Skip to main content

SSRD 2023 Schedule

Room 10 Schedule: Ford 122

ZOOM link for off-campus community members
  • 9:00 a.m. | JUNI DEYOUNG, LANI SOUTHERN, JAYDEN LI | Part I: Corner Rectangle Visibility Graphs

    Graph theory is an area of mathematics that studies relationships and connections by representing relationships as vertices connected by edges. Our research combines two existing lines of inquiry in graph theory: rectangle visibility graphs and rectangle-of-influence graphs. This project creates a new family of graph visibility representations by giving each rectangle a single eye in its corner. We prove that certain widely-studied families of graphs are representable by corner rectangle diagrams, including restricted versions of the problem.

    Faculty Sponsor: Josh Laison
    Discipline: Mathematics

  • 9:20 a.m. | JUNI DEYOUNG, LANI SOUTHERN, JAYDEN LI | Part II: Corner Rectangle Visibility Graphs

    Graph theory is an area of mathematics that studies relationships and connections by representing relationships as vertices connected by edges. Our research combines two existing lines of inquiry in graph theory: rectangle visibility graphs and rectangle-of-influence graphs. This project creates a new family of graph visibility representations by giving each rectangle a single eye in its corner. We prove that certain widely-studied families of graphs are representable by corner rectangle diagrams, including restricted versions of the problem.

    Faculty Sponsor: Josh Laison
    Discipline: Mathematics

  • 9:40 a.m. | BRIDGET BODOR | Public Health Communication: Reaching Vulnerable Communities in Emergencies

    Clear and accurate communication is essential for disaster preparedness. Moreover, for a community to be adequately prepared for impending emergencies, all community members, especially those most vulnerable, must be effectively and equitably informed. Marion County has a growing population of low English proficiency (LEP) communities, all of whom need to receive emergency notifications in their native languages. This presentation highlights the impact of climate and environmental hazards on LEP communities and emphasizes recommendations provided to Marion County's Emergency Management Department for how to best attend to ethnically diverse communities before and during emergencies.

    Faculty Sponsor: Joyce Millen
    Discipline: Public Health Ethics, Advocacy and Leadership

  • 10:00 a.m. | NATHAN GARCIA-DIAZ | Describing theTobacco Environment In Marion County, Oregon

    Examining the effects of the 2020 quarantine experience, my Shuchat grant focuses on the unique contradictions found in the everyday experiences of quarantine. How every day began to feel the same, yet there were new challenges and experiences on the global level, that in turn rippled through the mundane. These occurrences culminate into an installation focused on the nuanced intersection of monotony, repetition, chaos, and newness. Using an exploratory and documentary process this installation expresses how my brain and body have responded to the pandemic and quarantine.

    Faculty Sponsor: Joyce Millen
    Discipline: Public Health Ethics, Advocacy and Leadership

  • 10:30 a.m. | JACKIE GILROY | Oral Health in Elementary School Students: An Evaluation of the Oregon Smile and Healthy Growth Screening

    Cavities are the most common chronic disease of childhood in the United States, despite being 100% preventable. Maintaining good oral health is essential for achieving overall health, as cavities are associated with an increased risk for cancer and strokes. The Oregon Smile and Healthy Growth Screening—a statewide effort conducted by the Oregon Health Authority—provides the state with a broad understanding of childhood oral health status and helps to identify oral health concerns. This presentation discusses observations gleaned from internship work on current Oregon Smile and Healthy Growth Screenings and provides preliminary recommendations for improving the process in the future.

    Faculty Sponsor: Joyce Millen
    Discipline: Public Health Ethics, Advocacy and Leadership

  • 10:50 a.m. | MACKENZIE JOHNSON | From Cultural Competence to Cultural Humility: Fostering Positive Clinical Interactions Among Refugee Populations

    In the United States, refugee populations face greater health challenges and worse health outcomes than their American-born counterparts. This presentation provides results from two months of research I conducted with an official refugee resettlement agency, Salem for Refugees, that works closely with several medical clinics in the Salem area. The aim of the research was to identify best practices and prepare a handbook to help improve interactions between local medical providers and their new refugee patients. I also detail the vital importance of practicing cultural humility to help build trust and, ultimately, the health and well-being of refugees.

