Public Health Archives - Page 7 of 8

Baldeep Dhaliwal

Baldeep Dhaliwal is currently pursuing her PhD in international health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH). She received her MSPH in health policy and management from JHSPH and her BS in cognitive science-neuroscience from the University of California, San Diego.

After receiving her MSPH, Baldeep pursued a career in healthcare consulting in Washington, D.C. As a healthcare consultant, she focused on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act at the state health exchange level. Baldeep then went on to pursue a research career at the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) where she focused on utilizing qualitative research skills and community-based participatory research methods to better understand vaccine acceptance, and lead vaccine advocacy efforts at the community, institution, and policy levels. Her work also dealt with understanding multi-level perceptions that impact vaccine-seeking behavior while simultaneously supporting policy change to improve vaccine coverage.

Baldeep has nine peer-reviewed articles to her credit and has written several academic commentaries and op-eds for journals and health blogs. As a doctoral researcher, she is focusing extensively on vaccine advocacy; she is also interested in understanding health delivery in marginalized urban populations – how urban populations access care and the role that frontline health workers in low- and middle-income countries play or do not play in delivering primary care.

The Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) program was established in India in 2005 to connect rural populations to health services. To further strengthen health delivery, the ASHA program was implemented in urban communities in 2014. The urban ASHA program’s impacts on communities are unclear, as there is a significant literature gap. Baldeep’s Fulbright-Nehru project is using qualitative research methods to facilitate a rich understanding of urban ASHA workers. She feels that as India is presently strengthening its health delivery in urban areas, particularly through the development of comprehensive urban primary health centers, it is essential to have a better grasp on the urban ASHA program.

Lainie Beauchemin

Lainie Beauchemin earned a BS in biological engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where she researched the molecular underpinnings of schizophrenia and other neurological diseases through the Broad Institute. During her time at MIT, Lainie was co-president of a math mentorship program for underserved middle school girls in the Cambridge/Boston area, and worked in various roles for The Educational Justice Institute, including teaching Python to incarcerated women. She was also chair of the MIT Shakespeare ensemble as well as an actress, producer, and designer for multiple productions. Since her graduation, Lainie has been researching chronic lung diseases. She plans to pursue a PhD in biomedical engineering and hopes to work on expanding healthcare access globally.

Lainie’s Fulbright-Nehru project is focusing on broadening neurological diagnostic care in rural India, in conjunction with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi and Project Prakash. She is assessing the need and feasibility of a system of mental and neurological health clinics in rural India in order to pave the way for more accessible healthcare in these specialties. She is also working with her collaborators to enable the establishment of clinics which are local and accessible to villagers in the state of Uttar Pradesh. At these clinics, patients would receive screening for neurological illnesses, their data could be sent to providers in New Delhi, and prescription medicine could be sent back to the clinics, all at no cost to the villagers. Before such a system can be devised, there is a wealth of preliminary feasibility research to be conducted concerning the areas of need, the obstacles facing the villagers, the regulatory logistics of dispensing prescription medication and treatment, and the sourcing of medical equipment and personnel.

Annika Agarwal

Annika Agarwal graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a major in anthropology in May 2023. While in school, she was the campus chairperson of Global Brigades where she organized menstrual products for communities in Honduras. She also founded Screen to Street, an organization that conducts home visits and educational programs for Latina women in their prenatal and postpartum periods. Besides, she worked as a birth doula at Magee-Womens Hospital, Pittsburgh, where she helped countless mothers during their birthing experience. One of her most valuable undergraduate experiences was developing her research skills and repertoire through Dr. Sara Baumann’s lab in Pittsburgh. During that time, she spent a summer in Mumbai, working with orphan girls to understand institutionalized menstrual practices, attitudes, and knowledge production. She has also worked on projects related to Collaborative Filmmaking, a participatory arts-based method, to understand the postpartum experiences of women in Pittsburgh. Annika will build on these experiences and skills through her Fulbright year. Ultimately, she hopes to attend medical school and continue her work on women’s health research globally.

