Vivetha Thambinathan, PhD, MPH (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the MSU College of Human Medicine. Vivetha is a community-engaged public health systems researcher and interdisciplinary qualitative methodologist, with a focus on partnering with historically marginalized communities to advance health equity and justice. 

Grounded in trauma-informed and decolonial pedagogies & praxes, Vivetha collaborates with communities to drive strengths-based Participatory Action Research (PAR) projects for health justice and healing. Broadly, her research invests in the power of communal problem-solving to design place-based structural solutions transforming care within and beyond health systems. 

She holds a PhD in Health and Rehabilitation sciences, with a specialization in Health Professions Education, and a Master’s in Public Health, both from Western University in Ontario, Canada. Vivetha uses creative, participatory storytelling approaches to forward research and practice at the intersections of community healing, intergenerational futures, and liberatory systems of care - rooted in the tenets of “for us, by us”.