How/Why Research? I was interested in pursuing research at UNC after completing an independent research project and loving the investigative nature of the work! I obtained my position at UNC Medical School and my first project at the CPC by cold emailing my current PIs. I found my summer internship through the funded research opportunities database.
Research Experience: Since starting at UNC my research experience has focused on analyzing the effects of social structures on a population’s biological health. This summer, I will be working at the Carolina Population Center under Dr. Robert Hummer on The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, a longitudinal study of a nationally representative sample of over 20,000 participants. I will be assisting with various aspects of Wave VI collection of rich demographic, socioeconomic, and biological data from participants, along with assessing data and summarizing published works using the database. At the Knittel Lab, I have completed transcription and data reduction, and created a codebook and manuscript to analyze and visualize trends regarding a resource to assist providers with patient-centered approaches to carceral health. On a previous project at the CPC, I worked with geographic data from the FBI hate crime database for a project that was analyzing the effects of structural racism on Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias. All of these projects work to create insight into how our societal structures and institutions affect health, from reproductive health in carceral settings to racism and aging across the life course. These projects give us a better understanding of how our world impacts us and how public health interventions can be effective.
Student Organizations/Clubs: Community Justice Abolition and Antiracism Collective, Carolina Housing
Random Fun Fact: I have been vegetarian for about 10 years!