Mentorship, 2007

Mentee: Julia Dudek
Mentor: Martin Iguchi, Ph.D.
During the winter quarter, I had the opportunity to assist with qualitative research about HIV transmission from bisexual men to heterosexual women in the African-American and Latino communities in Los Angeles. This was associated with a larger, multi-site study called the Sexual Acquisition and Transmission of HIV Cooperative Agreement Program (SATH-CAP). Dr. Iguchi is the Principal Investigator of the scientific coordinating center for this project. I helped organize focus groups for Phase I of the project, and prepared the IRB submission for Phase II, which will consist of semi-structured interviews.

Mentorships, 2005-2006

Mentee: Natasha Desai
Mentor: Martin Iguchi, Ph.D.
I had the opportunity to work with Dr. Martin Iguchi on his research on HIV in Ukraine. Dr. Iguchi is currently writing a grant to perform field research on injection drug users and the transmission of HIV between the injection drug using population and the non-drug using
population.  The prevalence of HIV among the injection drug using population in Ukraine is high and understanding the transmissions patterns will be instrumental in developing HIV education and treatment programs. I performed background research for this grant by
completing a literature review and writing a summary paper to describe my findings.

Mentee: Maureen Dolan
Mentor: Angela Chen, M.D., MPH
During the 2006 Winter and Spring quarters, I worked with Angela Chen, MD, MPH, and the clinic staff at UCLAs Center for Reproductive Health Services to design a database and to create a data collection tool for examining miscarriage management, pregnancy termination, and post-abortion care. After a thorough literature review, we identified the variables to be culled from medical records, created a chart-auditing tool, and selected the most appropriate database management system. We have drafted an application to the IRB to create this living database, which hopefully will serve the clinic for several years.

Mentee: Jaimie Morse
Mentor: Susan Sorenson, Ph.D.
I had the opportunity to work with Dr. Susan Sorenson on a study of IPV in Mexico. I was involved in all parts of the research study, including questionnaire development, pilot testing and questionnaire revision, as well as data analysis.

Mentorships, 2004-2005

Mentee: Ingrid Dries-Daffner
Mentors: Angela Chen, M.D. and Michael Lu, M.D., M.P.H., Assistant Professor
During my mentorship with Dr. Angela Chen and Dr. Michael Lu, we investigated national standards of care for post-abortion counseling. Currently, no national standards of care exist, as patient needs are highly dependent on specific circumstances surrounding their seeking abortion services. We identified a number of local post-abortion counseling services that will be referred as needed to patients of the UCLA Center for Sexual and Reproductive Health.

Mentee: Rotrease Reagan-Yates
Mentor: Donald Morisky, Sc.D., M.S.P.H., Sc.M - Professor, CHS Department Chair
Using data from Dr. Morisky's Philippines Study of Sexual Behavior and STI/HIV Transmission, I helped to complete an analysis of the data in order to determine the specific types and clustering patterns of sexually transmitted infections among female sex workers in the Philippines. The study brought forth knowledge regarding factors associated with the type and transmission of sexually transmitted infections among female sex workers in different types of sex establishments. An abstract and manuscript were prepared from the results of the analyses for submission to an international journal.

Mentee: Sara Siebert
Mentor: Paula Tavrow, Ph.D. - Visiting Associate Professor
Director, Bixby Program in Population and Reproductive Health
I had the opportunity to work with Dr. Paula Tavrow to complete a literature review on abortion services in Africa.  I also assisted her in completing the IRB application for a rare research opportunity to examine the records of a small post-abortion care clinic in East Africa.  Data is scarce on abortion in much of Africa, since it is legally restricted in most countries.   However, it is generally regarded to account for a large percentage of maternal mortality in the region.  Dr. Tavrow and I were able to prepare the necessary background information so that, when the IRB paperwork comes through, it will be easier for her to analyze the data and conduct this much-needed research.

Mentee: Anthony Wang
Mentor: Susan Sorenson, Ph.D - Professor, CHS Department Vice Chair
I participated in domestic violence-restraining order research with Dr. Sorenson. This included talking to local police officials, literature review of studies concerning domestic violence, preparation of graphs/tables for publications, and draft sections for a potential journal article.