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BD3-REAP Scholars

Shaina St. Cruz

Shaina Sta. Cruz

Shaina Sta. Cruz is a senior with a major in Communicative Disorders and a minor in Psychology. She has had the opportunity to collaborate with professors in Communicative Disorders, Higher Education, Cognitive Science, and Health Science, all of whom have helped develop her passion for improving population health through statistics. Her ongoing experiences as a health educator, chair of health-based organizations, and researcher have informed her of community health issues through program evaluation and hands-on service, such as medical outreach events.  Using data science techniques, she aims to assess community needs on a population scale and implement data-driven solutions, such as effective program interventions, to improve their quality of life. Ultimately, she plans to obtain a Ph.D. in Public Health, specifically Epidemiology or Biostatistics programs, in order to investigate research questions surrounding chronic diseases and use results derived from big data in influencing policy and decision-making in the affected communities.

Stephen Orozco

Stephen Gonzalez

Stephen is a senior pursuing a bachelor’s in psychology. He is planning on continuing his education in graduate school, and plans specializing in cognitive neuropsychology. Additionally, he wishes to continue pursing big data science approaches while in graduate school. Stephen’s educational goals are aimed at receiving a Ph.D. With this degree, he wants to become a professor teaching bio psychology, neuropsychology, research methods, or statistics and statistical approaches to big data science. Stephen love’s school and learning, and wants to share that passion with future generations of students.

Along with teaching he wants to conduct research at a university. His research interests primarily revolve around cognitive neuropsychology, specifically the underlying processes of learning disabilities. Stephen wants to better understand the neurological processes of learning, reading, and attention, to alleviate the difficulties learning disabled students face. He wishes to accomplish this by studying brain functionality and structure using neuroimaging techniques, such as MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) and fNIR (functional near-infrared) spectroscopy. As these technologies become cheaper and easier to use, it opens the opportunity for massive data collection and big data science approaches that have not yet been possible.

Silvia Orozco

Silvia Orozco

Silvia Orozco is a senior majoring in Molecular Biology & Biotechnology with a minor in Psychology. Silvia’s research interests include writing a script to perform differential gene expression analysis from RNA-sequenced data to better understand Mucolipidosis type IV. Silvia’s educational goal is to receive a Ph. D. in Biomedical Informatics. Upon completion of her Ph. D., she hopes to work in industry and aid in drug discovery and design based on a person’s genetics. The cost of sequencing a human genome continues to decrease, thus generating a vast amount of genetic data; in addition, improvements in technology and big data analysis continue to be made. She hopes to be able to work with genomic Big Data and be a part of the emerging field of “personalized medicine.” Personalized medicine which is individualized disease treatment and prevention based on a person’s gene. The integration of big data and genetics is an exciting field in science and healthcare.

Jonathan Chacon

Jonathan Chacon

Jonathan Chacon is a fourth year undergraduate student at the California State University of Fullerton and is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Biology, with the overall intention of earning a Ph.D. to conduct advanced research in the field of Neuroscience. Within the realm of Neuroscience, Jonathan has held a deep interest in researching Alzheimer’s Disease and other neurodegenerative disorders that remain yet to be fully understood. It is through the innovative approaches to discovery science with the Big Data program, that he aims to narrow the gaps between the current understanding of such disorders and their respective mechanisms of onset. By integrating his developing background in Molecular Biology, with the prospects of modern analytical data science, he ultimately aspires to broaden the scope of potential treatments and therapies for these burdensome maladies. Additionally, as a tutor for introductory natural science courses, Jonathan has also developed a robust interest in educating younger students, while inspiring them to pursue science-driven careers of their own. It is through this enthusiasm towards advocating science as a career, that he also plans to work as an educator at the University level. Jonathan’s recruitment in the Big Data Science program, reflects his motivation for discovery through science, and marks a fundamental step towards his career.

Galilea Patricio

Galilea Patricio

Galilea Patricio is a third-year Health Science major at California State University, Fullerton. Some of her research interests include chronic diseases, infectious diseases, environmental health, and mental health. She is also interested in researching different areas of public health through Big Data and Data science. Galilea’s future goals include attending a doctoral program in public health or epidemiology. Her career aspirations include working for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Galilea hopes to further develop and improve her understanding and practice of Big Data and Data science concepts to carry forward into her career and thus further advance current research methods. Through these areas of exploration, Galilea aspires to help make positive changes to our knowledge of public health and the diseases that affect our community.

