2023 Cohort
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Matthew Campos
Research Interests Chronic illness, Disease prevention, Gerontology, Latinx health, Community based participatory researchUndergraduate Institution Azusa Pacific UniversityTo me, health equity is ensuring that all communities have access to healthy aging. Whether that is preventative medicine, health education, or primary care, health equity ensures that all communities are invested in and pursued in a way that is contextual and culturally competent.
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Riley Pardo Duffin
Research Interests Health disparities, Maternal and child health, Social determinants of health, EpidemiologyUndergraduate Institution Nova Southeastern UniversityHealth equity means providing accessible resources and opportunities to underserved communities in order to improve health outcomes. It means social justice is met where individuals feel their voices are heard and their needs are met. I aspire to apply my public health knowledge by taking an epidemiological approach to address health disparities in minority populations.
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Natalie Hampton
Research Interests Health services and health policy, Population healthUndergraduate Institution Tougaloo CollegeI am interested in concentrating on Health Services, while at Brown. One of my goals as an MPH candidate is to broaden my understanding of the connection between health policies, advocacy, and public health.
Health Equity involves everyone. Through awareness, others are able to become educated on additional ways to create access for everyone apart from their demographics. As a rising professional, it is my goal to encourage others to understand the vitalness of health equity.
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Makayla Hickmon
Research Interests Maternal and child health, Racial health disparities, Black maternal health, Maternal and child healthUndergraduate Institution Edward Waters UniversityI am interested in maternal health disparities within marginalized communities within the United States and around the world. My primary interest is in further understanding factors leading to increased rates of maternal mortality in minorities. As well as, researching factors that reduce maternal and infant mortality rates in developing countries.
Health Equity means that everyone has equal access to adequate and proficient health care services, whether it be for cancer screenings or mental health screenings. In addition, Health equity also means that everyone should have access to basic human needs such as clean water and nutritional foods. It’s as clinical as it is holistic.
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Kirsten Moore
Research Interests Addiction and substance use, Health disparities, Sexual and reproductive healthUndergraduate Institution Tougaloo CollegeHealth equity is a fair opportunity for people to receive good health care and education regardless of class, gender, or race. My interests are in sexual health education especially in minority communities and teens, and Iook forward to completing the Health Behavior concentration. My attraction to sexual health stems from the lack of sexual health education I received growing up in Mississippi. As a Brown Health Equity Scholar, my goal is to gain the tools to help minority communities gain proper sexual health education.
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Jacqueline Partida
Research Interests Violence prevention, Gender and health equity, Mental health, Population healthUndergraduate Institution University of California, MercedHealth equity is the next step in achieving health justice. Health justice requires interdisciplinary perspectives that work together to bring creative solutions that eliminate systemic barriers. As a public health professional, I strive to use health equity to empower historically excluded communities to seek health justice.
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Trinity Perkins
Research Interests Black womens health, Racial health disparities, Health equity, Maternal and child health, Social determinants of health, Health services and health policyUndergraduate Institution The University of North TexasThroughout my educational journey, I learned that in all phases of pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum care, African-American women are disproportionately affected by racial bias and often have limited access to essential and conscious medical care. From that moment on, helping African American women and other marginalized communities with healthcare needs became my driving motivation to pursue a health sciences degree. These personal realizations and the examples derived from my great-grandparents who not only lived through and actively participated in the civil rights era, but were also my caregivers while my mother worked invigorated me to learn more about how I could impact or assist in changes necessary to closing racial disparities.
As a Master of Public Health candidate at Brown, I am pursuing an Interdisciplinary Concentration that will further educate and tool me with the knowledge and resources to assist in meeting my objective of identifying factors that lead to health equity, community education, and community advocacy. I also want to bridge the gap between health care providers and those in marginalized communities by increasing patient awareness and satisfaction.
To me health equity is not only an unalienable right, but a human right. Health equity is the guarantee that everyone has the opportunity to live to the fullest. Health equity looks like fair allocation of resources no matter the patient's ethnicity, creed, or socioeconomic status.
