Angela is a 2nd-year PhD student in Health Services in the Department of Health Systems and Population Health in the School of Public Health. Her research interests are in Asian-American health, mental health, women’s and maternal health, and health disparities. All of her research interests are united by the common theme of improving health outcomes and informing equitable health policy for racialized and historically disadvantaged populations. Angela currently works as a Research Assistant at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation on the Reproductive, Genitourinary, and Digestive Diseases Team where she works to quantify the impact of high fasting plasma glucose levels on maternal disorders and outcomes. Prior to starting her PhD, Angela worked as Program Analyst at USAID in the Office of HIV/AIDS and was also a primary school teacher in rural Spain for several years. Angela holds a master’s degree in Public Health (Health Economics) and a bachelor’s degree in International Affairs (Global Public Health) and Spanish Literature. In her free time, Angela enjoys reading, travelling, baking, and mixed-media art projects, the latest of which involves dried flowers she collected and dried during springtime.
View a digital reproduction of Angela’s artifact.
Angela’s project summary:
As a person of color who identifies as a first generation Asian-American, the role of data disaggregation in public health research is particularly important to me. Too often, the standard of practice is that we collapse multiple racial and ethnic groups into broader categories of “Black”, “Latino”, and “Asian American Pacific Islander”, which obscures important insights into the differentiated health outcomes that particular identities within these aggregated categories experience. My research interest is in disaggregating these categories to understand the particular health outcomes that each unique racial and ethnic group faces and to recognize their special identities and voices.
I wanted to bridge my personal and professional passions to create an artifact representative of my identity and interests. This is a collection of hand embroidered mini portraits of Asian women from various countries wearing their traditional clothing. Hoop 1 represents a Chinese woman wearing a Chinese dress, known as a qipao or alternatively, a cheongsam, a modern, figure-fitting Chinese dress taking inspiration from Manchu clothing. Hoop 2 represents a Korean woman wearing a hanbok, a two-piece, loose fitting silk top and skirt. Hoop 3 represents a Japanese woman wearing a kimono, a traditional garment that is characterized by its square sleeves, a rectangular front, and a wrap-front design. Hoop 4 represents represents a Vietnamese woman wearing an áo dài, a long, split tunic that is worn over silk trousers.
These pieces are the mixing of my lifelong love for art and passion for data disaggregation of the Asian-American category in health services research to inform health policy and understand health outcomes more accurately. My work is intended to be a celebration of different Asian identities and to highlight the importance of the disaggregation of the broader “Asian” category we use so often in the US in research and daily life. It is my desire and determination to give voice to the existence of unique women within this broad category that motivates my work. With these pieces, it is my aim to highlight the beauty, exceptionality, and identity of individual ethnicities and visually show that we are more than just “Asian”.