Reasons for Running
As a first-year dental student and a second-year Ph.D. candidate, in addition to my intensive dental school curriculum, I have continued
to seek opportunities to prepare for a career as an independently funded clinician-scientist. My research interests include low-income
children and adolescents' oral health disparities, the impact of special health care needs on dental care use, and most recently veterans'
unmet dental care needs. I aspire to combine my clinical and research expertise to develop an independent research program to improve
the oral health of vulnerable patients.
Attending my first AADOCR conference in Portland, Oregon was an exciting and fulfilling experience that allowed me to see the
collaborative power of dental research across the nation. It inspired me to resurrect the AADOCR student research group at my
university, and I am currently in the process of coordinating plans with faculty. I am interested in advocating for graduate student
members, particularly those in the beginning of their journey. I want to be a part of creating opportunities and solution for increasing
collaborations among graduate students across different universities and among graduate students and other established researchers.
The opportunity to become an AADOCR Graduate Student Representative will serve as the foundation for building my leadership
skills in the world of academia and enable me to highlight the voices of graduate students in dual-degree programs.
Research Conducted / Student Activities
• Preventive dental care utilization and dental caries for Medicaid-enrolled adolescents in Oregon (05/2021- 02/2022):
Continuation of Masters’ thesis; prepared manuscript for publication; currently under review.
• Emergency department (ED) use for nontraumatic dental conditions (NTDC) among Medicaid-enrolled children with special
healthcare needs (SHCN) (02/2022-Present): The aims are to (1) determine whether emergency use for nontraumatic dental
conditions differs between children with and without SHCN, and to (2) determine whether receipt of an opioid prescription after an
NTDC-ED visit differs between children with and without SHCN; leading data analysis; writing the manuscript.
• Reducing Sugared Fruit Drinks in Alaska Native Children (09/2022-Present): Intervention study (field work in rural Alaska);
assisted in recruiting families and completing the informed consent process; assisted in collecting samples.
• Vice president-American Dental Education Association-Chapter at the University of Washington (10/2022): student
organization on campus
• Disability rating and dental treatment complexity of veterans in the U.S. (02/2023-Present): The aim is to evaluate the association
between veterans' disability ratings and the complexity of dental treatments received in the Everyone for Veterans (E4V) program, a
non-profit organization that provides free dental care to low- income veterans who are ineligible for VA dental care; leading study
design and data analyses.
