Cohort 2022

This summer, I worked with the Addictions Research Group at the Sangath Goa office on their NIHR Dating Violence project group. As an intern, I supported projects centred around enhancing psychosocial support for female survivors of domestic violence in resource constrained settings in India. Some of my responsibilities included compiling an intervention manual and materials to equip primary healthcare providers with intervention skills, screening bodies of literature, and coding primary research materials. The experience has been an incredible way to engage deeply with a cause I'm passionate about, and I'm thankful to the HGHI team for facilitating this opportunity to work in my home country over the summer.

This summer I am interning with The University of California San Francisco (UCSF) where I am researching under an Assistant Professor in UCSF's computational epidemiology lab. I am leading my own research project and using UCSF's electronic health record data to look for disparities in care across racial and ethnic groups. More specifically, I am doing a sentiment analysis of prenatal care discrepancies among POC women. I am working on manually annotating the EHRD, which comprises over 108 million clinical notes on patient treatment at UCSF hospital. The goal is that by the end of the summer I will submit a manuscript to a peer-reviewed journal to overall summarize my findings and contribute to the ongoing conversation regarding racial bias in the clinical setting.

This summer, I am working as an intern in the Office of Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity at the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine (KPSOM). As an intern, I am assessing the impact of KPSOM's high school mentorship program by performing a landscape analysis on health career pipeline programs, examining survey data from high school students, and interviewing the medical students who served as mentors. Additionally, I am creating resource lists and developing community outreach materials for students who are underrepresented in medicine. These projects have been incredibly enriching and I am grateful for the opportunity to work at Kaiser over the summer!

This summer, I will be working with Multi Aid Programs nonprofit on two main fronts. First, we are trying to relaunch a fundraising for education campaign by selling robot crouched toys made by refugee women in Lebanon. A mascot of hope and innovation, the robot came to be after a robotics team entirely formed of refugees won an international competition. This also inspired our planning of a conference to redefine refugees, from a global narrative that victimizes them to instead let refugees tell their own stories of success and the way they challenged these global definitions.

At VHL Alliance, I am an intern for the Volunteer Engagement Role. Working with my supervisor, we're updating the types of volunteer roles to optimize the ambassador program, along with promoting the volunteer opportunities across different platforms to reach out to as many who want to help. We're coordinating focus groups to meet the ambassadors and hotline volunteers, and get their feedback on the program. I've also been able to get some insight into how the board of the nonprofit works, editing this year's manual, updating their history, and creating modernized rosters. I've met with the staff and other interns to share our experiences and get to know each other more.

This summer, I'm working at Brady: United Against Gun Violence, which is a nonprofit that advocates for tangible change and comprehensive solutions to gun violence. I am an intern on the legal team, which takes court action on behalf of individuals and communities who have been affected by gun injuries and deaths. Some of my projects have included: reading through police reports and writing a memo for lawyers drafting a complaint in an accidental shooting case; taking notes on previous settlements a gun manufacturer has agreed to so that we can evaluate whether they are still following that agreement; doing research on self-defense laws around the country and the world; and creating a dossier of potential witnesses.

I am working as the Nutrition and Wellness intern at LifeMoves, a non-profit dedicated to serving unhoused individuals and families in the San Francisco Bay Area. I have been working on producing resources that will be provided to clients and contain information about food and nutrition resources such as CalFresh. I have also worked to interview clients about their eating experience with LifeMoves in order to critically examine this process and how it impacts the health and success of the clients.

This summer I've been interning for the UCLA Art & Global Health Center (AGHC), which creates arts-based public health interventions guided by principles of human rights and social justice. AGHC is currently working on a sexual education film that is designed for young people who are in the process of re-entry after being in juvenile detention. For this project, I have been contributing in the writers' room, editing the script, and devising sexual health workshop sessions that will accompany screenings of the film. I have also been helping with video editing and archival work for Through Positive Eyes, a photographic advocacy project that collaborates with people living with HIV and AIDS around the world to fight stigma. I'm grateful to work with such a creative and inspiring team that is dedicated to tapping into the powerful intersection of art and activism.

The San Francisco AIDS Foundation is a historic public health non-profit that promotes health, wellness, and social justice for communities most impacted by HIV. This summer, I have had the opportunity to serve as a Mindich Service Fellow with the Foundation, in collaboration with the Harvard Global Health Institute (HGHI) and Center for Public Service and Engaged Scholarship (CPSES). My internship is with the Stonewall Project, a counseling program dedicated to providing harm reductionu2013based substance use and mental health treatment to men interested in addressing their drug or alcohol use. My advocacy work centers around the distribution and publication of educational sexual health and substance use services for the underserved Latinx community in the heart of the Castro District, Mid-Market and Mission District. In partnership with the National Harm Reduction Coalition (NHRC), funded by the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH), I am helping to write a report on the findings from the first-ever harm reduction needs assessment of the diverse population of Latinx people who use drugs (PWUD) who are monolingual Spanish/Mayan speakers. The report seeks to address racial inequity in the provision of health and harm reduction services in San Francisco, and provide the SFDPH with recommendations for better serving this community.

