Hazel Velasco Palacios is a PhD candidate in rural sociology and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at Penn State University. Her research examines how structural and symbolic violence shape healthcare access for Latina/o immigrant farmworker families in Pennsylvania’s dairy and mushroom industries. Using an ethnographic approach, Hazel documents how legal status, labor conditions, and gendered expectations intersect to create barriers to care, while also highlighting the community-driven strategies families employ to navigate these exclusions. She is committed to engaged scholarship that bridges academic research with grassroots advocacy, collaborating with organizations such as Mighty Writers El Futuro Kennett.