The Richmonder 25: Gabriela León-Pérez does research to offer real-world solutions

As a Ph.D. student, Gabriela León-Pérez took on a project interviewing Latino immigrant mothers in Nashville. It was a project of personal significance. León-Pérez, who moved to the U.S. from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico in 2008, was expecting her first child. Her immigrant and soon-to-be-mother perspectives helped her build a rapport with the women on multiple levels.

However, an interview underscoring the differences of her experience crystallized a career vision. As a woman from Mexico explained the stresses around her immigration status, she pointed out that León-Pérez couldn’t understand that stress. 

“I’m in a Ph.D. program, I came legally, so I mean, there are things that I won't understand about her experience that made me think, ‘Maybe I can use my position of privilege to maybe shed light on the experiences of these women, and also help share information or data to improve their well-being,’” León-Pérez said. 

Now a sociology professor at VCU, León-Pérez has made a concerted effort to bring her research beyond the ivory towers of academia into the community. In 2023, she started the Latino Virginia Oral History project with her colleague Daniel Morales, a VCU history professor. More than 150 people have been interviewed as a part of the project. 

“Every single country of Latin America is represented in our oral histories,” she said. “People came for very different reasons. They have many different occupations. We have political leaders, people in construction, teachers.” The project’s website will launch in September, putting 70 of the interviews online. They will also be available on the VCU Libraries' Scholars Compass. 

León-Pérez isn’t stopping there. She’s also working to improve the mental health of the city’s Latino youth community through the Alliance for Latino Youth Mental Health and Advocacy, or ALMA, partnering with Richmond Public Schools, the city’s Office of Immigrant and Refugee Engagement, and the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts. 

The project began in 2024, convening parents, students, teachers, social workers, and counselors. It plans to release a free online directory of bilingual mental health services for youth in the Greater Richmond Area and a report with findings and recommendations. 

León-Pérez knew she couldn’t start ALMA immediately when she first moved to Richmond in 2018. She needed to build trust with community partners over time. 

“My community partners are really guiding the work that we're doing,” she said. “The questions that we ask in the focus groups, they're inspired by things that they were interested in learning.”

Jennifer Blackwell, the director of multilingual learner success at Richmond Public Schools, called León-Pérez “a powerhouse individual and human being.” Blackwell could hardly wait to get her hands on the bilingual mental health services directory. She asked León-Pérez for a draft version in advance toward the end of 2025.

“[It] was something that I had been needing the last nine years that I've worked for Richmond Public Schools,” Blackwell said, adding it has become a go-to resource amid the current immigration crackdown.   

Blackwell said it's important to understand that Latino youth are “not a monolith.” One student might be reuniting with parents who previously moved to the U.S., while another might have spent their whole life in Richmond. 

Blackwell also applauded ALMA for bringing together stakeholders that tend to work in “silos.” Indeed, as a part of the project, León-Pérez has collaborated with the city’s Office of Immigrant and Refugee Engagement. Karla Almendarez-Ramos, the manager of that office, said León-Pérez connects with the city’s immigrant population on a deeper level, as an immigrant herself. She added that working with young people is particularly important. 

“As you connect with [a young adult], you can see what were the pivotal moments in their life that somebody could have done something, and there was nothing done,” Almendarez-Ramos said. 

That’s exactly the type of real world impact that León-Pérez is hoping to have. 

“Sometimes we see all this really important research being done at universities, but then it just stays there,” she said. “These are findings that could change the lives of people, but they're not communicated to maybe the people on the ground. That’s why it's been very important for me to share my expertise with people who are doing this work.”

VCU is a sponsor of The Richmonder but was not allowed to influence or review this article.

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