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Simran Singh
Research Interests Sexual and reproductive health, LGBTQ+ health, Global healthUndergraduate Institution Brown UniversityMy research interests primarily focus on sexual and reproductive health care access among neurodivergent, queer, and BIPOC communities both locally and globally.
To me, health equity is a rejection of the status quo and the idea that Therefore, any attempts at tackling health inequity should involve amplifying the voices of traditionally marginalized people in our current sociopolitical system. I think that process is constant and ongoing but one that all public health scholars should be deeply invested in, hence why I'm excited to be part of the HES Program at Brown!
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Petranea Smith
Research Interests Social determinants of health, Health disparities, Preventative health education, Reproductive health, Chronic pain management, Refugee and migrant healthUndergraduate Institution McGill UniversityAs Rhode Island is an ethnically and culturally diverse state, I am interested in researching the barriers that prevent immigrants from accessing treatment. I hope to study obstacles such as language, cultural, and educational barriers and explore how the state is addressing these needs through community health services. Specifically, I am interested in focusing on reproductive/sexual health and chronic pain management in immigrant Rhode Island populations.
Health equity means taking into account the specific needs of individuals and communities. Barriers often prevent certain populations from receiving the treatment they are entitled to. Promoting health equity means better understanding these barriers and breaking them down by establishing services to address specific needs. Only when we recognize the intricacies of our diverse population can we truly provide equitable healthcare for all.
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Laini Tuboku-Metzger
Research Interests Health communications, Preventative health education, Black womens health, Population healthUndergraduate Institution Xavier University of LouisianaTo me, Health equity means ensuring that every individual has an equal opportunity to achieve their highest level of health and well-being, regardless of their socio-economic status, race, gender, or any other social determinant of health. It emphasizes the significance of acknowledging that specific groups encounter systemic obstacles and injustices that result in disparities in health and inequitable access to healthcare services.
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Munachimso Ugoh
Research Interests Epidemiology, Global health, Health equity, Infectious diseaseUndergraduate Institution Xavier University of LouisianaI am interested in an interdisciplinary concentration, combining epidemiology and global health. Through this approach my goal is to gain a comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted factors that impact global health and utilize epidemiological methods to design evidence-based interventions. By promoting equitable health outcomes, I aim to contribute to the improvement of population health specifically as it relates to cancer and infectious diseases on a local and global scale.
Health equity, to me, means meeting people where they are as it relates to their health care needs. It's all about dismantling barriers that create alarming rates of disproportion in health outcomes by conducting research, using data reliably and trusting science. Honestly I believe it should be the mission of every health official or person of influence to make sure they act justly and with integrity to provide for all so that no one group is deprived of a basic life necessity, healthcare.
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Vivian Uzoechi
Research Interests Womens health, Reproductive health, Disease prevention, Maternal and child healthUndergraduate Institution Howard UniversityMy public health interest is heavily rooted in women's health, especially as it pertains to reproductive health, preventative care, and maternal and child health. I am excited to be able to translate the information and experience that I gain here at Brown into practice as an OB/GYN working in urban centers.
To me, health equity means that every person is able to seek and receive the quality of care that they need to ensure not just survival, but happy and healthy lives. Health equity means that no matter where you are or who you are, you can expect and receive healthcare that is personalized to your needs without suffering for it.
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Derrick Webb
Research Interests Global health, Health equity, Social determinants of health, HIV/AIDS, Health disparities, Cultural competencyUndergraduate Institution Dillard UniversityGrowing up in an underserved area and going to the community health clinic ignited my passion for minority health disparities and health equity. I aspire to become a physician-researcher to ameliorate the health inequities that minorities, specifically Black communities face. My public health background will enable me to offer holistic, culturally competent, and clinically excellent care to my patients. I hope to improve healthcare outcomes and make a difference in the lives of patients and communities as I work to combine the care and empathy of personal care with robust research to develop better treatments.
Health equity is the relentless, unwavering fight to achieve justice for everyone to have access to proper and quality healthcare. Health equity is health justice.