Current Graduate Students

isabel allen

Isabel is a graduate of Jacksonville State University with a BA in Integrated Studies. Her research interests are the effects of contraceptive methods and how they can interfere with the standard of performance in female athletes, both collegiately and professionally. Her goal is to work with female collegiate athletes to heighten their performance legally, academically and athletically. Isabel is pursuing her MHS MA because she aims to fulfill her research interests while obtaining knowledge and skills to use in her future career. She hopes to find other solutions to combat the effects of contraceptive methods in women’s sports.

Isabella bareford

Isabella graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a BS in Health and Human Sciences. She is planning on conducting her research on how caretaking for elderly family members impacts the family dynamic. She is interested in serving this community when she works as a Physician Assistant upon graduating. Isabella chose the MHS MA because she wants to apply the skills she learns from this program to being an excellent health care provider upon graduation.

leo huang

Leo is a graduate of Vanderbilt University where he received a BA in Medicine, Health, and Society (MHS); Neuroscience; as well as Architecture and the Built Environment. His research interests lie broadly in the field of cancer where he has published papers on the applications of augmented reality in head and neck cancer surgery as well as the modulation of microRNAs in colorectal cancer and glioblastoma metastasis. With a background in cancer biology and treatment, Leo hopes that the MHS MA program will provide him an avenue to study the culture of care surrounding cancer.

Reagan Mathieson

Reagan graduated from San Jose State University with her BS in Public Health with a concentration in Population Data Science. Her research interests include the relationship between university resources and student athletes’ experiences with food insecurity. Her goal is to explore how research can serve as a tool for organizations to provide adequate care for student athlete’s needs, particularly for students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. She chose Vanderbilt’s MHS MA because of the emphasis on research through the lens of public health and its devotion to lessen health inequalities in marginalized communities.

Heeba momen

Heeba is a graduate of Vanderbilt University where she received a BA in Medicine, Health, and Society with a minor in Human and Organizational Development. Her research interests are in healthcare policy, social and political determinants of health, and healthcare systems/management. Her goal is to either work in academia (professor/researcher), work for institutions such as the CDC, or pursue medical school in the future. She chose the MHS MA program to explore more research opportunities and gain more experience for further higher education options.

jane nwaba

Jane Nwaba is a graduate of Pepperdine University where she received a BA in Psychology. Her research interests are in improving and bringing more awareness to student athlete mental health and performance. Her goal is to be a nurse practitioner with the emphasis on women and children. She chose the Vanderbilt MHS MA program to equip herself with more understanding to address challenges in healthcare and provide proper care to her patients.

maggie o’rourke

Maggie is a graduate of Vanderbilt University where she received a BA in Medicine, Health, and Society and History. Her research interests include the social disparities and stigma associated with diabetes in the United States. Her goal is to attend medical school and work towards health equity within the medical field. With these career aspirations in mind, she chose the MHS MA program in order to more fully understand structural health disparities within the U.S. medical system.

Brina ratangee

Brina Ratangee graduated from Vanderbilt University with a BA in Medicine, Health, and Society and Neuroscience. Her research interests span aging, dementia, caregiving, and end-of-life care. She will be working under Dr. Lucie Kalousová’s mentorship to investigate disparities in end-of-life care planning for her master’s thesis, having previously worked with Dr. Kalousová on her senior honors thesis to research caregiver mental health. Brina chose to pursue the MHS MA program because she sought out greater familiarity with conducting an intensive research project and additional practice with the skills needed to combine clinical care and population-level research in her future career.

aimee salakhov

Aimee is a recent graduate from Vanderbilt University with a BA in Medicine, Health, and Society on the pre-medicine track. She is spending the year pursuing the MHS MA before applying to medical school. Over the course of the 4+1 program, Aimee will be investigating unique applications of ketamine in the medical field to determine the accessibility of alternative healthcare. Her research interests encompass health equity and learning about diverse perspectives in the healthcare field. Aimee is using her time in the MHS MA program to explore sociological approaches to healthcare in order to better understand her role and potential impact as a future physician.

emmy schuler

Emmy graduated from Vanderbilt University where she received a BA in Psychology and Medicine, Health, and Society. She has worked with the San Francisco Department of Public Health on The Partners Study and the Vanderbilt Hemostasis Treatment Center to evaluate the psychosocial needs of adolescent and young adult patients transitioning from pediatric to adult healthcare. She is currently working under Dr. Kalousová on the Health Equity at the End of Life (HEAL) Project, and hopes to further explore the role of relationships and social networks in infectious disease prevention and chronic disease management through the MA program.

Timenit teklai

Timenit is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University, obtaining her BS degree in Child (Human) Development and Family Studies, alongside two minors in Nutrition and Food Science and African American Studies. She has roughly four years of experience in patient care and advocacy in Behavioral Health. Her research interests are post-war and genocide traumas. Specifically, she is interested in their long-lasting medical, social, and psychological effects on individuals with a focus on women and children, as well as preventative versus mitigative approaches to these studies. She chose the MHS MA program to enhance her capabilities and understandings of medicine as well as gaining the more comprehensive skills that she deems necessary to have a fulfilling career in medicine.