2015-16 Graduate Students
Juliana Buccino is a graduate of Vanderbilt University where she majored in Medicine, Health, and Society. Her interests include, maternal and infant health, the midwifery movement, holistic healthcare practices, and the political, racial, and socioeconomic dimensions of women’s healthcare, especially regarding birth & breastfeeding. While in the MA program, she will work with Professor Tara McKay and study the impacts of race, maternal education level, and socioeconomic status on birth outcomes and breastfeeding rates in Davidson county.
Sharon Zipporah Champion (“Z”) is a graduate of Vanderbilt University where she majored in African American & Diaspora Studies and Medicine, Health, & Society. Her interests include dance, social awareness activities and volunteering. While in the MA program she will work with Professors Behague and Metzl to study prevention and intervention strategies to measure and reduce racial & ethnic inequities, and she will explore how language describes and shapes health in different types of bodies.
Betsy Galenti is a graduate of Vanderbilt University where she majored in Medicine, Health and Society and was a scholarship. Her interests include swimming as she was a scholarship swimmer during her time at Vanderbilt and currently coaches and instructs at the Nashville Aquatic Club. While in the MA program she will work with Laura Stark and study dental health disparities.
Venus Green is a graduate of the University of California, Irvine where she majored in Political Science, African American Studies, and Women’s Studies. Her interests include examining how microaggressions and the psychosocial wellbeing of middle class African American women contributes to adverse birth outcomes, and exploring how medical school curricula incorporate the effects of racism on health. While in the MA program she will work with Professors Johnathan Metzl, Hector Myers, and Tony Brown to study multigenerational inheritance of risk, how racism causes health disparities, and how to sociological inquiry models can draw from African American women’s epistemologies of combating structural violence to sustain well-being.
Alonzo Jones II is a graduate of Vanderbilt University where he doubled majored in Medicine Health and Society and Classical Studies. His interests include healthcare administration, global health, and health policy. While in the MA program he will work with Professor Laura Stark and study the health effects of gentrification in metro Nashville.
Peter Kent-Stoll is a graduate of University of California, Irvine where he majored in public health policy. His interests include examining racial health disparities, the politics of knowledge production in the health fields, and the sociopolitical context of disease. While in the MA program he will work with Professors Derek Griffith and Kenneth MacLeish and study the relation between biomedical and political discourses of individual responsibility, causal frameworks of disease, and African Americans’ illness experiences.
Julianne Locher is a graduate of Vanderbilt University where she majored in Psychology and Medicine, Health, and Society. Her interests include Chicago sports, Vanderbilt athletics, mental health research, and technology. While in the MA program, she will work with Professor Hector Myers and study the effects of concussions on athletes’ mental health.
Meera Nagarsheth is a graduate of the University of Miami where majored in Microbiology and Immunology. Her interests include social medicine, social justice and community-based participatory research (CBPR). While in the MA program, Meera plans to work with Professors Derek Griffith and Hector Myers to study the extent to which medical school curricula incorporate social medicine principles. She also will work on CBPR interventions, conduct clinical research and study how social and health inequalities. Upon completion of the program, Meera will attend medical school at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
Sabre Rucker is a graduate of Vanderbilt University where she double majored in Anthropology and Medicine, Health, & Society. Her interests include understanding how the body regulates itself to stave off illness and disease and the intangible factors that can affect the health of an individual and various populations. While in the MA program, she will work with Professor Aimi Hamraie and study the effects of the built environment and urban planning on the health of Nashville communities.
Rachel Turner is a graduate of Vanderbilt University where she majored in Medicine, Health, and Society and minored in Chemistry. Her research interests include the social determinants of health disparities and the role of epidemiological evidence in medical decision-making. While in the MA program she will work with Professors JuLeigh Petty and Jonathan Metzl and study the pre-med curriculum to determine the extent to which MHS and non-MHS students are culturally competent and structurally competent. Upon graduation, Rachel seeks to pursue a medical degree in reconstructive surgery.