Year Started: 2020
Hometown: Naperville, IL
What are your areas of interest within population health sciences? Neurological health outcomes, aging, minority populations, the effects of discrimination, and health disparities.
Interest Statement: This past May, I graduated from Lake Forest College with my Bachelors degree in Mathematics and minor in Neuroscience! My minor sparked my interest in neurological disorders and I would love to focus this work in minority/underserved populations. My current hobbies are running, crafting, traveling, and cooking!
What experiences in your life led you to study population/public health? When I started my undergraduate degree I planned to go to medical school; however, I quickly realized that I didn’t have the stomach to be a doctor. Wanting to experience research, I worked in an organismal biology lab studying fruit flies during the summer after my freshman year. Since I was a mathematics major and was still very interested in health care, my advisor suggested I apply to a summer research program for biostatistics and I was accepted into the program at UW-Madison. That summer I fell in love with Madison and decided that wanted to pursue public health in my future career. Fast forward to the next summer, I had the opportunity to work under an epidemiologist at Northwestern School of Medicine and decided that I wanted to pursue epidemiology!
Why did you choose UW-Madison for your degree? I chose UW-Madison because there is a wealth of professors studying neurological diseases/cognitive outcomes (many of which are also studying health equities), I have the opportunity to attain a global health certificate, and I knew that I loved Madison!
What do you hope/plan to do with your degree? I hope to become a professor and conduct health disparities research that will address cognitive health risk factors in minorities.