Ambassadors

The Department of Epidemiology and Population Health is proud to announce a new ambassador program as part of the department’s continued commitment to supporting all student community members. Ambassadors are current MS and PhD students within the department who have graciously volunteered their time to help prospective and incoming students answer questions about our programs, department, and life at Stanford. Ambassadors do not review or help with individual student applications but serve as an additional resource to help students navigate the transition to Stanford.

Have a question about life at EPH? The Ambassadors are here to help. Just access this Zoom link to join Ambassador office hours and chat face-to-face with current EPH students who are happy to answer questions. 

*Please note: Ambassadors cannot answer specific admissions questions.

**All times listed are PT

June L

PhD Student

June is currently a 1st year PhD student in Epidemiology; her research interests lie in understanding clinical outcomes and assessing the benefits and risks of hypertension treatment in patients with chronic kidney disease and concomitant cardiovascular disease. She has also completed her MS in epidemiology in the department. June is an international student from Canada, and in her free time, she enjoys painting/sketching, reading, and challenging baking projects.

Catharine B

PhD Student 

Catharine is a PhD Student in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health at Stanford University and an MD Student at the University of Calgary. In 2007, Catharine’s mother was diagnosed with lymphedema, leading Catharine to promise her mother that she would one day develop a pharmacological treatment for her incurable disease. By age fifteen, Catharine founded a national team of clinicians and scientists to pursue this work across Canada. Today, Catharine's research focuses on the epidemiology of lymphatic disease, lymphedema therapeutics, psychosocial manifestations, and surgical treatment of lymphedema. In 2020, Catharine was named one of Forbes Magazine’s 30 Under 30 in Healthcare, and in 2022, she was awarded a Knight-Hennessy Scholarship at Stanford University.

Melissa L

MS student

Melissa is a medical student and graduate student in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health. She is passionate about using research to support patient advocacy and is currently focused on investigating novel biomarkers in dermatomyositis.

Rhitishah R

MS Student

Rhitishah Yuva Raju is a second-year MS student in Epidemiology and Clinical Research. Before attending Stanford, she was a Research Associate studying HIV at the UCLA Semel Institute. Rhitishah completed her undergraduate studies in Public Health and Demography at UC Berkeley. She is currently working on clinical trials with Stanford Cardiovascular Medicine with the aim of reducing Calcific Aortic Valve Stenosis (CAVS). In addition to this, Rhitishah has spent time working on the integration of AI into clinical workflows and healthcare systems. In her free time, she enjoys outdoor activities, exploring new cuisines, and plays women’s club lacrosse at Stanford.

Pari G

PhD student

Parastou (Pari) Ghazi is a PhD student in Epidemiology and Clinical Research at Stanford, where she earned her MS. She aims to generate epidemiologic evidence in support of solutions that protect the poorest communities in settings with many toxic exposures and ineffective resource allocation. Her current research focuses on health effects of air pollution from brick kilns in Bangladesh. Previously, she worked at the Harvard School of Public Health, where she led a qualitative study on barriers to accessing vaccines and other health technologies in South America and Sub-Saharan Africa. She holds BAs in English and Biology from Cornell University.

Amadeia R

PhD student

Amadeia is a fourth-year PhD student in Epidemiology and Population Health at Stanford University. Her research explores the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes linked to medication use and air pollution exposure during pregnancy among patients with systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases. She earned her MPH from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and previously worked at the San Francisco Department of Public Health. A California native, she was a Golden Bear at UC Berkeley before joining the trees at Stanford. Outside of research, she loves baking, cooking, biking, playing tennis, hiking, and camping.

Julianna H

PhD Student

Julianna is a third-year PhD student in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health. Her research focuses on leveraging digital technologies, particularly smartphone sensor data, to study sleep behaviors in young adults and to examine how increased screen time affects sleep health in this population. In her free time, Julianna enjoys climbing, playing music with friends, printmaking, and ceramics.