This summer, I am interning at The Computational Epidemiology Lab at Havard Medical School under the mentorship of Dr. Yulin Hswen. My research consists of analyzing racial disparities in clinical narratives using a dataset from UCSF's electronic health records (EHRs) database. Through developing a natural language processing method that applies to free-text clinical notes related to mental health, I hope to investigate clinician bias in the diagnosis and treatment of depression across different racial and ethnic groups. Both implicit and explicit bias in medical settings contributes to disparities in health care, and detecting such inequality in clinical notes informs us about possible interventions. In addition to examining EHRs, I will conduct a systematic review about identifying and evaluating different natural language processing approaches used for clinical notes extraction.

This summer I am working with The National Academy for Social Prescribing (NASP) in London to develop assets alongside two other Harvard interns for the Global Social Prescribing Alliance, which aims to promote and implement social prescribing internationally. My asset focuses on the challenges and considerations of workforce development. A growing health initiative, social prescribing is a means by which a clinician or local agency can refer a patient to a social prescribing u2018link worker.u2019 By asking what matters most to the person, the social prescribing link worker co-designs a flexible support plan with the person to improve their health and wellbeing through referring the patient to community-based resources. Throughout my time with NASP, I have met several health policymakers and professionals who have deepened my understanding of personalized care and the limitations of the biomedical model.

This summer I am working for the Perinatal HIV Research Unit (PHRU), situated at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa, as a hybrid intern. The first half of the summer I have been working remotely from home and for the final half I will be in person. Thus far, I have been taking the lead in writing manuscripts for some of their many studies, which has been a wonderful opportunity to hone my skills in writing for social science research. The studies themselves I have worked on have been investigations into the psychosocial response of South Africans to the COVID-19 pandemic, and more specifically, looking at the impact of COVID on the household and the reasons behind vaccine hesitancy. My work has been incredibly fulfilling thus far, and I cannot wait to go in person!

This summer I am working with Village Health Works as an intern under the Procurement team. We are currently working to get all the necessary goods, equipment, and pharmaceuticals for the Kigutu Hospital and Woman's Health Pavilion. I have been engaging in bid analyses, product demonstrations with vendors, and engaged with selection committees all with the purpose of gaining the best goods for each need. I have learned all the necessary criteria to evaluate when making a decision on which vendor provides the most holistically beneficial service and good, as well as have made recommendations for specific vendors based on these criteria. I look forward to engaging in more projects with vendors and working on getting the Health Pavillion the equipment and goods they require.

The mission of the IQIC is tracking clinical outcomes in a database with the goal of improving care for congenital heart surgery worldwide. It has been a privilege garnering a birds-eye view of quality improvement skills and methodology that has practical applications to helping children and healthcare partners around the globe. The opportunity to work directly with our partner sites from all over the world and the excellent Boston Childrenu2019s medical leaders and public health professionals has afforded me such a unique perspective and skill set . This internship has been a tremendous opportunity as an undergraduate student, already informing my future career aspirations.

This summer, I am interning with Socios En Salud, a Peru-based sister organization of the non-profit Partners in Health. As an intern for the Mental Health Program, I am working alongside psychologists and community health workers on a project that aims to strengthen the processes of referrals and counterreferals between the psychiatric unit of a hospital in southern Lima and nearby community mental health centers. This initiative serves to promote the Peruvian governmentu2019s efforts to bolster the role of general hospitals and primary health centers in the delivery of mental health care services nationwide. In my role, I am conducting interviews with various health care providers and patients in order to contribute to a report that will evaluate the overall impact of the project. I have also had the opportunity to join psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and nurses on their daily rounds to the patients in the hospitalu2019s psychiatric unit.

This summer, I am interning with Lumiere Health International. My work with the Lumiere team has been engaging and exciting, and has allowed me to further explore my interests in human rights, consulting, and global health. As a global health summer associate, I have mainly worked on Lumiere's ongoing project developing an psychosocial and ecosocial consulting program for the United Nations in Zimbabwe. Later this summer, I will work with the team to develop strategies and tactics to accelerate access to (Rx) prescription medication for underserved populations in New York City. Throughout my internship, I have been struck by Aldo's commitment to my professional growth as an associate, and inspired by the entire Lumiere team's commitment to and passion for their work.

This summer, I have had the pleasure of working with Stop TB Partnership (STBP), a UNOPS partner organization, based in Geneva, Switzerland. Stop TB, comprised of over 2000 global partners, aims to achieve a world free of tuberculosis through a rights-based approach. My work primarily focuses on furthering advocacy and communications work through innovative channels with projects such as drafting and developing the 2021 annual report, generating material for the Global Plan to End TB 2023-2030, and creating a new media strategy for the organization. This internship has strengthened my passion for global health and I am excited to continue my work in TB advocacy throughout the remainder of the summer.

This summer I am working as an administrative and development intern with the LEAD Fellowship for Promoting Women in Global Health. The LEAD Fellowship is a collaboration between the Harvard Global Health Institute and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Healthu2019s Women and Health Initiative. Our goal is to offer prestigious leadership development to women from vulnerable countries who are often underrepresented in global health leadership positions. So far Iu2019ve been exploring donor relations, administrational challenges, social media management and graphic design. Iu2019m learning how best to use my skills in the field of global health to make change. Iu2019ve had the opportunity to interact and learn from current and past fellows throughout my time with LEAD. I feel incredibly lucky to work with this community of intelligent and driven women who are taking great strides to promote gender and health equity in their own countries and beyond.

