her co-authors provide a useful framework to use when developing research projects. In the paper linked above, they prompt us to answer the 5Ws to encourage conversation and planning that considers historical (and current) inequities in health research.
Who?
Who benefits? Who is harmed? Who is excluded? Who makes decisions? Who do systems prioritize? Who is made comfortable? Who is cited? Who is called an expert? Who can lead research?
What?
What resources? What is the access? What values are prioritized? What languages are excluded? What are accommodations? What variables are used or excluded?
Where?
Where does power sit? Where do you have to go? Where are resources shared? Where are findings shared? Where is this research going? Where does the money go?
When?
When did it become a priority? When do research activities occur? When is waiting acceptable, and for whom?
Why?
Why is this project relevant? Why use this approach? Why should someone want to be involved? Why this research topic? Why this group of interest? Why you? Why not you?
For L&I Staff
Employees at the Department of Labor & Industries are integral to the success of the Work Equity Research Center (WERC). We rely on your institutional knowledge, your experience about what works and what could work better, and we want to hear what you are hearing from our customers!
WERC SharePoint Site (L&I employees only)
In addition, here are some useful links for you to learn more about us and what we do:
What is Participatory Action Research?
Participatory Action Research (PAR) is a research approach that involves community members in the research process to understand and improve issues that affect them. More information can be found here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2566051/
Intersectionality:
- A Primer on Intersectionality (From the African American Policy Forum)
- Intersectionality Resource Guide and Toolkit: An Intersectional Approach to Leave No One Behind (From UN Women)
- The Intersectionality Toolbox: A Resource for Teaching and Applying an Intersectional Lens in Public Health
WERC Stats
Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WMSDs)
Research Findings
Occupational Heat Exposure and Mental Health Outcomes
Work conditions, labor policies, and health among Latino agricultural workers
Journal Articles
Stefani Florez-Acevedo, Maria T Blancas, June T Spector (2025). Occupational Heat Exposure & Mental Health Outcomes: A Review and Framework Incorporating Social Determinants of Health to Guide Future Research. Current Environmental Health Reports. DOI:10.1007/s40572-025-00479-6 | Research Findings
Erica Chavez Santos, Miriam Flores Moreno, Amy Hernandez, Ricardo Moreno Garcia, June T. Spector, India J. Ornelas, Barbara Baquero (2024). "A veces no aguantas lo pesado que es el trabajo”: A qualitative study on work conditions, labor and social policies, and health among Latino agricultural workers in Washington State. SSM - Qualitative Research in Health. DOI: 10.1016/j.ssmqr.2024.100507 | Research Findings
Smith CK, Wuellner S, and Marcum J (2023). Racial and ethnic disparities in workers’ compensation claims rates. PLoS ONE. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0280307 | Research Findings
Smith CK and Bonauto DK (2018). Improving occupational health disparity research: Testing a method to estimate race and ethnicity in a working population. American Journal of Industrial Medicine. DOI: 10.1002/ajim.22850 | Research Findings
Bonauto DK, Smith CK, Adams DA, Fan ZJ, Silverstein BA, and Foley M (2010). Language Preference and Non-Traumatic Low Back Disorders in Washington State Workers’ Compensation. American Journal of Industrial Medicine. DOI: 10.1002/ajim.20740 | Research Findings
Smith CK, Silverstein BA, Bonauto DK, Adams DA, and Fan ZJ (2010). Temporary workers in Washington State. American Journal of Industrial Medicine. DOI: 10.1002/ajim.20728