Advocacy
For the past decade, I have been primarily focused on scientific research. However, I'm also very passionate about leveraging my research and data analytics skills to both advocate and advance health and science policy through highly interdisciplinary collaborations.
My contribution: I was the lead author and project manager. I identified which policy initiative to investigate, coordinated project from conception to publication, and kept team members on track with research and writing goals
Precision medicine (PM) initiatives show promise for improving the diagnostic and therapeutic outcomes of patients with neuropsychiatric disorders, such as those with schizophrenia. The use of biomarkers and pharmacogenetics to personalize schizophrenia management is beginning to enter clinical settings, and artificial intelligence-based risk prediction algorithms and personalized neurostimulation tools are actively being studied. However, the use of PM presents many regulatory and ethical issues such as FDA approval standards, approaches for clinical trial design, and regulation of direct-to-consumer genetic tests. Robust policies to address these issues are necessary for the successful implementation of PM.
Link to policy paper that my team and I wrote is here
My contribution: As a nominated member of the council, I analyzed MIT's parental leave and childcare policies and made policy recommendations to senior leadership. I leveraged my research skills and designed and distributed a university-wide survey to all postdoctoral fellows and analyzed and visualized the dataset.
During my time at MIT, I was nominated to the council on family and work which serves in an advisory and deliberative capacity concerning family and work-related issues as they impact MIT's faculty, staff, and students. It is the Council's responsibility to: 1) identify family and work-related issues, 2) establish a process to evaluate and respond to these issues, and 3) make periodic recommendations to MIT's senior officers about courses of action relevant to these specific issues. The Council on Family and Work is a Standing Institute Committee that reports to the Executive Vice President and Treasurer.
The project I conducted is hosted on my github account here
My contribution: I was the creator and founder of the Berkeley Psychology Blog and edited the first set of articles with the goal of disseminating cutting-edge Berkeley Psychology research to a broad audience.
During my PhD, I created the Berkeley Psychology Blog with the goal of publishing opinion pieces and interviews with psychology graduate students, across all areas of psychology to disseminate cutting edge scientific findings to the public. Here are a selection of the articles/interviews that I curated and edited: