Research Experience

Drexel University, Community Health and Prevention Department

Overview

  • Conduct literature reviews on stress reduction strategies specifically tailored for Latino men to inform the content development for the GANAS health education program, a community-focused initiative aimed at improving health outcomes within Latino communities

  • Collaborate with faculty and community stakeholders to design educational materials that address the unique health challenges faced by Latino men, ensuring that the content is culturally relevant and impactful

  • Develop and curate engaging social media content to promote the GANAS program and raise awareness of available health resources, targeting Latino men and their communities

Major Contributions

  • Conduct a comprehensive scoping review on stress reduction strategies for Latino men, synthesizing existing research to inform future health interventions and program development

  • Identify key barriers Latino men face in accessing stress reduction resources and develop targeted recommendations for overcoming these challenges

  • Implement and evaluate outreach strategies, including digital and community-based initiatives, to enhance engagement with the GANAS program and expand its impact within Latino communities

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Adolescent Initiative

Overview

  • Recruited, retained, facilitated visits, and provided technical assistance to trans feminine, trans masculine, and gender non-conforming youth to TechStep

    • TechStep is a two-condition, technology-based randomized controlled trial

      • The goal of this trial is to reduce sexual risk behaviors (e.g., condomless anal intercourse, engagement in sex work, sex while feeling the effects of alcohol or drugs) and increase PrEP uptake

  • Recruited, retained, facilitated visits, and provided technical assistance to youth assigned male at birth to GetConnected

    • GetConnected is a two-arm prospective randomized controlled trial

      • The goal of this trial is to increase youth uptake of HIV prevention services

Major Contributions

  • Enrolled over 50 participants in GetConnected in three months, the highest consecutive enrollment rate of any of the three sites (Atlanta, Houston, Philadelphia)

  • Helped TechStep to be entirely remotely conducted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including coordinating the shipment of HIV testing supplies in a discrete manner

Images of the applications are from the iTech Network website.

University of Pennsylvania, Drink Philly Tap

Overview

  • Assisted with data collection for the Drink Philly Tap Project, a campaign that empowers residents of Philadelphia with information and knowledge to choose drinking tap water over bottled water

  • The program hired neighborhood ambassadors to dispel myths about the harms of drinking tap water in Philadelphia

  • Data collection from the project is meant to help create a guidebook for paid ambassador programs focused on environmental issues, a guidebook for ambassadors for participating in programs, and a reflection on lessons learned in Drink Philly Tap in 2019  that will help to guide the future of the ambassador program

Major Contributions

  • Prepared for, created interview protocol, and conducted 10 individual interviews with previous Drink Philly Tap Ambassadors on their experience with the program

  • Led two, in-depth focus groups which I created a protocol for about improvements that could be made to make ambassador programs more useful for ambassadors and their communities

  • Created initial reports on the data collection efforts and provided feedback on key takeaways from the data collection

Creative Resilience Collective, Care Strategies and Spaces for Immigrant Youth

Overview

  • Contributed to the beginning stages of a community-based research study aimed at understanding the lived experiences of mental health support (or lack of support) among immigrant youth in Philadelphia

    • Stepped back from the project to apply to & attend graduate school

Major Contributions

  • Contributed to the poster and proposal which granted us funding by Jefferson College of Population Health at Community Driven Research Day

Research Objectives

  • Define and identify places, people, strategies, and barriers to care,

  • Understand what makes a safe space or home,

  • Understand what makes a safe and supportive person, 

  • Understand strategies of safety, 

  • Unwrap how teens are coming of age in a western culture that is different than nuclear family dynamics (e.g. western individuality, idea of code/language switching), and 

  • Identify sustainable strategies that community sites can use to make safe spaces more accessible

Kluge Center, Library of Congress through the Paul Peck Humanities Institute Internship

Overview

  • Selected for the highly competitive Paul Peck Humanities Internship which allowed me the privilege of being able to intern for 240 hours at the Library of Congress's Kluge Center in Washington, D.C.

  • As part of this program, interns are required to write a research paper on a topic that is pertinent to their interests and studies

  • Briefed a Kluge Fellow ( Dr. Ruth Wasem) on significant findings relevant to her research on immigration policy

Major Contributions

  • Authored a 21-page research paper on transgender women of color and poverty

  • Presented research findings at the 2016 Undergraduate Research Day at the University of Maryland, College Park