I study how structural and social conditions shape the health of those who both need and deliver care, examining what drives poor health, what protects against it, and how policy can close that gap. 

I am an incoming PhD student in Health Systems and Services Research at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health. I hold a Master of Public Policy degree from UC Riverside School of Public Policy (2026, GPA 3.97, Vice Provost Excellence Fellow), and a B.S. in Public Health Nutrition with minors in Sociology and Creative Writing (Fiction) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2024, Summa Cum Laude, Carolina Covenant Scholar). 

My work is grounded in Fundamental Cause Theory (FCT) and examines how upstream structural factors - health insurance, social welfare and protection systems, public expenditure, integrated care models, and occupational stress - drive disparities in health outcomes across populations and settings. I draw on quantitative methods including regression analyses, multiple imputation, difference-in-differences, and cost-benefit analysis. My long-term goal is to research and teach how structural and psychological stressors shape the health of both patients and providers - examining self-reported and biomarker outcomes to understand what drives poor health, what protects against it, and how integrated care policies can improve outcomes on both sides of the clinical relationship. These findings can inform the development of health policies and services.

My MPP capstone, mentored by Dr. Bruce Link (Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at UCR and co-developer of FCT), examined how occupational demands and unpaid caregiving predict health outcomes - including psychological distress, self-rated health, allostatic load, and healthcare engagement - among caregivers, clinicians, and administrative staff. I am also a co-author on a manuscript examining 25 years of social and structural determinants of cardiovascular risk and disease in Black adults as part of the Jackson Heart Study.

Growing up in Lagos, Nigeria - and moving between that context and the United States - gave me a firsthand lens on what it means to navigate health and social systems shaped by scarcity, inequality, and policy failure. That experience is not incidental to my research; it is foundational to the questions I ask and the communities that I center. 

Beyond research, I serve as a Development and Operations Associate at the Government Accountability Project in Washington, D.C., where I have secured over $100,000 in grant funding for whistleblower protection and public health programs. I founded Expanded Perspectives, a K-12 civic education multimedia project designed to build policy literacy and youth civic engagement, developed a college planning resource on Amazon to make higher education navigation more accessible, and serve on the APPAM Student Activities Committee. 

I also write fiction in my spare time. My novel, Shape of the Sun, is available now.