This summer, I am working with WeCancer in Su00e3o Paulo, Brasil. My internship with WeCancer has been very impactful and eye-opening, as it has allowed me to combine research, health/medicine, and consulting. So far, I've learned the importance of allowing cancer patients to play an active role in their treatment through accessible symptom monitoring and management. My project focuses on exploring the public and private health systems in Brasil and their respective impact on cancer patients. In the future, I will be visiting hospitals to speak with health professionals, patients, and clients. Through this, I hope to come up with creative ways to equally improve and expand WeCanceru2019s services for patients in both health systems.

This summer, I have worked at the Reconstruction and Mechanics of the Middle Ear Lab in Mass Eye & Ear to expand medical education with research collaborators and clinicians. The primary component of my work has been to outline the steps for common otolaryngologic surgeries, such as canaloplasty and stapedectomy. Beyond the direct clinical application of these videos, I have prepared content on the methods to dissect tympanic membranes to increase engagement with research collaborators in Portugal. With these international colleagues, I am helping in an ongoing study to determine drug delivery efficacy into the middle ear. This experience has been incredibly enriching and insightful!

This summer, I am interning at Save the Children. I have been given the opportunity to be working on a few projects. One is a department-wide landscape analysis on data management and data use, which is important as we try to maintain a data-driven organization. I am also working on pilot testing for a contraceptive decision-making app to help alleviate the disproportionate barrier to healthcare adolescents face, and that will be implemented on a global level in the near future. I am extremely grateful for this meaningful internship experience this summer and for HGHIu2019s support!

This summer, I have been working both in person and virtually with NHS Englandu2019s Strategy Group, a team within the UKu2019s National Health Service that focuses on strategic improvement of various macroscopic concerns within the British Healthcare system. My role within the team has been incredibly multidisciplinary, allowing me to learn more about my interests and apply various portions of my studies and experiencesu2013u2013I have learned more about data work within the social sciences, used philosophical knowledge and readings to craft applicable proposals, and surveyed a number of different career paths within public health that have helped offer clarity about my goals after graduation. Moreover, I have benefitted tremendously by immersing myself in a foreign, universal health system, allowing me to better understand and work through questions surrounding health equity and accessibility. Above all, my positive experience has been driven by the welcoming, fun, informative, and motivating nature of this team.

I have had the pleasure of working with Hollywood, Health & Society in LA. I have been working on research for the entertainment industry in areas such as abortion, gun safety and systematic racism. Moreover, I have had amazing opportunities to attend learning-driven events with members of the public health sector and entertainment industry raising conversations on often under represented areas of health in TV/film.

At Partners In Health this summer, I am relishing the incredible opportunity to take lead on advocacy projects as a leadership team intern for the PIH Engage grassroots network. Within Partners In Healthu2019s overarching commitment to medical and moral global health justice, PIH Engageu2019s mission is rooted in a dedication to building a movement for the right to health. In my role, I have been developing PIH Engage Training Institute conference trainings on effective health equity organizing skills. This conference occurs in the month of July, when over 80 PIH Engage teams across the U.S., Mexico, and Peru come together to initiate a new campaign year. To accompany collaborative projects, I have also been engaging in thoughtful reading-based discussions on organizing and theory of change with my team each week. Concurrently learning and applying my internship insights in the name of health justice is a true highlight of mine.

This summer, I have the pleasure of working with the Global Health Initiative at Tecnolu00f3gico de Monterrey. During my internship, I helped launch a peer-reviewed student-run academic journal on Global Health called Fronteras en Salud Global and published several articles and papers related to global health. I carried out qualitative work, data processing, analyzing, and led the process for publication submission. I also integrated global health topics in the residency training, evaluated the needs and strategies of global health projects, and created a tutorial to help the future writers of Fronteras en Salud Global.

This summer, I am working with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicineu2019s (LSHTM) Gender Violence and Health Center. For my first project, I worked with the Violence Against Children research team to research and create a social history of the Contexts of Violence in Adolescence Cohort Study (CoVAC), a longitudinal mixed-methods study assessing violence exposure in Uganda. For the remainder of the summer, my co-intern and I will assess UNICEFu2019s Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) for gender bias in survey instruments and design and then provide recommendations for gender-sensitive survey development moving forward. Along with getting to engage with unfamiliar global health topics and methodologies, Iu2019ve really appreciated the supportive environment and emphasis on mentorship at LSHTM!

This summer I am working as a student researcher at the Mental Health for All lab of Harvard Medical School. The EMPOWER project is one of MHALu2019s most impactful projects and is led by Dr. Vikram Patel and Dr. John Naslund, both of whom I am incredibly honored to be working with as they are incredibly influential in the field of mental healthcare. Within EMPOWER, I work on the content development team, which entails revising and creating content for training community health leaders in delivering treatment for mild anxiety and depression. I am truly enjoying my time at the lab.

