Center for Gender & Health Justice Student Ambassadors

2022-2023 Center for Gender & Health Justice Student Ambassadors

Amanda Leong

UC Merced
Interdisciplinary Humanities

Amanda Caterina Leong is a Ph.D. candidate whose research seeks to build a genealogy of 'multimedia' representations of female javānmardī (chivalry) in order to uncover the way premodern Persianate women contributed to health, labor, medicine, and empire building. Moreover, Leong hopes to use her research to show new ways of looking at intersections of gender, race, and class from a premodern Persianate perspective.

Leong's research has recently won the Middle Eastern Studies Association's 2021 Best Graduate Student Paper Award while also being awarded various travel and research grants from different organizations such as the American Institute of Iranian Studies, the Fred and Mitzie Ruiz Fellowship, the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender, and the Middle Eastern Medievalists.

Amanda's research has also appeared in various magazines ranging from Ajam Media Collective, Chicago Review of Books' Arcturus Magazine, and also IranWire. Leong is also an aerialist who uses acrobatic arts to communicate her work on female power.

Angelica Cardenas

UC Merced
Public Health

Angelica is interested in gender health equity, environmental health, immigrant health and health policy. She is currently working as a research assistant for a Farmworker Health Study at UC Merced where she is asessing the impact of the agricultural workers’ access to health insurance. Angelica is a first-gen student from the Central Valley and intends to receive a masters in public health in the future.

Angelika Sarmiento

UC Berkeley
Public Health

Angelika is an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley pursuing a bachelor's degree in Public Health. She strives to provide equitable healthcare for families in low-income and underrepresented communities, such as those in the East Bay Area. By planning to pursue a career in madicine, Angelika hopes to eliminate medical disparities and provide high-quality care for vulnerable communities.

Aniqa Azad

UCSF
Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD)

Aniqa is a Doctor of Pharmacy student at UCSF. She is passionate about womxn’s health, especially within BIPOC communities, and hopes to become an oncology pharmacist. Aniqa is currently a Lead Intern Pharmacist at the UCSF Medical Center, where she works with a diverse population of patients. She also serves as the Vice President of UCSF’s Womxn’s Health Alliance (WHA) and works with community organizations to host programs dedicated to serving womxn.

Anna Fenerty

UC Santa Barbara
Microbiology

Anna is a student at UC Santa Barbara working with Dr. Marci Bowers, who specializes in gender confirmation surgeries, during the summer of 2022. She is a fellow with UCSB's Students for Reproductive Justice during the 22-23 school year. Last year, she earned her EMT license!

Ashley Lopez

UCLA
Public Health, Community Health Sciences

Ashley is a 2nd year Master of Public Health Student in the Community Health Sciences department at UCLA. She is Co-President of the Reproductive Health Interest Group. She has worked in the education sector and taught English to Myanmar refugees during a study abroad trip to Thailand. She plans to earn her trauma-informed yoga certification after graduation and incorporate yoga into programs for perpetrators of intimate partner violence to lower the rate of perpetration."

Ashley Mitchell

UCSF
Global Health Sciences

Ashley is a public health educator, practitioner, and researcher—and currently a (first gen!) Global Health Sciences doctoral student at the University of California, San Francisco. She has an MPH from the University of Minnesota and is a certified perinatal educator through the Commonsense Childbirth School of Midwifery. Inspired by intersectional feminism and decolonization her primary research interests include global reproductive health, wellness, and justice.

Ashley Moore

UCSF
Health Policy

Ashley is a registered nurse and has worked closely with refugee women and children around the world. She worked with the Chief Nursing Officer of the WHO to highlight global nursing contributions to achieving universal health coverage and is passionate about the important role that nurses hold as global health advocates. Ashley is currently a doctoral student in the Health Policy track at UCSF with research interests in global migration, gender equity, and climate justice.

Ava Ham

UC Riverside
B.S. Biology

Ava has a deep passion for advancing health equity among all regions, and to reform the healthcare system to eliminate as much disparity as possible. She currently works at the Yamanaka Lab which studies the neuroendocrine control among insects, mainly Drosophila. She will further her studies in biomedical sciences and later apply to medical school to serve underserved communities in the Inland Empire. Some of her interests are immigration reform, de-stigmatization of mental illness, and advocating for sexual abuse survivors.

Cecilia Eldridge

UC Santa Barbara
Pre-chemistry / Feminist Studies

Cecilia is pursuing a Pre-Chemistry major on the Biochemistry track and Feminist Studies minor. She is a pre-med student with plans to pursue a career as an OB/GYN. She is currently working as a research assistant to Professor Laury Oaks at the University of California, Santa Barbara in the Feminist Studies Department.