    Faculty Sponsor: Joyce Millen
    Discipline: Public Health Ethics, Advocacy and Leadership

  • 11:10 a.m. | JENNA HARRIS | Diabetes in the United States: Parallel Epidemics Among the Insured and Uninsured

    Diabetes is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the United States today due largely to changing lifestyles, a rapidly aging population, inflated insulin prices, and a lack of adequate healthcare among the uninsured. To learn firsthand about diabetes diagnostics and care among vulnerable populations, I worked for four months as an intern with Salem Free Clinics, an organization that provides healthcare to uninsured patients. This presentation explains how preventive measures, including greater access to affordable healthcare, are desperately needed to slow the increased prevalence of this chronic disease.

    Faculty Sponsor: Joyce Millen
    Discipline: Public Health Ethics, Advocacy and Leadership

  • 11:30 a.m. | EMMA BASS-KENDALL | Domestic Violence: Legal Barriers and Its Impacts on Domestic Violence Survivors’ Health

    The justice system as a whole can be inaccessible and difficult to navigate. Domestic violence centers were created to help support survivors of domestic violence in a multitude of different ways, such as helping to navigate the legal system. However, there are an abundance of legal barriers that domestic violence centers and their clients encounter. These barriers impede survivors' pursuit of justice after leaving an abuser. In order to more effectively help and support survivors there must be change within the legal system surrounding trauma informed legal practices.

    Faculty Sponsor: Joyce Millen
    Discipline: Public Health Ethics, Advocacy and Leadership

  • 2:00 p.m. | MIA REYES | Putting Down Roots: Heritage Food Sovereignty, Spaces that Shape, and Perspectives on Health and Healing in Diasporic/Immigrant Latinx Communities

    Oftentimes, migration arguably brings about an embodied wounding. For this reason, this research investigates how community gardens serve as spaces to explore and encounter healing as access to culturally preferred foods is medicine, specifically in immigrant Latinx communities in Oregon. Through an extensive literature review and survey of local organizations, this work illustrates the ways in which gardens become places of anchoring, spaces that shape, and arenas for identity exploration. Consequently, green spaces and heritage food provisioning become acts of resistance and reclamation for Latinxs as they claim space for their own and on their own terms.

    Faculty Sponsor: Joyce Millen
    Discipline: Public Health Ethics, Advocacy and Leadership

    Faculty Sponsor: Peter Wogan
    Discipline: Latin American Studies

  • 2:20 p.m. | JADE KAMPEN | Interpreters in Healthcare

    Navigating the US healthcare system remains a complicated task, especially for those with
    additional language and cultural barriers. This difference between patient and provider can
    severely hinder the quality of care for individuals with low English proficiency (LEP). Over a
    three-month internship with Salem Free Clinics, I examined the role interpreters have in
    providing culturally appropriate and equitable care to vulnerable populations in the Salem
    community. Interpreters are a vital part of our healthcare system as they aid in the
    communication and quality of care for LEP patients and should be utilized in order to provide
    culturally competent care.

    Faculty Sponsor: Joyce Millen
    Discipline: Public Health Ethics, Advocacy and Leadership

  • 2:40 p.m. | BEN ROYER | The Underutilization and Benefits of Hospice Care

    The demand for quality end-of-life care is growing in conjunction with the country's
    increasingly aging population. While there are a variety of ways individuals experience
    end-of-life care, this research focuses on hospice. Through my experience working as a
    volunteer with Traditions Health Hospice, I have learned how hospice can provide
    enormous comfort and assistance to patients and their families during patients' last
    months of life. Yet only about half of Americans utilize this kind of end-of-life care. This
    presentation explores why hospice is not used more universally and what
    socioeconomic barriers prevent some populations from accessing hospice services.

    Faculty Sponsor: Joyce Millen
    Discipline: Public Health Ethics, Advocacy and Leadership

Willamette University

Student Scholarship Recognition Day

Address
Willamette University
900 State Street
Salem Oregon 97301 U.S.A.
Phone
503-370-6300