This summer I am interning with the Sexual and Reproductive Health Branch (SRHB) of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). I specifically support a project that works to increase and ensure access to reproductive health commodities and comprehensive abortion care to the fullest extent possible. I have been mapping and consolidating programmatic indicators and sociopolitical contexts by country to identify technical support needs in areas where mothers and children are particularly vulnerable. For the remainder of the summer, I will also be working on conducting scoping literature reviews on related topics, drafting country profiles to highlight the situational status in focal areas, and developing case studies in collaboration with country offices and affiliates.

This summer Iu2019ve been lucky to intern with Homeless Healthcare Los Angeles, a nonprofit that provides housing aid, mental health and substance use treatment, and syringe exchange u2013 among other services u2013 to the population of LA County. I am working in both the project-based housing and the education and training departments, meaning that I am either shadowing case management on housing sites or developing curriculums on harm reduction, Housing First, and behavioral and public health. Along with impactful interactions with dually diagnosed clients, Iu2019ve also learned about the intricacies of supportive housing and the many obstacles to housing retention in this county and beyond.

This summer, I'm interning at the Perinatal HIV Research Unit (PHRU) in Soweto, South Africa. With PHRU, I am conducting mixed methods research to assist in two manuscript write-ups: evaluating the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on the mental wellbeing of college students and understanding misconceptions surrounding COVID-19 vaccines in South Africa. So far, I have conducted a thorough literature review to understand previous work in this area, composing the introduction and methodology parts of the manuscripts. Next, I will be analyzing survey data to quantify the impact of lockdowns and low vaccination rates on the mental health of youth in South Africa, bringing together quantitative and qualitative considerations to reach a conclusion.

This summer, I am working at Save the Children US as part of their Nutrition, WASH and Climate Change Team. Integrating climate change resilience, adaptation and prediction strategies into humanitarian activities is important for the sustainability of projects and safety of developing communities. As part of my work at Save, my project aims to bridge the gap between on-the-ground activities that need digestible climate change data to integrate into their work, and the organizations that have this climate change data, such as rainfall or temperature patterns. Through interviews and workshops with project donors, knowledge providers and those running the projects themselves, the goal is to increase communication and share usable climate data which will have the potential to enhance the long-term success, viability and sustainability of Saveu2019s work.

Working for the New York Health Foundation this summer has been an extremely educational and rewarding experience. As an intern, I have worked closely with the Healthy Food Healthy Lives program area to analyze data and write briefs on a poll of food insecurity across New York State. I have also had the chance to work closely with the other program areas such as Consumer Empowerment and Veterans Health. Importantly, Iu2019ve begun to understand how grantmakers undergo the difficult process of selecting organizations to fund. Working at the intersection of philanthropy, policy, and health has helped me learn about important ways that organizations can make impacts on millions of lives.

This summer, I have had the privilege of working with the Center for Gender Equity (CGE) at the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) in Kigali, Rwanda. UGHE is a Partners in Health initiative that focuses on empowering more people with the knowledge they need to work broadly in the field of healthcare. As an intern with CGE specifically, I have been able to assist with a largely interdisciplinary variety of projects, including designing a breakthrough BM/BS curriculum for women who dream of pursuing surgical careers, refining the MS in Global Health Delivery program to stress greater collaboration and leadership, as well as conducting research to better inform the content of future Executive Education certificate courses. Getting to work with so many members of the UGHE team and feeling integrated into the greater work environment has been an incredible learning experience that has merged seamlessly with my previous interests in menstrual hygiene, healthcare delivery systems, and gender equity in Africa.

This summer, I am interning with Partners In Health, a non-profit organization focused on strengthening health systems in foreign countries. It is an international team operating in over 13 unique locations to address global health inequity through care delivery, fundraising, grassroots advocacy, and policy development. This summer, I am working alongside the leadership team to develop their summer advocacy campaign. My responsibilities include creating training modules on health advocacy, organizing constituent meetings with Members of Congress to discuss emerging global health legislation, coordinating grassroots efforts for the yearlong campaign, and utilizing graphic media to mobilize health advocates.

During my internship with the Policy and Strategic Initiatives (PSI) group of Substance Abuse Prevention and Control Unit of the Los Angeles Department of Public Health, I was responsible for information gathering on upcoming and current legislation at the county, state and federal level in addition to developing systems for tracking local organizations and legislation. I also worked with internal and external partners to reform equity focuses on LGBTQ+ populations and relevant intersectionalities and share policy recommendations for the health department, PSI unit and substance abuse support providers and programs.

This summer, I am interning with the National Academy for Social Prescribing (NASP) in London, England. I have been working with two other interns and our supervisor to help collate and create a toolkit of social prescribing assets for international bodies who hope to implement social prescribing programs. Additionally, we are writing a journal article on the global opioid epidemic and how overprescribing has contributed to it. NASP is a collaborative environment, and people are incredibly welcoming and eager to speak with us. We have been able to participate in meetings with NASP, NHS, and global social prescribing leaders. I am learning a lot about healthcare systems around the world and becoming a passionate advocate for social prescribing!

