Kashika Sahay is a fourth-year doctoral student in the Department of Maternal and Child Health in the Gillings School of Global Public Health. Her research interests include gender equity, reproductive health outcomes, women’s empowerment, and violence prevention. In March, she successfully defended her dissertation on family planning among couples in urban Nigeria. She graduates this weekend and is already working as a contractor for the CDC in Atlanta.

Senior Alice Yu is an undergraduate researcher in Barry Popkin’s lab within the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. She is majoring in nutrition, with minors in chemistry and music. Her research focuses on the change in dietary trends of Chinese adolescents using cross-sectional data from the Carolina Population Center’s China Health and Nutrition Survey.

Jada Brooks is an assistant professor in the UNC School of Nursing. Her research focuses on the health of American Indian women, specifically linking exposure to environmental pollutants and psychosocial factors to cardiovascular disease.

Molly De Marco is a research assistant professor of nutrition within the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, as well as a research scientist at the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. Her community-based research focuses on improving access to healthy food for low-income and historically marginalized populations in the rural South.

Sophomore Victoria Miller is an undergraduate researcher studying computer science within the UNC College of Arts & Sciences. Her research focuses on a Chrome extension that helps Facebook users with physical disabilities.

Banu Gökarıksel is an associate professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of Geography within the UNC College of Arts & Sciences. Her research focuses on the politics of everyday life and questions of gender, religion, and living together across differences.

Senior Srihita Bongu is an undergraduate researcher within the Maness Lab, studying chemistry and economics in the College of Arts & Sciences. She is also the co-founder of the Women in Economics club on campus. Her research focuses on the changes in expression of the Neurocan gene in the adolescent brain and the implications that has for mental disorders and disabilities.

Noelle Romero is the program coordinator for the Chancellor’s Science Scholars and UNC-PROPS. In August 2016, she successfully defended her thesis within the Curriculum in Genetics & Molecular Biology. Her research focuses on how to prevent problems that arise from damaged DNA, such as cancer, through studying Fancm, a protein that helps repair it.

Catherine Fahey is an MD-PhD student studying genetics and molecular biology within the UNC School of Medicine. In February 2017, she successfully defended her dissertation. She is also the co-leader of the student organization UNC Advocates for MD-PhD Women in Science. Her research focuses on how protein-modifying gene mutations contribute to cancer development.

Gulden Othman is a third-year graduate student in the Department of Physics and Astronomy within the UNC College of Arts & Sciences. She currently works in the Experimental Nuclear and Astroparticle Physics group and is also on the executive board of UNC Women in Science and Engineering (WISE). Her research focuses on observing the interactions of the building blocks of matter to understand how the universe has evolved from the Big Bang to present day.