Schwenderman-Randall Selected as a Dr. W. Burghardt Turner Fellow

For Aaliyah Schwenderman-Randall, pursuing a PhD in Population Health at Stony Brook University is about more than advancing her research. It is about using research to better understand and address the health inequities that affect communities that have historically been overlooked.

Schwenderman-Randall, who is expected to graduate in 2030, was recently selected as a Dr. W. Burghardt Turner Fellow. The fellowship recognizes graduate students at Stony Brook who have overcome barriers on their path to higher education and who are committed to making a difference in their communities.

"I came to Stony Brook University because I saw an opportunity to continue the kind of community-centered research I was doing in Philadelphia," Schwenderman-Randall said.

As a Turner Fellow, Schwenderman-Randall hopes to connect with others who share her commitment to engaging communities and improving the lives of Black Long Islanders and other historically underserved communities.

Before coming to Stony Brook, Schwenderman-Randall worked as a clinical research coordinator at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Food and Nutrition Policy, where she supported multiple NIH-funded projects focused on nutrition, economics and behavioral interventions designed to improve health among disadvantaged populations in Philadelphia.

That experience reinforced the importance of approaching health equity from multiple perspectives, including psychology, nutrition, public health and epidemiology.

"It taught me to be an adaptive researcher and reinforced for me that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to advancing health equity," she said.

Her long-term goal is to conduct research that bridges rigorous science and community needs, with a focus on developing health interventions that can meaningfully improve outcomes for the people who need them most.

Read the full story at the Program in Public Health website.