This summer, I had the incredible opportunity to work at the Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program. As part of the clinical case management team, I was able to meet numerous patients on a daily basis, helping them with housing applications, acquisition of mobile phones, food vouchers, clothing vouchers, transportation, medical appointments, cash benefits, and more. As part of the foot care clinic, I was able to meet a large number of patients as well, helping provide care for their feet and having meaningful discussions with them. I also had the opportunity to help with patient outreach in the community as part of the community care van and through working with physicians on the street team. On the whole, this has been a truly remarkable and very rewarding learning experience and has reinforced my belief in the power of combining medicine and social justice work to make meaningful change.

This summer I am working at the CDC Center for Global Health based in Washington, D.C. I work in the Office of the Director on interagency partnerships and health policy. This summer, I have worked on a variety of projects from conducting a landscape analysis for CDCu2019s Global Health Equity Strategy to preparing briefings on global health for U.S. Ambassadors. I have learned about the intersection of global health and foreign policy by gaining insight into the inner-workings of the U.S. Government and how health priorities are addressed. In the context of COVID-19, we work on pandemic preparedness and response (PPR) as a top global health priority.

I have been conducting a landscape analysis of community engagement offices and programs of medical schools across the country. This analysis will be used to improve the office of community engagement at Kaiser so that it may set a standard in the field of medical education. I have also done fieldwork in a number of federally qualified health centers to see how medical students can better understand and contribute to these spaces while working with community members.

Interning with the Strategic Insights Group of the Strategy Team at England's National Health Service (NHS), has been an incredibly rich experience. I've found myself working on a couple projects this summer that have taught me a lot about healthcare and the overall health landscape in England. One of which has been a market insights project in which I look into different markets that the NHS engages with and identify potential risks and opportunities. My main market of focus has been the private acute health sector, or the independent healthcare sector. I've also been revamping the Strategic Insights Weekly Update email, which compiles the latest insights in health care in a consolidated weekly email. Throughout the internship, I've also had opportunities to talk with various people who work throughout the NHS!

This summer, I am interning with the Regional Integrated Urgent Care (IUC) Team at Healthy London Partnership. I am working on analyzing data in order to understand the outcomes of the Clinical Assessment Service (CAS) and how they vary by region and provider. My work also ties into the new Single Virtual Contact Center (SVCC) and aspirations of a single clinical queue in London. This has been a wonderful opportunity to learn about the 111 telephony service and NHS England.

I have had the incredible opportunity to work with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) as an intern with their Child Protection Research Group this summer. Over the past few weeks, I have conducted qualitative analyses of researcher debriefs from the Contexts of Violence in Adolescence Cohort Study (CoVAC), a longitudinal study assessing health outcomes among children in Uganda who have experienced violence. For the remainder of my internship, I will be assisting in the creation of a conceptual framework aimed to help identify and remedy gender bias in UNICEFu2019s Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS).

I work with the Planning Commission of the Ministry of Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives in Islamabad, Pakistan. This has been an incredibly enriching experience as it has provided me with a complex understanding of the special considerations and processes that go into policy creation, specifically in the developing world. From health care to education policy, I have been exposed to a wide array of national initiatives that are currently being spearheaded by the Government of Pakistan, and I cannot wait to gain exposure and engage in more policy discussions over the next month!

This summer I have had the amazing opportunity to work with the VHL Alliance (VHLA) as the Strategic Outreach Intern. My work is primarily focused on making connections with organizations and individuals to strengthen VHLAu2019s mission of Curing Cancer Through VHL, a genetic form of cancer. I work closely with the staff to align our internal goals with new and existing partner relationships alongside strategizing ways to connect with new partners. In my role, I strategize, research, and compile materials related to the organizationu2019s strategic outreach efforts to foster support and research to improve the quality of life for those affected by VHL. Through this experience, I have been able to improve my skills while learning more about rare diseases and the inner workings of a non-profit to create an impact for both the organization and patients within the rare disease space.

I've been interning at the Alter Lab at the Ragon Institute. The Alter lab applies systems serology profiling to better understand the role of antibodies in various infectious diseases and design better vaccines. I am a part of the computational team, which applies univariate and multivariate analyses (e.g. PLS-DA and LASSO) to large multidimensional systems serology datasets. Firstly, Iu2019m working on a project focused on understanding how the antibody response to Respiratory Syncytial Virus infection changes over time and identifying markers of severe infection. Secondly, I'm working on automating how experimental data is formatted for analysis and projecting COVID-19 antibody levels over time.

This summer I've had the opportunity to work with Health Leads Boston on their SNAP (food stamp) enrollment project. Aside from helping individuals with applying to SNAP, I am also able to collaborate with SNAP advocates from Boston neighborhoods like Roslindale and Hyde Park to understand the impact of these outreach projects. It's taught me a lot about the importance of community work and I look forward to continuing this project with them for the rest of the summer.

My internship is with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. To generate learnings that enhance Gaviu2019s delivery of its programs and policies, the organization commissions external suppliers to evaluate its strategies. Currently, I am conducting a comprehensive supplier analysis aimed at improving how Gavi assesses firms to conduct evaluations with a particular emphasis on safeguarding evaluation independence and impartiality. This position has provided valuable exposure to Gaviu2019s learning-driven evaluation activities and institutional decision-making processes. I also appreciate how my supervisors have fostered a welcoming environment in which I am encouraged to share my perspective and contribute to meaningful dialogue on evaluation policies.

