BCPH Research Scholar Program

Lucy is a nursing student at Felician University dedicated to promoting equitable and culturally sensitive care in underserved communities, particularly in maternal and community health. As an aspiring Labor and Delivery nurse, she is passionate about addressing disparities in maternal and child health by examining how social determinants such as racism, stress, food insecurity, and limited prenatal access shape pregnancy outcomes.

Her research with BCPH explores how targeted education tools can improve prenatal health literacy among first-time mothers, with a focus on early recognition of complications such as preeclampsia and preterm labor. The work has reinforced her commitment to maternity and newborn health outcomes, particularly in communities where access to evidence-based prenatal information remains limited.

Nickol is a public health advocate and aspiring researcher at the University of Southern California, majoring in Quantitative Biology with a minor in Healthcare Policy. Her academic background integrates scientific training with a strong focus on public health, health equity, and policy, supported by coursework in race and health, medical ethics, and the social determinants of health.

Her experiences as a healthcare interpreter, mental health curriculum developer, and youth policy leader, grounded in lived experience from South Central Los Angeles, have shaped her commitment to underserved communities. Her research examines how structural factors such as housing insecurity, language access, and systemic racism impact health outcomes, and how emerging technologies like AI can either exacerbate or mitigate health inequities.

Her research with BCPH, co-authored with Dr. Le Compte, is a three-paper series on Insurance Type, Clinical Severity, and Avoidable Emergency Department Use in New York State, drawing on more than 1.8 million SPARCS discharges. The series moves from describing the puzzle, to explaining its correlates, to decomposing it through counterfactual mediation analysis, with a headline finding that privately insured adults, not publicly insured or uninsured adults, carry the highest adjusted odds of avoidable ED use.

Dr. Garima Siwach is a physician-researcher (MBBS, MD) with advanced training in Transfusion Medicine and a strong research focus on neuroimmunology and therapeutic apheresis. Her MD thesis and peer-reviewed publications examined plasma exchange versus IVIG in neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder, reflecting her interest in clinical outcomes research and evidence-based interventions.

She has presented her work at international conferences and is actively involved with the American Society for Apheresis through its research and neurological subcommittees. Her clinical observerships in neurology, internal medicine, and psychiatry across the United States and India, combined with a strong foundation in biostatistics, academic writing, and translational research, position her well to contribute meaningfully to population-based and public health research initiatives at BCPH.

Her research with BCPH is a systematic review of Gun Violence Exposure, Social Safety, and Cognitive Health Among Sexual and Gender Minority Populations in the United States, examining how exposure to firearm-related violence intersects with structural safety and downstream cognitive health outcomes in SGM communities.