Cirila Estela Vasquez Guzman, Ph.D. has a joint appointment in family medicine and Knight Cancer. Her primary areas of research are in four areas: cervical cancer, Latina/Latino immigrants, community engagement research and medical education, specifically around how to train learners to have an awareness of systems and structural issues. Personal struggles are often the reflection of larger societal issues, and helping to illuminate them is a critical part of her research agenda.  

As a medical sociologist, Dr. Vasquez Guzman found her way into family medicine by recognizing similar themes between this discipline and sociology.  For example, they both focus on the family unit and are aware of social structures. Even as a graduate student during her training, family medicine kept coming up as a progressive discipline familiar with the socio-ecological model of patients. When she was looking for the next phase in her career, family medicine was appealing. If anything is her home, it’s family medicine. According to Dr. Vasquez Guzman, “They understand what I bring as a Ph.D. They understand the larger context of patients.”   

It is clear that Dr. Vasquez Guzman very much understands patients from a lived experience too. “I am from the community. I grew up sick in the hospital and have family members impacted by cervical cancer, diabetes, heart conditions, and fibromyalgia. I’ve lived the things that I study. This allows me to connect with the population in a unique way. I want the community to know this is a research project done by someone who looks like them working to advance systems change, not just more patient education.  If I’m not sharing such systems approach with the people, then what’s the point of doing my research?” Dr. Vasquez Guzman regularly gives community talks.  

Although culture and community play a big role in her work, Dr. Vasquez Guzman, through a sociological lens, often thinks more broadly about systems, social structure and structural barriers that affect patients and their communities. Working towards a system of prevention requires a shift away from a disease system. This way of thinking is what led her to work in cervical cancer with Latina communities. She continues to reveal the flaws in the systems; her research shows there is a disconnect between medical literature and what occurs in the community, what the medical system offers for patients as a one-size-fits all approach. In other words, the system and the structures are preventing certain outcomes that could benefit all patients.  

To ensure the future of this work, Dr. Vasquez Guzman received a K01 Grant, a prestigious award for any researcher. Although the award was withheld in early 2025 due to initial federal restrictions, it was reinstated later that year. This is probably one aspect of her career she’s most proud of as it’s not common to receive these awards on the first try. Even though the past year was tumultuous, Dr. Vasquez Guzman notes she’s been able to accomplish a lot despite that thanks to her community partners and collaborators. 

Part of her K01 Grant involves data collection with three Oregon clinics: Virginia Garcia, Hillsboro Medica Center, and Multnomah Health County. Her work will involve interviewing patients, providers, and frontline staff – basically everyone involved in the cervical cancer screening and prevention process. Guided by a community advisory board, she has traveled all over Oregon and Washington gathering Latina survivors' stories and with this grant is moving into a phase of her research focused on the system and analyzing the context of care uplifting potential community-based organization role.    

Dr. Vasquez Guzman advises future researchers to lean into community engaged research, think of community in a broader sense by partnering with non-profits, community-based organizations, and even the state with the goal being to bring research to the people and making it more impactful. Prioritize dissemination that is multi-lingual, multi-modal (not just written but spoken). This is not just about doing science and research but being part of the impact and dissemination. 

In the next 5-10 years, Dr. Vasquez Guzman would love to see more movement in cervical cancer prevention for middle-to-older age Latinas, including screenings and follow up. She likens this disease to chronic conditions. Patients don’t just get a pap smear and then move on. Many women have abnormal pap smears and must wait years to address them, which highlights the long-term management component of this disease. She hopes that like the breast cancer movement that has destigmatized breasts, there will be a movement towards destigmatizing the cervix, so more people are willing to share, engage, and help with early detection of cervical cancer.