This summer I am an intern at STAT covering various topics in health and science, ranging from news stories on recently published research that are assigned to me to longer investigations I am able to pitch, such as one tracing racial disparities in the pre-hospital workforce. I was treated like a colleague and independent reporter from my first day. I work closely with one editor to refine my writing skills, but have opportunities to attend meetings and write stories in any beat; I found that everyone on staff is incredibly responsive, knowledgeable, and generous with their support. I really enjoy feeling the energy of an in-person office, chatting with reporters from both STAT and Globe at meals, and growing closer to the other interns. We have brown bag lunches on different aspects of reporting such as research and data visualization, breaking into politics and biotech coverage, sourcing from social media, multimedia and podcasting efforts, or what makes a strong narrative story. All together, I've loved my time at STAT! nn

This summer, I am working at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in the United Kingdom on two different projects. First, I am working on the European Regimen Accelerator for Tuberculosis, a joint project of the US, UK, and EU governments and pharmaceutical firms like Janssen to develop novel drugs against antibiotic-resistant (ABR) diseases. In particular, I am developing a novel value assessment framework based on Markov chain and decision tree economic modeling to help policymakers assess the cost-effectiveness of new pharmaceuticals. I am also working on a similar project to assess the cost-effectiveness of different artificial intelligence applications in healthcare. I would like to thank HGHI for this wonderful opportunity and look forward to publishing and presenting my work in the future!

Tuberculosis remains one of the worldu2019s leading causes of death from a single infectious agent, but there is no effective vaccine and growing resistance to antibiotics. At the Rubin Lab, my project focuses on chromatin structure in Mycobacterium smegmatis, a non-pathogenic model organism of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. As a part of the project, I am trying to generate a strain of cell cycle synchronizable M. smegmatis, which would be used to generate a high-resolution structure of the chromatin using the Hi-C technique. Very little is known about the structure of mycobacteria chromatin, so a better understanding may help identify novel therapeutic targets.

This summer, I am interning with the Maternal and Newborn Health Thematic Fund (MHTF) at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). I am supporting the development of the 2021 MHTF Annual Report that is delivered to member states and donors summarizing the MHTF-supported work done by headquarters and the dozens of UNFPA country offices and affiliates across the globe on advancing midwifery, emergency obstetric and newborn care, maternal and perinatal death surveillance and response, and the path to ending obstetric fistula. I have been consolidating case studies from dozens of country-level annual reports, selecting pictures, writing paragraphs, and editing the entire draft of the report for clarity and coherence. I have also been given the opportunity to collaborate with our midwifery and abortion access teams on various initiatives and am grateful to the UNFPA for allowing me to experience different sides of each project. I am deeply inspired by the work and collaborations supported by UNFPA and its partners and feel privileged to be part of such a great organization.

Throughout this summer, I was fortunate enough to conduct research at the Reconstruction and Mechanics of the Middle Ear Lab, located in Mass Eye and Ear. I have analyzed the design, fabrication, and in vitro testing of novel three-dimensionally printed tympanic membrane grafts in the middle ear and provided several literature reviews. Additionally, I drafted a standard operating procedure for whole mount staining of the tympanic membrane in chinchillas, based off former cochlear whole mount research. I took part in several audiology experiments that sought to research presbycusis, the first being extended frequency air and bone audiometry. Following this, I researched the applications of Laser Doppler vibrometry, a non-invasive test using a laser to measure the tiny vibrations of the umbro, the middle ear bone underneath the eardrum in high-frequency, age-related hearing loss. Currently, I am continuing calibration research in holographic, middle-ear imaging using biomechanics software to produce nonlinear models of the tympanic membrane and ossicles.

This summer, I am interning with Ariadne Labs, a joint center for health systems innovation at Brigham and Womenu2019s Hospital and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. As part of the Better Evidence team, I am assisting the implementation of our Better Evidence for Training Program, which aims to enhance access and uptake of the latest clinical evidence across providers. By increasing access to digital medical tools, this program seeks to habituate consultation of evidence-based clinical practices for future health care practitioners. By conducting research on the medical schools across Africa, I am working to create a comprehensive database to map a prioritized scaling plan for the program. This assists in furthering the outreach of our programu2019s coverage to new regions and communities, contributing to narrowing the u201cknow-dou201d gap in health care delivery.

This summer, I have had the opportunity to perform clinical research on lung cancer in Dr. Yangu2019s lab at MGH/HMS. My work has focused on raising awareness about lung cancer among vulnerable patient populations, including Native American communities. I am currently leading a highly impactful study using the National Cancer Database to identify disparities in the treatment and outcomes of Native patients with lung cancer.u00a0 I have been able to lead all aspects of the study, and my work was chosen to be featured at the most significant conference for Native American health in the country, AAIPu2019s 50th National Health Conference. I have also led outreach projects for Native healthcare clinics and an MBTA funding opportunity. This has been a great opportunity, and it has been a great blessing to have HGHI funding for my work!

As an intern for the Touch Foundation, I am assisting them in implementing projects that will increase revenue for a rural clinic close to Mwanza, Tanzania. I went on-site to observe the workings of the hospital, interviewed both patients and doctors to investigate potential areas of quality and revenue improvement, and initiated the on-ground implementation of a telemedicine service.