Celestine Ofori-Parku

UCSF
PhD in Nursing Science

Celestine is a First-Generation Ph.D. student and a Ghanaian nurse-midwife. She has worked as a clinical preceptor, examiner, and peer practice coordinator, with nursing/midwifery students and her colleagues to meet her goals in addressing maternal mortality challenges. Celestine has worked as a team member of WHO’s Global Maternal Sepsis Study (GLOSS) from 2017-2018 in Ghana. She’s interested in reproductive justice, reproductive health, and respectful maternal care geared toward reducing maternal morbidity and mortality in marginalized populations

Celine Khachiki

UC San Diego
Human Biology

Celine values furthering research across multiple branches of healthcare, along with advancing meaningful education targeting hygiene and nutrition. She hopes to combat menstrual inequities by diminishing stigmas regarding women's health. She is employed as an orientation leader to support incoming students at her university. In her free time, she works with children as an online English tutor for Hidden Roads Initiative, a program which aims to educate underserved communities in Armenia.

Claire Amabile

UCLA
Social and Economic Justice

Claire Amabile, BA, is a Masters student pursuing degrees in the Fielding School of Public Health, Department of Community Health Sciences and in the Luskin School of Public Affairs, Department of Social Welfare, with a concentration in Social and Economic Justice, at UCLA. Her work primarily revolves around violence prevention, both nationally and internationally. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Global Studies from UCSB, with minors in English and Feminist Studies.

Dahlia Kaki

UCSF
School of Medicine

Dahlia is an MS4 at UCSF School of Medicine and a Princeton University School of Public and International Affairs alumna. She has an interest in immigrant and border health and is working with the UCSD Al-Rousan Lab to explore cognitive aging in refugee populations. She is passionate about advocacy for survivors of interpersonal violence and is working towards her domestic violence advocate certificate. Following graduation, she will pursue a career in emergency medicine and critical care.

Danielle McMillion

UC Berkeley
Public Health

Danielle is a Public Health Major and Child Development Psychology Minor at UC Berkeley. She works as the Health Equity Lead at the UC Berkeley Basic Needs Center and has an interest in maternal and child health.

Darshna Anigol

UC Davis
Medicine

Darshna has a strong interest in gender health. In particular, she is interested in the topics of sex trafficking, intimate partner violence (IPV), and sex work. She wants to bring awareness to these populations and do research on their specific health care needs. Since her undergraduate days, she has worked with organizations providing resources to survivors of sex trafficking and IPV that have taken a survivor led approach to support them and their voices.

David Orellana Delgado

UC Berkeley
Molecular and Cell Biology, emphasis in Neurobiology

David is passionate about mental, maternal, and child health. He is a research assistant for the Fuerte Program at UC San Francisco, where he works on mental health literacy and resilience with newcomer youth. David was also part of the San Francisco General Hospital as an interpersonal violence prevention intern, working with survivors of domestic and sexual violence. He plans to attend medical school and become a pediatric psychiatrist, serving underrepresented youth primarily.

Emma Dobson

UC San Diego
Global Health

Emma is passionate about gender equity, sexual assault awareness, women’s health, and reproductive rights, especially in relation to the LGBTQ+ community. She is currently working as a Resource Mobilization Intern at One Heart Worldwide, an organization that promotes the well-being of mothers and their newborns in underserved areas of Nepal. She is also the Team Coordinator for the Partners in Health Engage Chapter that she is working to establish at UCSD.

Grecia Garcia

UC Berkeley
Public Health

Grecia is a rising sophomore at UC Berkeley intending to major in Public Health and minor in Chicane Studies. Grace hopes to become a Physician's Assistant in the future and is passionate about making healthcare universally accessible. She is particularly interested in combatting health disparities amongst women, queer people, and people of color.

Indira D'Souza

UC Davis
Global Disease Biology

Indira loves engaging in reproductive justice advocacy on and off campus! She is the incoming President of Students for Reproductive Freedom at UC Davis, a student organization specializing in intersectional education, mutual aid, and advocacy. She is currently interning with the California Coalition for Reproductive Freedom and TEACH, a non-profit abortion training program. Indira is working on perinatal health and developmental psychology research. She enjoys hiking and spending time with her partner and his dog!

Joy Vivar

UC San Diego
Global Health

Joy is passionate about Women's health, diversity, equity, and inclusion of healthcare through education and accessibility. She is a first generation student and transferred from MiraCosta College to UC San Diego. At MiraCosta College she was a Student Ambassador and focused on outreaching to disproportionately impacted populations in regards to accessing higher education. She is currently working as a phlebotomist at a Medical Center and is working towards becoming an OB-GYN!

Kalani Phillips

UC Irvine
Public Health

Kalani is currently a PhD student in Public Health at UCI and this is her 4th year as a UCGHI student ambassador! Her research interests are focused on social networks and mental health, as well as sexual assault and violence prevention. She is also interested in the social determinants of health, and the role that individual and structural factors play in impacting health disparities among immigrant communities. She is also the current President of the UCI Public Health Alumni Board and Chair for the UCI Student Center Board of Advisors.

Katherine Lewis

UCLA
Community Health Sciences

Katherine (Kate) Lewis is an MPH student at UCLA studying Community Health Sciences. Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Katherine graduated from University of Michigan in 2021 with a degree in Community and Global Public Health and a minor in Spanish Language and Literature. She is interested in sexual health, LGBTQ+ health promotion, HIV prevention, and qualitative research methods as well as health communication and graphic design.

