While an undergraduate at UAB, Kyla also saw that some of her classmates experienced accessibility barriers on campus. The sidewalks in Birmingham can be dangerous, so people in wheelchairs will avoid certain routes, which can mean getting to class late. “Hearing their stories and the things they had to go through – to me it wasn’t fair,” says Kyla. So, she founded a club to propose ways to make UAB more accessible for people with disabilities. They observed that students with service dogs needed to carry around doggy bowls for water, so they drafted designs for accessible doggy bowl stations around campus, which she hopes UAB will implement. She plans to continue her advocacy while at Harvard and attributes her multifaceted way of thinking about healthcare to her mixed ethnicity. To students and professionals interested in advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, she says “the abilities and skills you have right now are enough to go out there and do something.” 

Last year while participating in DBMI’s undergraduate summer research program Summer Institute for Biomedical Informatics (SIBMI) Kyla worked under the direction of Assistant Professor Arjun (Raj) Manrai, PhD, to create an algorithm that would better predict if a patient is likely to develop type 2 diabetes by leveraging clinical factors, cardiac history, and social determinants of health. “This was such a transformative experience for me and was actually the inspiration for me to come to Harvard Medical School to pursue the Master's of Biomedical Informatics'' writes Kyla, whose long-term goal is to become a neurosurgeon where she can directly contribute to improving access and work towards removing disparities in health outcomes. Putting neuroscience and engineering into medicine “would be the trifecta,” she says. She highlights a need for systemic changes in healthcare to allow for better attention and care to avoid complications, and will integrate technology research into her medical career to understand the impact of technology on patients. 

Sofía Rojas: Championing Change for Women’s Health through STEM

Sofía Rojas was born in Salem, Massachusetts to Costa Rican immigrants and completed elementary school in California. While in California, she developed an interest in science and technology, going to science museums and witnessing the culture of Silicon Valley. But moving to Costa Rica to finish the rest of her schooling opened her eyes to the disparities in opportunities presented to girls. “Not one of my female classmates even considered a career in STEM,” Sofía says. “I just felt, well, who can I talk to about robotics? Or who can I talk to about science?” 

Things took a turn when she was accepted into the program MenTe en Acción (an acronym for mujeres en tecnología, or women in technology), joining 50 Costa Rican teenagers to develop a prototype for a mobile app and pitch it to mentors. There she met like-minded girls with life-changing stories. One lived independently from her parents instead of following their wishes to become a homemaker. Another had to travel overnight by bus. Witnessing their dedication to accessing opportunity left a profound impact on Sofía. At that moment, she felt that if she were ever in a position of privilege, she wanted to create more opportunities like the one given to her and her new friends. When she received a scholarship to study biomedical engineering at Tecnológico de Monterrey (Tec) in Mexico, one of her most gratifying moments was being able to give a STEM workshop to Costa Rican girls through a partnership with MenTe en Acción.

Sofía says researchers need to understand the context and the needs of the communities that they serve. “Try to consider others and do the best job possible. Do studies that are free from bias; make sure you’re taking into account different situations from populations.” If we can understand the unique set of challenges and barriers that our populations face, then we can create interventions that are more effective. For the United States, she highlights various challenges like lack of insurance, transportation, and language barriers. For Latin America, one of the barriers that she observed for women to access healthcare was cultural, especially for gynecological resources, due to the “great taboo around women’s health.” Sofía and her team at Tec took this into account as part of a social initiative for women's health literacy and women’s empowerment by creating a chatbot that discreetly delivers medically vetted information through smartphones.

“My dream has been to do a Master’s degree, work in the biotech industry, and return to the States. I wouldn’t have been able to attend this program without the INDECS scholarship, so I’m very grateful.” Sofía is interested in working with image processing, AI, and genomic data while at Harvard, and is grateful that the MBI program enables students to pursue diverse interests within the field. She plans to apply the knowledge and skills she gains through the MBI program to make an impact in DEI by working in industry, and then potentially pursuing a Ph.D. to research bias and underrepresented populations. “I am personally committed that the work that I do is ethical,” says Sofía. She also aims to contribute to larger-scale efforts outside her professional role.

Empowering Change Agents in Biomedical Informatics

The Inclusive, Diverse and Equitable Communities Success (INDECS) Scholarship advances the DBMI Diversity Mission to help build and support a diverse, inclusive, and equitable Biomedical Informatics field. The scholarship covers tuition and mandatory fees for the typical duration of the program while the student is making satisfactory academic progress. Eligible candidates are accepted students in the Biomedical Informatics Master’s program who are U.S. Citizens or U.S. Permanent Residents, have a demonstrated financial need, and have a demonstrated commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts for underserved populations.

Diverse perspectives play a crucial role in biomedicine. One day while shadowing a neurosurgeon at UAB Hospital, Kyla experienced this firsthand. A patient in severe pain was apprehensive about spinal surgery. But when the surgeon shared a personal story, the patient connected deeply with the doctor’s cultural background, and her worries “melted away,” and she even became enthusiastic about pursuing the procedure. “In that moment,” Kyla continues, “I realized how diverse perspectives can have an impactful effect on patient care.”

“If you don't have representation of people of all kinds of lived experiences and ways of thinking, then you end up asking very narrow questions that aren't inclusive,” says Senior Associate Dean Johanna Gutlerner, PhD. “Every field is going to benefit from that diversity of thought. We need that in our field. Our students need that for each other to challenge ideas. Our faculty needs it too.”

At HMS there are a lot of opportunities for students to get involved in DEI work, says Lilen Uchima, PhD, including student groups, peer-to-peer events and programming, office of cultural affairs and recruitment, and Harvard Medical School Office For Diversity Inclusion And Community Partnership (DICP). At the Department of Biomedical Informatics, specifically, community members can engage with DEI work through DBMI’s DEI Committee, a committee formed two years ago and co-chaired by DBMI’s executive director, Susanne Churchill, PhD and Lilen Uchima, PhD.

Sofía learned about the INDECS Scholarship while looking into master's degrees. Initially, she thought she wouldn't qualify. “I volunteer with a lot of people in precarious situations, and I wouldn’t consider myself even close to that.” Sofía continues, “I have a roof over my head and food to eat. So I didn’t know what specifically demonstrating financial need would entail.” She encourages people interested in the scholarship to review the requirements, but not to self-reject.

For those wondering if they would fit into the Harvard environment, MBI Program Director Nils Gehlenborg, PhD, says Harvard from the outside looks different than from the inside. Once you’re at Harvard you realize the diverse backgrounds people have, and it’s a very collegial and supportive environment. People who come from atypical backgrounds, and people who actively work on DEI efforts would enrich our program and Harvard overall."