This summer I am researching the implementation of nonpartisan civic engagement interventions in hospitals across Philadelphia as a means of understanding how accompanying patients and empowering them through the voting process can improve the social factors that determine their health (affordable housing, education, gun safety, abortion access, etc.)

This summer, I am working at Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, an innovative public-private global health partnership which funds essential immunizations in developing countries. This internship is at the perfect intersection of my interests in global health and international development, and has been a deeply enriching intellectual and professional experience. Through my work with the Vaccine Programmes and Measurement, Evaluation, and Learning Teams, I have worked on health campaign implementation work and immunization equity research projects. I have particularly enjoyed writing research policy briefs for the Executive Office, working with Gavi and WHO teams on health campaign data projects, and meeting incredible global health leaders, including the former Prime Minister of Portugal!

This summer, I am working with a public health research team based both in my hometown, NYC, and Nigeria, where the results of the work I am currently doing will be applied. This team is working to understand the psychosocial barriers experienced by patients undergoing breast cancer treatment in low- and middle-income countries by reviewing patient-reported outcomes. The end goal of this research is to provide recommendations for improving breast cancer treatment uptake throughout Nigeria where there are higher breast cancer-related mortality rates as compared to higher-income countries. My specific role will be to review literature and provide assistance in writing the official manuscript. Thus far, I have had an incredible experience working with this research team as I have not only had the opportunity to take part in significant, inspirational research, but also I have been able to build relationships with mentors currently working in a field I one day hope to take on myself!

Working at the UNFPA this summer, I have been focusing mostly on writing the midwifery chapter in the annual report of the UNFPAu2019s maternal health thematic fund. This encompasses culling information from 32 country office and regional reports, researching specific case studies, as well as fact-checking and accumulating overall numbers for midwifery education and regulation purposes. After submitting this report at the end of June, I will be working on documenting select midwifery good practices and creating a midwifery advocacy booklet while continuously supporting colleagues within the sexual and reproductive health branch.

This summer, I am interning at Health Leads, a national non-profit organization that strives to promote u201chealth, dignity, and well-being for every person, in every community." Health Leads works closely with hospitals and clinics to connect people to essential resources like food, housing, and transportation. As an intern, I conduct research to unearth and address the deep roots of racial inequity that impact individuals' health both locally and nationally. I am passionate about health equity, service, and reducing racial disparities in medical care, particularly for underserved communities. I admire Health Leadsu2019s dedication to coordinating programs for health systems and clinics around the country working to connect vulnerable populations with vital resources, and I am honored to be a part of these efforts this summer."

This summer, I am working as a Policy & Advocacy Intern at Fenway Health, covering a breadth of different projects and topics related to global health. On the policy side, Iu2019ve gained hands-on, real-time experience with health legislation. I especially love being a part of the Rally Planning team for the Healthy Youth Act, an act that requires more comprehensive, LGBTQ+ inclusive sex education in Massachusetts public schools, while emphasizing the importance of topics like consent and healthy relationships from an early age. On the advocacy side, Iu2019ve had the opportunity to work on programming materials and facilitator guides for Getting to Zero, an initiative that aims for u201czero new HIV infections, zero HIV-related deaths, and zero HIV-related stigmau201d. These programs include The Peopleu2019s Sex Ed, a series of free webinars that help communities make informed choices and Activist Academy, an initiative that creates community activists in Massachusetts.

This summer, I am interning at Lumiere Health International, a nonprofit that aims to provide health and psychosocial services for underserved populations. A few of the projects that I am working on include supporting the development of the Women Safe Spaces Programme through the Zimbabwe National Peace and Reconciliation Commission and researching into expanding access to prescription medications in New York City. The team has been incredibly supportive, and I am excited to continue learning and doing impactful work with everyone for the rest of the summer.

I am spending the summer interning at the University of Chicago Urban Health Labs, on the CTIME and CARE projects. The CTIME project administers Critical Time Intervention to individuals with mental illness transitioning from homelessness to housing, in an effort to improve their experience and facilitate staying in housing in the long term. The CARE project is developing a co-response program to divert mental health calls that the police would usually respond to alone to a team including mental health professionals and other workers who can improve the interaction and make connections to other mental health workers for follow ups. I am conducting literature reviews, recruitment, and qualitative interviews, among other tasks.

As an intern for Greater Boston Legal Services' Elder, Health, and Disability Unit, I have had transformational experiences working one-on-one with clients and conducting research for local-to-federal health policy projects. My primary responsibilities involve meeting with GBLS clients, most of whom are low-income MA residents, immigrants, individuals with disabilities, or high-risk elders, to ensure they have access to care, justice, and health coverage. I have also written several legal briefs, including a 25-page memorandum filed in federal court for a Social Security Disability hearing. The GBLS team is comprised of dedicated legal and health advocates, who provide me with incredible opportunities to devise legislative revisions to MassHealth's application process and improve community collaboration through the GBLS Asian Outreach Program.

