2016-17 Graduate Students
Alexandra Blair is a graduate of Vanderbilt University where she majored in Medicine, Health, and Society and minored in Managerial Studies Corporate Strategies. Her interests include the political, racial, and socioeconomic dimensions of HIV/AIDS, and the intersection of intervention and theory involved in reducing the burden of HIV/AIDS. While in the MA program, she will work with Professor Tara McKay and examine HIV/AIDS in the U.S. South.
Muhammad ‘Zain’ Chauhan is a graduate of Vanderbilt University where he majored in Medicine, Health, and Society with a minor in Neuroscience. Zain’s interests revolve around the intersections of medicine, technology, and health. More specifically, he wishes to understand the factors that influence medical decision making in private practice. While in the MA program, he will be working with Dr. Michael Richards and Dr. Martha Jones analyzing the factors that influence adoption rates of electronic dental record technology in rural and urban areas across several states.
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 contribute to adverse birth outcomes, and exploring how medical school curricula incorporate the effects of racism on health. While in the MA program whe will work with Professors Johnathan Metzl, Hector Myers, and Tony Brown to study multigenerational inheritance of risk, how racism causes health disparities, and how sociological inquiry models can draw from African American women’s epistemologies of combating structural violence to sustain well-being.
Safiah Hassan is a graduate of Vanderbilt University where she majored in Medicine, Health, and Society and minored in Spanish. Her interests include how discrimination based on religion and citizenship status plays an added role in racial and ethnic health disparities. While in the MA program, she will work with Gabriel Mendes to study how health disparities manifest in Muslim communities.
Peter Kent-Stoll is a graduate of the 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.
Elizabeth Manning is a graduate of Oberlin College where she majored in Biology. She is interested in biomedical ethics and how transgender people navigate the healthcare system. While in the MA program, she will work with Professor Hector Myers.
Miller Morris is a graduate of Vanderbilt University where she majored in Medicine, Health, and Society and Cognitive Studies, with a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies. Her interests include travel, scuba diving, cooking, and women’s health. While in the MA program, she hopes to contribute to the emerging field of radical epidemiology through studying the way patriarchal discrimination can influence the spread of sexual transmitted infections, and how social justice can intersect with infectious disease prevention.
Yemi Olubowale is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology where he majored in Biological Sciences. His interests include international acute care systems, domestic disparities in healthcare access, global health and the political and social dimensions of healthcare for the homeless. While in the MA program, he is working with Dr. Maya Yiadom in the Vanderbilt Department of Emergency Medicine to study the disparities in care concerned with STEMI heart attacks.
Courtney VanHouten is a graduate of Belmont University where she majored in Sociology and Psychology. Her academic interests include the social foundations of knowledge, specifically the sociology of scientific knowledge, and the modern construction of mortality. Her current research explores the intersection of American medical culture and death and the dying process. While in the MA program she will work with Dr. JuLeigh Petty in the Center for Medicine Health and Society and Dr. Laurie Novak in the Department of Biomedical Informatics.
Megan Ward is a graduate of The University of Alabama where she majored in Biology and minored in Addiction and Recovery. Her research interests include different types of addictions and treatments for them, Traumatic Brain Injuries in sports, mental health problems resulting from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, and the refugee and immigrant populations, specifically at Siloam Family Health Center in Nashville. While in the MA program, she will be working with Dr. Ronald Cowan in studying the neurobiology of sexual addiction and sexual health. She plans on attending medial school after completing the MA program.
Trixie Yabut is a graduate of Vanderbilt University, where she majored in Medicine, Health, and Society. Her interests include Global Health, social justice, and barriers to healthcare access and health disparities in refugee and immigrant populations. While in the MA program, she will work with Professor Dominique Behague and study the health risks unaccompanied minor asylum seekers and refugees face as they migrate and transition to their new homes.