Current Graduate Students
Meredith is a PhD student in Anthropology at Purdue. She recently defended her dissertation, which examines U.S. homebirth and home-to-hospital transfer using epidemiologic modeling of the MANA stats 4.0 Database. Meredith has now accepted a position as the Perinatal Health Strategic Plan Coordinator at North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS)!
Valerie is a PhD student who received her BA (Anthropology) and MA (Psychology) from the University of West Florida. Her Master’s thesis investigated effects of motherhood on attentional network functioning and protective factors associated with maternal cognition in a U.S. sample. Her dissertation continues this research, using ethnographic methods and biocultural perspectives, in the U.S. and rural Dominica.
Current Undergraduate Students
Anahita Amirpour is a junior at Purdue University, majoring in Public Health with a concentration on Global Health. Anahita's research interest includes working in women's health in low income countries, and immigrated families health.
Ivy is a senior at Purdue University majoring in Sociology and Biomedical Health Sciences on the Pre-Med track. Her research interests are mental health and women’s health, and she has previously worked on a project studying contraceptive use among Chinese migrant workers.
Sophie Mbongo is a senior at Purdue from West Lafayette with a major in Anthropology. Her projects have included analyzing infant feeding behaviors in rural Peru and collecting birth stories of indigenous BaAka women in the Central African Republic. She is beginning an MPH program at the Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health at the University of Illinois Chicago in Fall 2025!
Gracie is a student in the College of Health and Human Sciences and is pursuing a BS in Biomedical Health Sciences on a pre-med track. She also is pursuing a minor in Anthropology. Gracie has research interests in biological anthropology, women's health, and maternal-child health. She hopes to pursue a career in oncology or obstetrics/gynecology.
Alumni Students
Lily is a LABOR alumni who earned her BA in Anthropology from Purdue University in 2017. Dr. Dr. Anderson has recently completed a fully-funded MD/PhD (Medical Anthropology) program at Michigan State University!
Lauren Christopher completed an MPH and a MA in Anthropology at Purdue. She received her BA with Honors in Psychology and Anthropology from Hunter College in 2016. Her research interests include maternal and infant health in the United States.
Sunny Asaf
Sunny Asaf is a LABOR alumni who completed her BA in May 2018. Her senior honors thesis, “Hydration, Lactation, and Child Health Outcomes in the Yucatec Maya” appeared in a Springer Anthology, "Environment and Health in the Yucatan Peninsula: A Human Ecology Perspective." Sunny currently serves in AmeriCorps in the Richland County Health Department, Montana.
Jill holds a PhD in Health Communications (2018) and a Masters of Public Health (2020) from Purdue University. She worked as a maternal-child health researcher at LABOR for two years. Jill is now an Assistant Professor at the Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health (IU Indianapolis).
Sydney is a LABOR alum who completed her Master's degree in Anthropology (2019). Her Master's thesis examined the interrelationships between maternal stature, obstetric complications and reproductive health outcomes in the Yucatec Maya. She is currently a Development Director at the Chicago Women's Health Center.
