pre-doc fellowship
AYA-Onc's Nina Jackson Levin and Anao Zhang receive grant to study AYA survivors health disparity issues
Pre-doc fellowship awarded
Sponsor: Curtis Center for Health Equity Research and Training
Project Date: March 2020 - March 2022, PI: Zhang, Co-I: Jackson Levin
Nina Jackson Levin, Joint Social Work and Anthropology doctoral student and Dr. Anao Zhang received the Inaugural Curtis Center Signature Programs (SPI) funding to create a pre-doctoral psycho-oncology fellowship at Michigan Medicine with a particular focus on health disparity research.
As a Curtis Center Pre-Doctoral Fellow in AYA-Onc, Jackson Levin will be supervised by Zhang and Zebrack to lead research efforts focusing on AYA cancer survivors' disparity issues across outcome domains.
This Signature Program will create a pre-doctoral Psycho-Oncology social work Fellowship at the emergent Michigan Medicine Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Research Group (MAYA) to address the unique developmental issues that result in significantly worse health outcomes among adolescents and young adults (AYAs; aged 15-39) than their pediatric or adult counterparts, both during treatment and throughout survivorship. The detrimental effects of cancer and treatment among this age group on infertility and sexual dysfunction significantly impact their psychosocial wellbeing. The social work research fellow at MAYA will thus address the paucity of research on the health inequities created by heteronormative framing of fertility and promote a more capacious or inclusive understanding of reproductive health care during cancer.