Due to insufficient sanitary services, slum women in Dharavi, Mumbai, face a predicament. While they use dilapidated community toilets that make menstruation a communal issue, taboos perpetuate a clandestine culture. Of the sparse research that has been done on menstrual disposal, men and elders stand excluded. Therefore, this Fulbright study asks: “What are the attitudes, practices, and knowledge around menstrual disposal among men and women of different ages in Dharavi?” For her research, Annika is using Collaborative Filmmaking to co-create films on menstrual disposal with the residents. This study will contribute to the knowledge on differential bodily autonomy based on gender, a prominent issue in both the U.S. and India.

Niyati Shah

Niyati Shah is an Indian American research analyst and community organizer based in Washington, DC, who synthesizes mixed methods and participatory research to advance public and planetary health. She holds a BS in statistics and public health from George Washington University. In Washington, Niyati served as a grassroots organizer for Ward 2 Mutual Aid, which is a community-led effort to build solidarity, meet the survival needs of unhoused neighbors, and foster collective support during times of crisis. She was a key member of its Oral History Project, which documents the realities of housing and food insecurity, and showcases how neighbors organize to address these issues. She previously worked at Westat, where she collaborated on projects that evaluated and monitored the U.S.’s social safety net programs with the mission to improve the health outcomes of historically underserved communities. At Westat, she contributed to research on nursing home staff during COVID-19, examined the regional differences in the quality of kidney care in the U.S., and studied the experiences of mothers on supplemental nutrition programs in rural areas. Prior to Westat, Niyati worked at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) where she helped measure the role of social networks on the health outcomes and burden among caregivers of children with metabolic disorders. Niyati presented her team’s research at the NHGRI symposium in 2019. In her free time, Niyati knits and crochets, bakes cardamom-orange olive oil cake, and befriends neighborhood cats. She also performs Bharatnatyam and Kathak dances with DC’s performing arts group, Nootana, and with Lasya Dance Academy.

In her Fulbright-Nehru project at Bengaluru, Niyati, by integrating quantitative and qualitative approaches, is examining how rural–urban migration into sites of climate vulnerability impacts the health of migrant women. Guided by frameworks within environmental scholarship, her research is exploring the reasons for migration and studying the migrants’ exposure to hazards, as well as the health risks and coping strategies. The study’s findings are expected to spur the development of structures that facilitate the mobility of displaced women and support their adaptation strategies in the face of climate breakdown.

Chandni Shah

Chandni Shah graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience and minors in chemistry and healthcare management. After graduation, she worked as a clinical research coordinator at Penn Medicine, where she studied and helped carry out a novel social-functioning program for adults on the autism spectrum. She focused on developing methods of outreach to diverse groups in the autism community in the hope of increasing access and equity in autism research. Chandni also has experience conducting insomnia and mindfulness research; her study was accepted for poster presentation at the 2022 Associated Professional Sleep Societies Conference and its abstract has been published in SLEEP. Research has been at the core of her academic career thus far. In fact, Chandni has been able to work on seven studies and move toward the publication of four papers (of which she is the primary author of three). She hopes to leverage clinical research to make significant positive changes in the medical field. Her hobbies include dancing, playing the violin and clarinet, and writing slam poetry.

Research studies have shown that in India, there is a significant delay between the first recognition of symptoms to the actual initiation of treatment for autism spectrum disorder (ASD); this is detrimental to the development of a child on the autism spectrum. Although scientific literature reveals these delays exist, there is little research exploring the causes behind such delays. Chandni’s Fulbright-Nehru project, while filling these research gaps, is identifying the barriers that prevent families from receiving early ASD diagnoses and interventions. She is also investigating the mental well-being of the caregivers of children on the autism spectrum.

Sezin Sakmar

Sezin Sakmar recently graduated from the George Washington University with a major in anthropology and a minor in public health. During her undergraduate career, Sezin spent over 3,000 hours in various clinical settings ranging from working as an EMT and as an ED technician at a Level 1 trauma hospital to being a medical assistant at a pediatric clinic. Through these experiences, she fell in love with medicine but noticed the ways in which the American healthcare system was beset by serious infrastructural issues which led to health inequities in the case of minority communities. When studying in India through the School for International Training, Sezin conducted fieldwork with the Comprehensive Rural Health Project in rural Maharashtra, which helped her to realize her dream of becoming an OBGYN and providing empowerment-driven healthcare to communities around the world. During her final year of university, she also conducted independent research on racially concordant care among Washington, DC’s Black birthing population.

