This discussion will consider the strengths women in refugee communities bring to their resettlement state—Utah, and the challenges in resettling. The overall purpose is to acquaint attendees with these refugee communities and highlight actions that non-refugee communities can take to ensure successful integration for Middle Eastern women refugees.

Caren Frost is director of the Center for Research on Migration & Refugee Integration for the University of Utah and a research professor at the university’s College of Social Work. Frost chairs the Refugee Women’s Committee for Utah and works with a number of refugee women’s groups to identify speakers and topics for workshops on women’s health. She is a qualitative researcher with expertise in ethnography and phenomenology, which allows her to capitalize on mixed method frames emphasizing the importance of adding qualitative components to inform data collection and analysis. As co-chair of the Institutional Review Board at the University of Utah, Frost provides expertise in social and behavioral science methods.