Stories

The opportunity to work with the Center for Health Equity and Innovation at Purdue University was serendipitous in nature.  I was listening to Dr. Jasmine Gonsalvo speak at a lecture event when I realized just how much I had in common with the work she was doing in and near my community.

I believe we are made for community - meant to be with people and for people.  To me, community engagement looks like aligning with what our community cares about and providing resources and aid to further their mission.  This has been at the core of my role as the Community Engagement Chair for CHEqI.  As I stepped into this position, my goal was to promote new community partnerships that enrich teaching, learning, research, address critical social issues, and contribute to the public good in the Greater Lafayette area.  During

Even before being accepted into pharmacy school, I knew I wanted to be a pharmacist because I wanted to do work in health equity. My first experience recognizing the impact of health inequities on communities was when I was an intern at the Southtown Walmart Pharmacy in my hometown of Fort Wayne, IN. Within a few weeks, I noticed the barriers patients faced when accessing the healthcare system, and I began to question how these barriers contributed to health disparities.

ENGLISH VERSION

It was January 2021, nearly one year after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and I was in the middle of the second academic year of my PhD program. Much of my time this academic year, unfortunately, was spent alone, in an office, working on a computer (most of this work environment I attribute to COVID-19).