The Usap Tayo research team and community partners presented their findings on Filipino American politics, wellbeing and community-engaged research in April at the 2026 Association for Asian American Studies Conference in Hawaii. 

Tony DelaRosa, the Center for Healthy Minds collaborator and a lead researcher on the study, presented the team’s findings at two roundtables attended by graduate students, community members and experts on Critical Filipinx Studies methodologies. 

The Usap Tayo Study started in 2024. The team formed a community-research partnership with global non-profit FilExcellence to do the study, which investigates interpersonal, cultural and political determinants of wellbeing for Filipino American communities.

The first roundtable, including Usap Tayo study team members DelaRosa and co-researcher Cai Barias, focused on understanding the methodology of community-engaged research using the decolonial Filipino psychological theory called Kapwa. 

The second roundtable focused on understanding how the findings of this national study can be analyzed through a lens of Critical Whiteness Studies. The study team was joined by Dr. Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, an expert on Ethnic Studies and community engaged research. At the presentation, Dr. Tintiangco-Cubales said this study is urgent and necessary, as there is a lack of research that examines the relationship between politics and wellbeing for Filipino Americans. 

The research team also includes Center for Healthy Minds experts Dr. Christy Wilson-Mendenhall and Dr. Hadley Rahrig, who is also a lead researcher on the project. 

Featured photo: Dr. Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, Tony DelaRosa, Cai Barias and Matthew Veland (of community research partner organization FilExcellence.)