Co-Investigator and Research Capacity Building

Research Team Member and Leader

Research is not a neutral quest for knowledge; it is a political practice that can reproduce or challenge existing power structures. I approach academic research support as a form of solidarity work that equips scholars—especially those from marginalized communities—to generate knowledge that serves collective liberation rather than corporate profit or imperial agendas.

A Liberation-Centered Framework for Research

Traditional research services focus on compliance and funding pipelines. My practice centers on critical methodology, community accountability, and capacity building so that scholars can resist extractive paradigms and produce work that advances justice.

Power Analysis at Every Stage – From literature mapping to dissemination, we interrogate whose voices are amplified, whose are erased, and who benefits from the knowledge produced.
Participatory Action Research Methods – Wherever possible, communities co-design research questions, data collection tools, and analytic frameworks, rejecting the “subject–object” divide still common in the academy.
Trauma-Informed Research Ethics – Protocols honor bodily autonomy, informed consent, and data sovereignty—crucial when working with survivors of conversion therapy, religious trauma, or state violence.

Core Supports We Offer

Grant Strategy & Development

We co-craft proposals that foreground justice-oriented aims while still meeting funder requirements. Services include:

Critical budget design that compensates community partners at equitable rates
Narrative framing that resists deficit language about marginalized populations
Alignment checks with intersecting priorities like Labor Rights & Ethics and DEI

Methodological Consulting

Whether qualitative, mixed-methods, or critical quantitative, we ensure methods align with anti-oppression values. This may involve decolonizing survey instruments, integrating Black feminist epistemologies, or co-setting data governance agreements.

Data Visualization & Knowledge Mobilization

Data without context can reinforce dominant narratives. We translate findings into accessible zines, policy briefs, and open-access repositories, prioritizing formats useful to frontline movements.

Researcher Skill-Building

Capacity-building workshops on topics such as:

Community-led IRB preparation
Decolonial citation practices
Anti-racist statistical techniques
Academic labor organizing strategies

These sessions connect directly to Training & Development offerings and can be embedded in departmental curricula.

Why Capacity Building?

Higher-education R&D spending in the United States hit $108.8 billion in FY 2023, the largest one-year jump in two decades. Yet federal grant approval rates hover near 20 percent for many agencies, and the distribution skews toward elite institutions. Without intentional capacity building, historically excluded scholars and regional teaching universities remain shut out of funding streams.

Recent data show that universities invested $27.7 billion of their own funds—25 percent of all research dollars—to keep projects afloat. This self-financing model deepens inequities: resource-rich campuses accelerate, while community colleges and MSIs struggle to secure seed money. Our work levels that playing field by teaching grant strategy, mutual-aid budgeting, and cooperative funding models.

Guiding Principles

Critical Theory Alignment – Research questions must interrogate capitalism, white supremacy, cis-heteropatriarchy, and ableism rather than accept them as backdrops.
Collective Stewardship – Data belong first to the people who generate them. We facilitate Memoranda of Understanding that protect community ownership and veto power.
Transparency & Open Access – Whenever legally and ethically feasible, outputs are published in open repositories, resisting paywalls that privatize publicly funded knowledge.
Safety & Sustainability – We integrate vicarious trauma supports and anti-burnout practices, drawing on our Personal Development Coaching framework.

Calls to Action

Collaborative Consultation
Ready to co-design a justice-oriented research agenda? Book a 30-minute discovery call.
👉 Contact Willow

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