Current lab projects:

Lab Members:

David Taylor

David is a third year studying Sociology. He hopes to understand the role of intersectionalities in shaping patient interactions with the healthcare system. Currently, he volunteers in the Berkeley Free Clinic’s Gay Men’s Health Collective and at Richmond RotaCare, two safety net clinics in the East Bay. By working in the Social Research on Healthcare Lab, David hopes to understand how chronic illness impacts people’s lives. In the future, David hopes to become a Physician Assistant and pursue a Master of Public Health.

Irene Liu

Irene Liu is a second year Molecular and Cell Biology major interested in how chronic pain patients navigate the current healthcare system and ways to improve the overall patient experience. Previously, she has looked at the ways integrative medicine can offer alternative and supplementary modalities of care, but is currently focused on how doctors and patients construct narratives for pain and other chronic illnesses. She hopes that through her experience in the lab, she will gain the understanding to become a more effective and compassionate medical practitioner in the future.

Kathy Lui

Kathy is a fourth year undergraduate student studying Nutritional Sciences. She is interested in the subjectivity and uncertainty in medicalization and decision-making processes. She hopes to continue to pursue research and work related to community health, especially with regards to people who are often marginalized by traditional institutions and forms of healthcare.

Lauren Vetter

Lauren is a 4th year undergraduate student studying Public Health with a minor in Public Policy and has been a part of the Social Research on Health Care Lab since fall 2015. She originally began research studying care coordination as a mechanism to improve quality of care for chronically ill patients. She has since become interested in policies that financially incentivize better quality of care. Her role as a intern this past summer under the Director of Post Acute Care at Sutter Health sparked her interest in how hospitals respond to these policies and attempt to better coordinate care in the fragmented US health care system. She is currently working on her senior thesis project that uses an ethnographic case study approach to study the effects of the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program.

Sasha Nickman

Sasha Nickman is a second year intended Public Health major. Sasha has participated in the Field Study Internship, in which she shadowed a Pediatric Gastroenterologist at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland. Currently, she works as a Health Advocate at Highland Hospital in Oakland, helping financially challenged and immigrant patients navigate the health system, lending assistance in applying for low income housing and food, and giving referrals to non-profit law offices to gain worker rights.  Sasha is passionate about patient advocacy and ultimately hopes to apply this passion in areas of public health, medicine and social services.

Alumni:

Pauline Simes

Pauline graduated from UC Berkeley in December 2017 with a degree in psychology. She was a research assistant at the Social Research on Healthcare lab for two years. She also did research at The interdisciplinary Center for Healthy Workplaces to study worker wellbeing. Since graduating, she moved to Madrid, Spain where she is learning Spanish. Pauline has a particular interest in global health policy. She hopes to pursue a master’s degree in Public Health.

Dana Yizhaky

Dana graduated from UC Berkeley in May 2017 with a degree in Social Welfare. After working at the Social Research on Healthcare Lab, Dana went on a three-month study abroad program focused on community and environmental health in Australia and the Solomon Islands where she conducted a capstone project focused around dengue fever in the Solomon Islands. She continues to explore the relationship between the environment, social inequalities, and health disparities. Since graduating Dana has received her Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) licensure. She hopes to pursue a master’s degree as a physician’s assistant in the coming years. 

Jessica Phan

Nikki Kalili

Olivia Ortiz