SCHOLARS 2023

Juliet is a rising sophomore at Brown University studying public health and biology. Her past research projects include management of congenital syphilis, environmental health justice, harm reduction for people who inject drugs, and translational medicine. She works as a research assistant at the Community Noise Lab at the Brown School of Public Health studying the effect of gunfire noise in Cranston, Rhode Island, and at the Wei Orthopedic Lab at Warren Alpert Medical School studying cartilage development, degeneration, and biomarkers of post-traumatic osteoarthritis. Juliet hopes to become a physician advocate working in both academic and clinical settings. She worked with Dr. Margaret (Waru) Gichane at UCSF.

Project: Investigating the paradox between Socioeconomic status and HIV infection amongst adolescents and young adults in Kisumu, Kenya: a qualitative analysis

Mentor: Dr. Margaret (Waru) Gichane from UCSF

Karen Morales is a senior hoping to graduate by December at the University of Texas at El Paso, majoring in Health Promotion with a minor in nutrition. She is interested in focus her research on the prevention of HIV within the minority population. She previously worked with Minority Aids Research Center at the university using a holistic approach to bring awareness to her community about mental health and HIV. Karen hopes to expand her education by getting a master’s degree in public health in the near future.

Project: Addressing food insecurity in people living with HIV through medically tailored meals — is there a differential impact on ART adherence by race?

Mentors: Dr. Kartika Palar and Asher O’Donnell from UCSF

Julianna is an East Oakland native and received their bachelor’s degree from Mills College in 2021 in Public Health and Health Equity. Helping people is the most fulfilling work they have ever done, so she is returning to community college and taking the final prerequisites they need in order to apply to medical school. Since graduating college, they have worked as a paid intern at Highland Hospital in Oakland under their complex care and care transitions department. While there, she has received her certificate as a community health worker, and worked alongside SFDPH to vaccinate the community against COVID-19 during the pandemic. She has also completed a Spanish medical interpreting course, volunteered at Highland Hospital, and volunteered as an EMT skills instructor for local EMT programs in the Bay. She has an undeniable passion for health care, patient advocacy, and emergency medicine. She is striving to enter a profession related to emergency medicine in the hospital setting.

Project: Characterizing Fatal Overdose Decedents in San Francisco for the Purpose of Designing Interventions

Mentor: Dr. Jeffrey Hom from SFDPH

Jennifer is a recent Dominican University of California graduate in Global Public Health with minors in Biological Sciences and Health Humanities. Throughout her undergraduate experience Jennifer has worked with a variety of community organizations and most recently partnered with Richmond Area MultiServices (RAMS) for her undergraduate thesis on evaluating the fulfillment of Peer Counseling. Her research interests include Harm Reduction, Community Health Education and Infectious Disease Prevention. She hopes to continue expanding in Public Health Research & continue her education, eventually attaining an MPH degree. 

Project: Examining the Association of Perceived Alcohol Related Stigma and Biomarker-Measured Alcohol Consumption

Mentors: Drs. Cristina Espinosa Da Silva and Judy Hahn from UCSF

Hibiscus Zhang is a rising junior at Amherst College, pursuing a double major in History and an interdisciplinary program in comparative ethnic studies. His research interests include LGBTQ+ health, harm reduction, and Asian/American migrant health, and is especially curious to study health disparities in queer Asian migrant communities.

Project: Characterizing the HIV risk environment in Ciudad-Juárez among people who inject drugs and engage in transactional sex

Mentor: Dr. Natasha Ludwig-Barron from UCSF

Grace is a 5th year cell and molecular biology major and queer ethnic studies minor at San Francisco State University. For the past year, she has done research at SFSU in Dr. Riggs Lab studying cell fate determination. Grace is especially interested in LGBTQ+ health, social justice, health equity, and the relationship of substance use and HIV. She aspires to attain an MPH and pursue a career in research.

Project: Antecedents to stimulant toxicity deaths in San Francisco: perspectives from key informants

Mentors: Drs. Phillip Coffin and Vanessa McMahan from SFDPH