See Julie's poster here. As a current CoE trainee and former LEAP scholar, it was such an honor to attend and present at the 2024 Annual Maternal Child Health Programs Conference. As a volunteer for the event, as well as a poster presenter, I was able to connect with so many different MCAH leaders and organizations from around the country. As a prior Title V intern, I was able to...
Maternal and Infant Health; Program Design, Implementation, and Evaluation; Latine Health; Qualitative Research Methods; Complex and/or Chronic Conditions during Pregnancy.
Current MCAH Interests:
My current MCAH interests in maternal and Latine...
All of the students featured in this section are graduating seniors who are a part of our second cohort of Advanced LEAP Scholars. Read to learn more about Cat, Ivy, and Yucca's undergraduate experiences at UC Berkeley!
Students featured in this section are graduating seniors who are a part of our second cohort of Advanced LEAP Scholars. Read below to learn more about Jaimie and Samantha’s undergraduate experiences at UC Berkeley!
Esmeralda Navarro is a second-year student in our Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health MPH program. Esmeralda is a Double Bear who earned her bachelor’s degree in Public Health. A proud first-generation Latina from Salinas, California, Esmeralda developed a passion for maternal and child health while studying the impact of pesticide use in agricultural communities. This interest has driven her focus on health policy and initiatives aimed at addressing environmental health disparities.
My current MCAH interests in maternal and Latine health has been fueled by a continuation of my summer practicum, which focused on the Spanish CenteringPregnancy program at Highland Hospital in Oakland. It has been incredibly rewarding to see the program staff utilize the patient-led recommendations from our mixed-methods evaluation to guide the next phase of the program.
The team they have convened for implementing these next steps is truly exciting, encompassing a diverse group...
In March, I had the opportunity to present a digital poster at the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP) Annual Conference in Washington, DC. My poster presentation, titled “Public Health and Midwifery Education: Strengthening MCH Workforce Partnerships,” outlined a plan for midwifery workforce development through public health education. My presentation was a continuation...
I attended the American & Global College of Endometriosis Specialists (AGCES) 2026 conference to present a poster on my work with the UCSF Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences. Since my summer practicum in 2025, I have been working to evaluate UCSF’s medical school curriculum on endometriosis. This project is meaningful to me because, as an endometriosis patient, I believe better education and training for...
Anjali Jain - MPH Candidate, University of California, Berkeley
I suffered from endometriosis, undiagnosed, for much of high school and all of college: the years of chronic pain wore me down to ceaseless exhaustion; between missed classes and exams, it was a struggle to focus on developing my career and establishing my place in the world; the perpetual undercurrent of fear and uncertainty paralyzed my ability to enjoy social events and cultivate intimate relationships. I saw a colorful variety of doctors and specialists,...
