In partnership with the UC Merced GFI Basic Needs Workgroup, Dr. Díaz Rios’ team is exploring needs and targeted means to improve food access among college students at high risk of food insecurity (Ortiz 2020, Ortiz Flores 2019).

Dr. Díaz Rios' team explored college student perceptions of their food environment (Dhillon 2019, Dhillon 2017), as part of a collaboration with Dr. Ortiz's UC Merced FARMERS, a project funded by the USDA HIS education program.

In collaboration with Dr. Ramirez, Dr. Díaz Rios explored the relevance of an intervention to improve access to healthy food in rural food deserts (Ramirez 2017).