Four SPPH doctoral students named UBC Public Scholars

Four SPPH doctoral students have joined the 2024/2025 cohort of UBC Public Scholars for reimagining traditional academic research with action-oriented and interdisciplinary scholarship.

Since 2015, UBC’s Public Scholars Initiative (PSI) has been supporting UBC doctoral students whose research extends beyond traditional approaches to address complex challenges facing the public. Nearly 400 Public Scholars across 10 cohorts have worked in partnerships with more than 200 partners in dozens of countries.

31 doctoral students from Vancouver campus join the program this year, alongside four new Public Scholars from the Okanagan campus. In continued support of public scholarship work across UBC, a total nearing $360,000 will be awarded to new and existing Public Scholars this year. Funding for the Health Equity Stream, launched in partnership with UBC Health, also continues to facilitate research improving equity within local, national, and global health systems. Scholars in the health equity stream are noted with an asterisk below.

SPPH Scholars:

Note: * indicates researcher in the health equity stream.

Chelsey Perry *
Project: Intersections of Indigenous health, gender equity, and climate justice

Katherine White *
Project: The built environment and housing characteristics, indoor heat exposure, social isolation, and health outcomes of older adults during periods of high outdoor ambient temperature

Sarinn Blawatt
Project: Perceptions of social support outside of clinical care during injectable opioid agonist treatment: An explanatory sequential mixed methods study in Vancouver, BC

Xiaocong Guo
Project: Heat-related illness and injury: Prioritizing at-risk workers for policy and practice in British Columbia

Read the full announcement on grad.ubc.ca.