CURRENTSTUDENTS

Carly Dunn was recently recognized as a Women for OSU Scholar in honor of her commitment to helping others through compassion, work ethic and dedication to philanthropic efforts. Her research focuses on addressing health inequities and the social determinants of health for underserved and marginalized communities. As part of the Center for Family Resilience and Center for Public Life staff, she works extensively on mental health, substance use and equitybased projects and initiatives. Additionally, she works closely with rural Native American and Alaskan Native communities across OKlahoma, Kansas and Alaska to address behavioral health prevention and intervention needs.

“I work within this vein of research and advocacy in order to address the systemic and systematic barriers which drive health inequities. By addressing the social determinants of health, we are able to equip communities with the tools and resources needed to improve health and quality of life.”

Audrey Firth is committed to creating designs that help people feel happy, healthy, safe and better in the space around them. Her master’s thesis focuses on spacecraft design, a passion she discovered after hearing a NASA guest speaker in one of her classes. The beginning stages of her research involve using virtual reality headsets to test how people feel in the environment and altering her designs and sketches accordingly.

“Interior design is not just decorating. It’s designing things in a way that work for people so they can live and do what they need to in that space.”

Stephanie Sontag received the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) Foundation Women’s Scholarship for her research on muscle physiology. Specifically, she studies muscle fiber composition, motor unit behavior and resistance training. One of her projects includes isolating a hand muscle and investigating how its motor units adapt in response to resistance training. Ultimately, she wants to use what she learns at OSU to encourage other women to pursue strength and conditioning careers.

“It’s important for women to know there are women in the field making a difference. There are not many female strength and conditioning professors, and I want to change that.”

Stephanie Zackery is combining her passion for mental health with her desire to empower more underrepresented students to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professions. Her thesis research studies how effective mentorship can improve the experience and retention of racial minority STEM students by boosting their self-confidence.

“Counseling allows me to use the theories and concepts I learn in my classes to help people in a direct way. I have always been interested in people and how their minds work, and now I can use that in a career that makes a difference.”

Bryant Keirns is using financial support from an American Society for Nutrition Foundation award to identify early cardiovascular disease risk factors in groups that appear to be at higher risk for longterm cardiovascular disease. Another of Keirns’ research interests is studying how gut health influences overall health and cardiovascular disease risk. His goal is to one day combine these two interests to perform clinical research and teach in a university setting.

“Our hope is that my dissertation research will help resolve controversy over whether individuals with metabolically healthy obesity are at risk for cardiovascular disease or not. We are also trying to identify risk factors that may reveal cardiovascular disease risk sooner in those with normalweight obesity.”