Why did you choose graduate school at IU Indianapolis?
I chose to study at IU Indianapolis to work with my awesome mentor, Dr. Adam Hirsh. Additionally, I was impressed by the opportunities to collaborate with other departments, IU’s School of Medicine, and community health partners. I am pursuing research related to Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), a genetic connective tissue disorder, and IU Health in Indianapolis houses one of the few certified clinics for this patient population in the Midwest.
What has been your favorite academic accomplishment since you’ve been here?
My favorite academic accomplishment so far was traveling to Seattle, WA, to present a poster at the 2024 US Association for the Study of Pain (USASP) Annual Meeting. It was exciting to network with other pain researchers and meet my mentor’s colleagues and collaborators, especially because this was my first conference as a student at IU Indianapolis.
What do you enjoy most about life in Indianapolis?
I am a Midwesterner at heart (born and raised in Minnesota), so the environment Indianapolis provides feels a lot like home to me. Most of all, I enjoy the food here. There are so many diverse restaurants, and I have been able to try new cuisines at student-friendly prices. I have also found the IU Indianapolis campus and downtown Indy quite walkable.
Please provide some details about your work/research as a graduate student and/or any activities you are involved in.
My research broadly focuses on biopsychosocial factors related to pain and pain management. I am primarily interested in studying chronic pain and multimorbidity associated with EDS and hypermobility spectrum disorders. I am fortunate to collaborate with Dr. Flegge and Dr. Bushey of IU Health’s Pain Rehabilitation Program on multiple EDS-related projects. Additionally, I work as a health coach on a study designed to equip Black patients with chronic pain with the tools to explore non-pharmacological pain management strategies with their primary care doctors. I have also worked on projects related to music therapy for chronic pain and provider decision-making in pain management for transgender patients.
Outside of research, I have been a teaching assistant for a few psychology courses, and I look forward to being able to teach in the future. I have co-mentored the research assistants in my lab and helped them design a poster to present at IU Indianapolis’s Center for Research and Learning summer symposium. I have also completed supplemental training, such as the Graduate and Professional Student Mentoring Dialogues through IU Indianapolis’s Graduate Mentoring Center (highly recommend), IU’s Intercultural Competency Certificate, and Religion and Spirituality Competency Training.