I have been volunteering for Socios en Salud, a site of Partners in Health located in Peru00fa. I have been working on the CASITA team focused on an intervention led by Community Health Workers (CHWs) aimed at equipping caregivers with the support and knowledge they need to raise infants at risk of developmental delays. My main task involves conducting a research project focused on the systematization of the training of the CHWs to lead the CASITA sessions, the first qualitative analysis of the experiences of the CHWs involved in CASITA. The research project consists of creating a proposal, reviewing literature, conducting interviews and focus groups, analyzing data, and creating a report and presentation. I have also helped brainstorm ideas for the team, translate calls with researchers in the US and other documents, and perform other tasks as needed. I have been traveling between Lima and Cuzco for work, getting to learn about the health care system in rural and urban parts of Peru00fa as well as the cultures, history, and lifestyles in diverse parts of the country. I am so grateful for this opportunity to be part of the Socios team and do the work I am doing while being able to explore Peru00fa and practice my Spanish.

This summer, I am working with Dr. Andrew Beam at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health to identify medically significant subtypes of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). BPD is a prevalent and serious lung disease found in extremely preterm and/or low birth-weight infants defined by level of oxygen support at 36 weeks post-menstrual age. Since BPD is broadly characterized by treatment rather than pathophysiology, we are applying various deep learning models and clustering algorithms to find distinct, clinically relevant phenotypes of BPD from which we can identify more targeted and effective diagnosis and treatment to better overall treatment outcomes.

I am working with the LiveWell/ViveBien Research Study at Massachusetts General Hospital this summer. My project is to investigate how social support can act as an effect modifier of psychological well-being in low income populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout this internship, I have learned how to better analyze data through R programming, tailor research questions and goals, and work independently on a research manuscript. Moreover, I have thoroughly observed the effects of social support on health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic. A highlight of my internship has been working closely with my amazing mentors, including but not limited to the study's Principal Investigator and Database Manager!

This summer, I am interning with the Stop Tuberculosis Partnership (STBP), a UNOPS-hosted entity which aligns 1,600 partner organizations to lead global advocacy for ending tuberculosis. As part of the External Affairs and Strategic Initiatives (EASI) team, I am supporting the development and launch of the Re-imagining Tuberculosis Care (RTC) initiative, a project to transform TB care service delivery worldwide by working with high-burden countries to bring routine services from hospitals to homes and communities. I am creating the RTC website, a comprehensive platform which helps TB-affected countries and stakeholders identify, source, invest in, launch, and scale-up human-centered innovations that make routine services more accessible. In addition to content creation, I have produced concept notes of innovation sourcing strategies to ensure diverse and high-quality solution pipelines; researched innovative financing models to broaden donor engagement; helped create a deck presented at the AIDS 2022 Conference; and engaged with startups and international partners to identify strategies and modalities for their support. My work at STBP has exposed me to a wide array of emerging needs and priorities in health system transformation. Furthermore, it has also helped me gained practical knowledge ranging from project management and human centered design to procurement and grant-making processes. I am incredibly grateful for this wonderful experience, and am eager to continue working at the intersection of digital innovation and global health advocacy this summer and beyond.

As an intern at the Innovation and Digital Health Accelerator at Boston Children's Hospital, I've had the opportunity to explore the cutting-edge of patient treatment from the hospital strategy standpoint. My work centers around the remote patient monitoring program, a digital health strategy that BCH is working on developing into an enterprise-level solution. Through self-led research, providing strategic recommendations, and meeting with top healthcare vendors and systems, I've gained a new perspective on how healthcare systems work to bring their patients the best and most accessible care.

This summer, I got to lead tasks aligning with my interests and create memos of bills that would help inform how JCPH would proceed with them, help organize JCPH's newly-created Poverty Commission by researching other states' anti-poverty commissions, help a state representative draft an article advocating for legislation against gun violence, create a summary of MA health cost trends, and design and lead my own independent project on summer programs empowering low-income students of color. I've learned a lot about how MA's legislative process works, and how various public health issues are being discussed or addressed in the state legislature.

This summer, I'm working at the National Institutes of Health Fogarty International Center on several COVID-19 related projects, including using genomic sequencing to track viral spread and optimizing an algorithm to forecast case numbers, which is especially interesting and relevant given the current pandemic. I've loved working with my team so far and am very grateful towards HGHI for the opportunity!

This summer I have had the incredible opportunity to serve as a research assistant at the University of Chicago's Urban Health Lab. I have primarily been an assistant with the Reducing Opioid Mortality in Illinois (ROMI) project team. ROMI is a controlled trial that aims to examine the impact of medication-assisted treatment and health outcomes for individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD) as they exit jails and prisons in Illinois. This internship has given me the incredible opportunity to assist with behind the scenes work of the ROMI team and work alongside such passionate and talented individuals. I am humbled to have been granted the chance to work with this wonderful team.

I am incredibly excited to be working with the Addiction Research Group at Sangath, one of the leading global mental health research organizations based in Goa, India. My main focus is on the IMPRESS trial, which tests the effectiveness of a community-oriented volunteer program in increasing overall demand and adherence to a mental health intervention implemented by lay counsellors trained through Sangath’s other projects. As an intern, I have had the opportunity to conduct literature reviews and presentations on study design, develop Excel-based tools to assess counsellor ratings and economic costs of the entire study, and even draft an introduction to IMPRESS’ first qualitative paper!