Kathy Yuan’s commitment to public health started with her undergraduate research at Vanderbilt University. Her B.S. studies explored overlapping sociocultural and circadian biology factors of metabolic syndrome that disproportionately impacted POC. Born to Chinese immigrants and raised a cultural outsider within the commercialized U.S. healthcare industry, Kathy is passionate about improving social determinants of health through critical consciousness and community-led interventions. She is currently a Research Assistant for Dr. Alexis Jemal, tackling racial health disparities through multi-level participatory action research and designing arts-based liberatory education to shape the future of social policy. 

For her final Masters in Social Work field placement, she will be working in Emergency Psychiatry at NYU Langone Health. Kathy's long-term vision within medical social work is helping vulnerable populations navigate their complex experiences of grief, death, and dying. In her free time, she loves reading, gardening, thru-hiking, portrait photography, and making ice cream.