Amber Cornelius

Amber Cornelius

Amber is a 4th year Biological Science major with a concentration in Cellular and Developmental Biology. She is interested in conducting cellular and molecular biology research with a focus on big data analysis in the field of genomics. Her research in particular, aims at discovering the specific genes that vary in expression between knockout and wild type mice afflicted with the neurodegenerative disease, Mucolipidosis Type IV. Following completion of her undergraduate studies, she intends to continue on to graduate school in order to pursue a Ph.D. in an area that allows her to continue conducting research involving big data analysis and genomics.

BD3-REAP Research Scholars

Michael Guzman

Michael Guzman

Michael is currently a junior in his second semester at California State University of Fullerton. He is a transfer student from Irvine Valley College where he received his Associate’s degree in Liberal Studies. He is majoring in Health Science with a focus on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. This is his first time being involved in Big Data program and faculty led research so he is looking forward to learning more. In the immediate future, he plans to graduate with a bachelor’s degree. Afterwards, he intends to continue his education by obtaining a Master’s Degree. He hopes to narrow down his career options in the sector of Public Health through more exposure and experience. His research interests include social determinants of health, and researching the health disparities among minority populations. Also using big data to reveal nutritional trends among university students.

Sahar Sobhani

Sahar Sobhani

Sahar is currently a senior majoring in Health Science at CSU Fullerton. She is interested in pursuing Epidemiology and Biostatistics in her future graduate program. Specifically, she is interested in analyzing the relationships among different sets of data to uncover correlations that allow public health officials to work more proactively. Although her major’s concentration is Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety, Sahar would like to expand her knowledge in different fields of public health. One of the subjects of her interest is studying chronic diseases. Diabetes is a chronic disease that is the seventh leading cause of death in California. It is an under-represented contributing factor to many deaths from heart disease and stroke. Under supervision of Dr. Shana Charles, Sahar is conducting her study to determine the factors predicting diagnosis of Diabetes among adults in California. By analyzing and integrating the data provided by CHIS (California Health Interview Survey), Sahar is studying to find out how demographics, access to healthcare resources, and use of health resources lead to appropriate diagnosis of diabetes.

Ahnika Ishikawa

Ahnika Ishikawa

Ahnika Ishikawa is a Junior year Health Science Major from the college of Health and Human Development at California State University, Fullerton. She has an interest in medicine and working with large populations in need of health services, particularly mental health services. Integrating Big Data Science and public health policy is important to her because that's how better decisions are made in order to help those in most need. In the future, Ahnika would like to apply to several medical schools in the USA to pursue a medical degree. She hopes that the skills she learns from working with big data will help her improve knowledge of the demography of those she wants to help in the future.

Ricardo (Rico) Palafox

Ricardo Palafox

Ricardo (Rico) Palafox is a junior double majoring in Psychology and Mathematics (Probability & Statistics concentration). His initial interest in the use of quantitative data arose during his early undergraduate years as a Psychology major, but the real catalyst was his exposure to actuarial sciences during his time as an insurance professional. This interest led to a shift in his academic trajectory and the desire to pursue a career involving big data. His exposure to data management, computer science, and program evaluation aid his current research efforts. He is currently working with Dr. Shana Charles to examine underserved minority’s access and utilization of healthcare in California. Other current studies involve developments in design of experiments in automotive engineering applications. Rico plans to pursue graduate studies in a Statistics or Data Science Ph.D. program with hopes of doing collaborative research to discover applications of big data analytics to address engineering issues.

Emma Navajas

Emma Navajas

Emma Navajas is a junior at California State University, Fullerton majoring in Health Science. Once she finishes her undergraduate degree, she plans to work towards obtaining a Ph.D. in Epidemiology. Upon finishing her studies, she hopes to secure a job as an academic researcher, as epidemiological research and big data science remain passions of hers. Her research interests include nutritional epidemiology, chronic disease prevention and control, and big data science.

Jennifer Que

Jennifer Que

Jennifer Que is currently at the end of her junior year, majoring in Health Science with a concentration in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at California State University, Fullerton. Subsequently, she is fascinated with health promotion, diseases, and nutrition. As a first-semester research student, being involved with Big Data and the BD3-REAP program at CSUF has opened her eyes about the importance of research and how such information and discoveries can educate students in the fast-paced health field. As a future health educator, she aspires to use research to connect her students and apply findings in health to the world beyond the classroom.

 

Big Data Discovery & Diversity

Program Director
Dr. Archana McEligot 
amceligot@fullerton.edu

 

Program Administrative Analyst
Mary Aboud
maboud@fullerton.edu 

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