Her research focuses on risk and resiliency, culture and context as they relate to immigrant mental health. She uses mixed-methods and community-partnership methods to study acculturation stress, immigration trauma, psychological, social, and academic adjustment, and access to treatment for mental illness among immigrant and minority populations. Her current projects include a longitudinal school-based study of risk and resiliency among newcomer adolescent immigrants; a community partnership focusing on refugee mental health and treatment; and an intervention study of trauma healing and peace education in the Central African Republic. At PAU, Dr. Patel is the faculty advisor for the Cultural Transitions Research Group and Students for Global Mental Health. In 2016, she was a visiting scholar at the Africa Mental Health Foundation in Nairobi, Kenya.