University of Maryland Archives

Mmasinachi Ezuma-Ngwu

Mmasinachi Ezuma-Ngwu completed her BS in public health science at the University of Maryland in 2022. Between 2022 and 2023, she volunteered at clinics, including the Pregnancy Aid Center and the Covenant Psychiatric Services, where she supported underserved patient populations. From 2023 to 2025, she worked at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) as a postbaccalaureate research fellow in the Inherited Neuromuscular Diseases Unit. She continued in the same lab as a special volunteer in 2026. Her research focused on spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA), where she analyzed the skeletal muscle transcriptome and led a project to identify disease-specific biomarkers using samples from a Natural History Study. She also codeveloped a patient-reported outcome measure, the HI-Questionnaire, now used in such a study. She is a co-author on a publication in Brain Communications examining neuronal injury biomarkers in SBMA and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis type 4 (ALS4). Mmasinachi has presented her work at conferences, including those of the Society for Neuroscience and the Student National Medical Association. She is interested in pursuing medical school and advancing research in the medical field.

In India, dementia is rapidly increasing, with millions of families serving as primary caregivers with limited formal support. In her Fulbright-Nehru project in Karnataka, Mmasinachi is examining how dementia severity, patient needs, and caregiver well-being interact to shape caregiver burden. Using a realist review and stakeholder interviews, she is evaluating existing interventions such as psychoeducation, support groups, and respite care. She is also collaborating with clinicians and community organizations to codesign and pilot a culturally tailored, scalable intervention. Through this work, she aims to identify effective, context-specific strategies to reduce caregiver burden and inform policies that strengthen support systems for families caring for individuals with dementia.

Vunnathi Ankem

Vunnathi Ankem is a community-oriented researcher and student leader. She graduated from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, with a BS in psychology. For her honors thesis project, conducted through qualitative interviewing and thematic coding under the guidance of her mentor, Dr. Christopher Murphy, she researched how the South Asian diaspora conceptualized intimate partner violence (IPV) and unhealthy relationship dynamics. She presented this research at a conference of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS) in 2025 and at the 2026 National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR). She has served as a government intern where she engaged with research produced on family violence, online abuse, and child maltreatment. She was also a research assistant in the Gender-Based Harms and Abuse Prevention Lab where she worked on projects regarding the effectiveness of intervention in IPV cases, IPV amongst international graduate students, and IPV prevention strategies on college campuses.

In her free time, Vunnathi enjoys highlighting the importance of civic action and engagement. In one such campaign, she and her team of student leaders helped raise over USD 6,000 for local Baltimore charities. And, through the Maryland Y Youth and Government program, she volunteered to support teens in their journey with civic engagement. Vunnathi has tutored elementary public school students in Baltimore City to keep up their love for learning. She has also co-led an exploration of a long-term collective civic action around health and patient care equity in Baltimore City. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Vunnathi facilitated difficult conversations regarding mental health concerns, organized multiple school events for mental health awareness, conducted counseling programs, and created space for students struggling with community issues through a mental health club she started with her friend in association with Our Minds Matter. She aspires to become a clinical-community psychologist, combining her interest in collective action, love for community work, and passion for IPV prevention and mental healthcare.

Vunnathi’s Fulbright-Nehru project is about how young people in India perceive and talk about unhealthy relationship dynamics. Working with Dr. Padmaja Gadiraju at the University of Hyderabad, she is interviewing students in a semi-structured one-on-one interview format. The interviews are identifying expectations of social behavior, the role of social networks, and the social discourse around IPV to analyze cultural influences on relationship dynamics. The findings will inform future efforts to tailor culturally relevant IPV prevention and response programs for students of South Asian descent.

Joseph Engmark

Joseph Engmark is pursuing his PhD in mathematical statistics from the Department of Mathematics at the University of Maryland. His research interests focus on design-based probability sample surveys. Since 2018, Joseph has been working in the Center for Statistical Research and Methodology at the U.S. Census Bureau. Prior to joining the bureau, he taught mathematics at secondary schools in Liberia and Malawi as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer. Joseph has a broad interest in nature, cultural exchange, and the global community.

Under the Fulbright-Nehru fellowship, John is collaborating with researchers at the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata. The research project is focusing on capture-recapture methods, a survey sampling technique used to estimate totals in a finite population. These methods are widely used in practice, including in epidemiology, wildlife conservation, and official statistics, such as a census.