Upstream Fellowship Awardees
James Dickerson, MD, MS
Stanford University
Dr. Dickerson is a medical oncologist in the Division of Medical Oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine, specializing in treating patients with breast cancer. His research studies how health policy can improve health equity and eliminate cancer disparities. To achieve this goal, his research group pursues three key objectives: (1) developing financially sustainable breast cancer care programs, (2) analyzing large databases to identify health policies that can improve equity, and (3) conducting clinical research to discover the most effective ways to deliver high-quality care.
Rebecca Mendez, MPH
UCSF
Rebecca Mendez is a PhD student in Epidemiology and Translational Science at the University of California, San Francisco. Her research focuses on how social determinants of health, particularly structural and economic barriers, influence breast cancer outcomes among Latinas. She uses mixed methods to examine the role of persistent poverty and neighborhood environments in shaping cancer risk and progression. Rebecca is also developing a culturally grounded measure of persistent poverty to better capture structural economic hardship in Latino communities. Through her work, she aims to advance understanding of the impact of long-term economic conditions on cancer outcomes.
April Vang, MS
UC Davis
April Vang is a PhD Student in Epidemiology at the University of California, Davis. Her research focuses on anti-poverty policies that influence cancer outcomes among disaggregated populations, with an emphasis on advancing early detection and prevention for underserved communities. Specifically, her work examines colorectal cancer screening rates in high-poverty areas and in Hmong populations. April received her M.S. and B.S. in Statistical Data Science from UC Davis. At the same time, April was a researcher at the UC Davis Genome Center where she led projects on polygenic risk score modeling for colorectal and gastric cancers, analyzed cancer registry data, and contributed to studies aimed at increasing research participation from marginalized populations.
