Tainayah Thomas is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Health Behavior within the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. Her research focuses on improving health care delivery and disease prevention for African Americans, Latinos, and other ethnically diverse populations.

Most people don’t think a sprained ankle is serious, but Erik Wikstrom disagrees. The UNC exercise and sports scientist studies the mechanisms and long-term impacts of lateral ankle sprains — exploring not only how they affect local tissues, but how they change the way the brain programs movement.

When an adult loses a front tooth, dentists can replace it with an implant. What about children, who have years of development ahead of them? The answer: relocate an existing tooth to the site of the missing tooth. UNC dentists are the first in the U.S. to try this innovative procedure, called autotransplantation.

In his youth, Boyce Griffith was writing computer programs before he could drive a car. Now a UNC mathematician, he creates computational models of the human heart to improve the prediction and treatment of cardiac diseases.

Tylar Watson is a junior double-majoring in computer science and women’s and gender studies, with a minor in Chinese, within the UNC College of Arts & Sciences. Her research utilizes a specialized form of 3D printing called Continuous Liquid Interface Production to optimize the materials and methods for developing thin film membranes.

Nilay Tanık Argon is a professor in the Department of Statistics and Operations Research within the UNC College of Arts & Sciences. She researches stochastic systems — random mathematical processes — to better understand operational problems in the health care industry such as the allocation of scarce resources like ambulances.

In starting a community garden, the Coharie tribe reclaim their autonomy in agriculture, transforming it into a place for healing and community. UNC senior Sierra Dunne records their story, learning about the deep-rooted connections among soil, sorghum syrup, and boundless generosity in the process.

Kiara Childs is a PhD student in the Department of Communication within the UNC College of Arts & Sciences. Her research focuses on how media empowers and disempowers marginalized communities, specifically how black women curate their voices through social media.

Nathalie Eegholm is a senior majoring in quantitative biology and minoring in marine science within the UNC College of Arts & Sciences. Her research uses an ecological model designed to understand how dissolved oxygen varies seasonally and yearly to predict short-term oxygen conditions within the Neuse River Estuary of North Carolina.

With the mass adoption of streaming video services and last yearʼs repeal of net neutrality rules, how consumers interact with the internet is poised to change in unprecedented ways. Two UNC economists create tools to help industry analysts and policymakers chart a course through the uncertainty.

From Chapel Hill to the Democratic Republic of Congo, music professor Chérie Rivers Ndaliko empowers students to come together and use creativity as a touchstone for social change.

Seema Garg is an associate professor in the Department of Ophthalmology within the UNC School of Medicine and a practicing ophthalmologist at the UNC Kittner Eye Center. Her research focuses on preventing blindness in people with diabetes — a condition called diabetic retinopathy — through early detection using telemedicine.