Class Year

16

Current Hometown:

Boulder, Colorado

Job and Employer

Clinical Research Assistant at the Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes

Work:

I am a graduate student in a Master of Public Health program with a concentration in Maternal and Child Health at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. I work as a Clinical Research Assistant at the Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes.

Community work & family

I volunteer at a women’s health center as a support for patients. I am also working on two evaluation projects, one in a birth center in Guatemala and another one in a Denver hospital. In my free time, I try to get out to hike and climb as much as possible.

Graduate School

University of Colorado

Senior project:

For my senior project, I worked as an intern for Asociación Manos Abiertas, a women’s health center in Guatemala, and I conducted research focused on how women’s birth stories offer insights about birth-related health care practices and the medicalization of these practices in the context of Guatemala. I wrote a senior thesis based on this work, titled Narrative(s) of Birth in Guatemala.

Internship:

I interned at a feminist organization called CIDHAL in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

Human ecology in action:

In public health, I see it all the time. I see it when interdisciplinary groups come together to
come up with solutions to health issues - like how to provide access to healthy foods and
a healthy environment to a population. I see it when we think of a public health issue from
different points of view - like how health insurance policy affects the health of the general
population, vulnerable populations, the way health providers operate, public spending, etc.

A COA experience that was particularly significant or memorable:

It is hard to choose, but I would say that the OOPS (COA’s Outdoor Orientation Programs)
trip both as a first-year participant and as an OOPS leader the next year. My experience in
these trips exemplifies my experience at COA. It was challenging, out of my comfort zone,
but I learned a lot and enjoyed every moment of it.

Considerations for prospective students:

Designing my own curriculum has allowed me to approach women’s health with an
interdisciplinary lens. Public health requires that we work in interdisciplinary teams, and COA
provided me with the skills I need to learn from others and to communicate with a diverse
group of people.