Sezin’s Fulbright-Nehru research project is bringing together the fields of public health and critical medical anthropology to make a positive impact on communities seeking family planning care. Through this research, Sezin is seeking to understand the particular ways in which healthcare providers are trained to deliver family planning services.

Sandhya Kumar

Sandhya Kumar received an MPH in health policy with a concentration in global health from the Yale School of Public Health in May 2024. She was part of the accelerated five-year BA/MPH program and received her bachelor’s degree in global affairs and global health from Yale College. She grew up in Rochester, Minnesota.

At Yale, Sandhya volunteered with the Neighborhood Health Project in New Haven to provide free blood pressure and blood sugar screening at a food pantry and also led a summer international relations and leadership institute for high schoolers; she was also co-president of the South Asian Society.

Sandhya has interned with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau on Population, Refugees, and Migration in Washington, D.C., working on initiatives related to sexual and reproductive health. She has also interned with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance in Geneva, where she worked on routine immunization projects.

Sandhya’s Fulbright-Nehru project is studying the sexual and reproductive health of women migrants in Mumbai. The existing studies on COVID-19’s impact on India have overlooked the gendered effects of pandemic-fueled migration, notably in the area of sexual and reproductive health (SRH). Sandhya’s project is assessing women migrants’ access to SRH services, including to sexually transmitted infection screenings, family planning, and maternal care. In this context, she is engaging with local organizations that assist Mumbai’s migrant workers, interviewing women migrants, and understanding state and local government responses.

Anna Kozan

Anna Kozan is graduating in May 2024 with a BS in nursing and a BA in Spanish language studies from Ramapo College of New Jersey (RCNJ). In her Spanish studies program, she conducted research on the intersection of language and health, and the potentially detrimental outcomes that can occur when patients speak a different language from their care providers. In 2023, she completed a Critical Language Scholarship (CLS), Spark, to study Russian. She is now volunteering as a CLS alumni ambassador and advertising the program through social media and by hosting events. She has been working as a patient care technician at a hospital in New Jersey since October 2022 and developing her clinical skills to help her in her career as a nurse. Anna also works as a Spanish tutor at Ramapo College. Besides, she is the social media chair of the RCNJ Spanish Club. She is also a member of the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing and of the Sigma Delta Pi National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society. Anna is fluent in Spanish and holds an intermediate mid-proficiency in Russian, as well as a novice high proficiency in Arabic and the American Sign Language. She is also a choreographer and performer for the RCNJ Dance Company.

In her Fulbright-Nehru project, Anna is researching if language barriers in India’s Karnataka state is affecting patient care, health literacy, and health outcomes. Working with Dr. Archana Siddaiah at St. John’s Medical College in Bengaluru, she is interviewing healthcare workers at the college to determine their experiences with language barriers and patient care. She is also interviewing patients to find out whether they are experiencing problems in care due to language barriers. The goal of the project is to implement community-based solutions for the issues that are identified.

Isabel Huesa

Isabel Huesa graduated summa cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis with a BA in anthropology, global health, and the environment, and minors in biology and South Asian languages and cultures. She wrote her senior honors thesis on the history of fossil fuel divestment campaigns at higher education institutions. A proud alumna of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, Isabel’s interests lie at the intersection of social justice, the environment, and health disparities. She dedicated her undergraduate career to understanding disease impact and harm reduction in marginalized communities; expanding student mental healthcare access; fighting for social justice; and examining Washington University’s role within the greater St. Louis. An advocate at heart, Isabel has mentored students as a mental health peer counselor, advised university leadership as the undergraduate representative to WashU’s Board of Trustees, and – in the wake of Missouri’s statewide abortion ban – led outreach efforts for Planned Parenthood. A critical language scholar, Isabel spent over six years learning Hindi. As a climate justice advocate, Isa participated in the United Nations’ 28th Conference of the Parties and also worked as a student consultant in the Interdisciplinary Environmental Law Clinic at WashU Law.

In her Fulbright-Nehru project, Isabel is in Delhi studying mental telehealth interventions in the HIV care continuum. She is evaluating and analyzing the efficacy of the existing 24/7 NACP (National AIDS Control Program) phone counseling service by examining the frequency of use by MSM (Men Who Have Sex with Men), the perceived effects of the phone counseling, and the patterns of HIV transmission and treatment in Delhi among MSM before and after such counseling.