Melissa Palma

What is the most valuable piece of advice you have received from a mentor?

Public health is a very diverse field, and your opportunities are only as limited as your passions. As physicians, we have entered a profession rooted in service to alleviate suffering but our unique population-based skills in public health allow us to more effectively address and advocate for community health. Although we all have aspirational career goals, you don’t have to do them all now or all at once. It’s a natural cycle to have different chapters in our careers, whether it be more clinical- or public health-focused. Being open to opportunity, and simultaneously sharing opportunities with others, is both a practice and a skill.

Milkie VU

What excites you about your research field?

I moved from Vietnam to the U.S. during my teenage years and experienced first-hand what it meant to be an immigrant in the U.S. and to assume the “Asian American” identity. My research therefore means a lot to me personally. In addition, much of my research is community-engaged, and I enjoy spending time in the field working with communities and building relationships and connections with community-based organizations to advance health equity. I have been fortunate to have several mentors who are very kind and compassionate and know how to maintain a great work-life balance. These are not necessarily “pieces of advice,” but seeing them as “models” exemplifying these qualities has been very important to me. 

Nilay Shah

What are two important take-home points from your research?
The first important point is that the Asian American community is not a monolith. There is a wide range of diversity in behavior, cultural norms, socioeconomic position, and many other factors, that all contribute to heterogeneity in health status within the Asian American population that must be recognized. The second point is that strategies for heart disease prevention must be implemented early in life, starting in childhood through young adulthood. Beginning to focus on heart disease prevention later misses an important window to maintain health across the lifespan.

Olutobi Sanuade

What are your current research interests?

My research interests focus on cardiovascular disease intervention, experience, care, and health systems response in low-and middle-income countries. I am currently working on implementation research projects on Hypertension Treatment in Nigeria (HTN) project as well as the Nigeria national sodium reduction program. Also, I am leading a sub-project which focuses on testing the effectiveness and implementation of health coaching and home blood pressure (BP) monitoring on hypertension control among adult patients with uncontrolled BP in primary care settings in Nigeria.

Emily Lam

How does your work support community priorities and health equity?

My research is about how social networks affect cardiovascular health in the Asian American population, which experiences considerable cardiovascular disease disparities. My work advances health equity by aiming to find ways, such as interventions that draw on social networks, to alleviate this disease burden. 

Havisha Pedamallu

What are your current research interests?

I am passionate about cardiovascular disease prevention in the South Asian community. Specifically, I am interested in exploring how cultural norms affect peoples’ engagement in health promotion efforts and creating community-based culturally competent health programs.

ASHWIN SUNDERRAJ

What excites you about your research field?

As an immigrant myself, I grew up watching friends and family members develop radically different ideas of what it meant to be South Asian. This field interests me because it’s constantly changing; as socioeconomic conditions, the political landscape, and technology change, the way people develop identity does as well.