Kelly Song

UCLA
Statistics

Kelly is currently an undergraduate student at UCLA who is interested in the intersection of machine learning and public health / healthcare. She is currently co-president of PILOT (pre-professional public health club) at UCLA and served as planetary health student assistant last year. She was also a summer intern for ANSIRH where I help with data cleaning/analysis for the CHAT study

Kimberly Uehisa

Charles Drew University
Biomedical Sciences

Kimberly was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. She has earned her Bachelor’s in Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics and minor in Global Health from University of California, Los Angeles, and she is currently a Master’s student in Biomedical Sciences at Charles R. Drew University. Her past experiences include being a part of the UCGHI Planetary Health Track ’22-’23, leading various service projects in South L.A., conducting research on heart health education, and administering COVID-19 vaccines to the underserved community. Kimberly’s passion for health education and community service guides her aspirations to pursue medicine and develop accessible tools for reducing health disparities and enhancing health equity. In her spare time, she likes to run, travel, and eat her weight in Hawaiian shortbread cookies.

Mia Giordano

UCLA
Community Health Sciences/Latin American Studies

Mia has experience in tobacco control and previously worked as a Smoking Cessation Program Coordinator where she helped create a tobacco treatment program for 45,000 tobacco users. This summer, Mia will be interning with WINGS, a reproductive health organization in Guatemala, where she will interview clients to understand program satisfaction and identify areas of need. Mia's areas of interest include human rights, immigrant health, global health, access to care, and health policy.

Negin Zahedikia

UCSF
Advance public health Nurse

Negin currently attends UCSF where she is working on her masters in Advanced Public Health, with a concentration in HIV Care and Prevention. She has a passion for sexual and reproductive health while advocating for the mental well-being of communities across diverse cultures. She used to work as an HIV/AIDS counselor at the SF AIDS Foundation where she empowered her clients to make informed decisions while leading cultural competency trainings to providers.

Niharika Kaushik

UC Berkeley
Public Health

Niharika is a junior at UC Berkeley, studying public health and policy. She has studied how communities of color are impacted by environmental stressors and contaminants, and is dedicated to researching health equity and implementing community interventions for populations in need. Additionally, she is interested in chronic conditions and stigmatized conditions, such as Long COVID and HIV/AIDS, as well as preventative care, and looks forward to expanding these interests with her peers and mentors.

Noor Wani

UCLA
Human Biology and Society

Noor is currently a student at UCLA and has a strong interest in global health. In particular, she wants to obtain a strong understanding of how cultural pressure and biological factors affect women's health. Through collaboration and education, she is interested in working to address the sex-based health inequities that are widespread around the world. She currently works as a teaching fellow to educate young women about puberty and to provide them with the knowledge and skills to make informed health decisions.

Pranavi Manchikanti

UC Davis
Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior

Pranavi is passionate about advocating for equity in healthcare with interests in menstrual poverty, nutritional medicine, and culturally competent care. She has been able to expand on these interests in her roles as Operations and Donations Director at Davis Period, where she distributes menstrual products to disadvantaged communities, and as a Physical Therapy Intern and Diabetes Nutrition Intern. In the future, she hopes to become a Physician Associate and provide primary care to underserved populations.

Rujuta Sathe

UCLA
Molecular, Cell, Developmental Biology

Rujuta is passionate about advancing women’s health and representation through culturally inclusive education efforts on local and global scales. She has previously taught vocational activities at an institution in India for women with mental disabilities and is looking forward to assessing reproductive health services in her own community. She also recently founded a student organization at UCLA called Pages for Pediatrics which writes and illustrates children’s storybooks on pediatric illnesses and donates them to children’s hospitals nationwide.

Sam Macam

UCLA
Public Health & Social Welfare

Sam is pursuing a dual Master of Public Health and Master of Social Welfare degree to utilize a prevention framework to ensure the health and well-being of children and their families, as well as underserved communities. She works as a program coordinator mentoring undergraduate students on community-based, social justice oriented research projects. Her research and advocacy interests include adverse childhood experiences, the impact of trauma and attachment on child mental health, and assessing how positive social supports and services improve health trajectories and outcomes.

Sean Sugai

UCLA
Human Biology and Society (BS); Anthropology (BS)

Sean is currently an undergraduate at UCLA, exploring Oceanic Filipinx, Indigenous Pacific, and Diaspora studies with a focus on US empire and settler environmentalism in Oceania, Filipinx plantation life/afterlives in Hawai'i, and transpacific anti-Blackness from the Philippines to Hawai'i. Sean is investigating how the natural and built environment shape everyday experiences with heat inequality and racism/racialization, focusing on reimagining anti-racism in environmental justice. Further, Sean is involved in utilizing mixed-method, trauma-informed, and survivor-centered LGBTQ+ violence prevention and response, focusing on institutional betrayal, incarceration, and reproductive (in)justice.