Undergraduate Student and SPH Faculty Collaboration on Health Inequities Research

Erik Storholm, PhD is an assistant professor at the SDSU School of Public Health (SPH). He is also an adjunct Behavioral Scientist at the RAND Corporation, a core investigator at the Center for HIV Identification, Prevention, and Treatment Services at UCLA, and a Licensed Clinical Psychologist. Dr. Storholm’s work in health disparities began 15 years ago in San Francisco when he was volunteering at HIV/AIDS service organizations conducting outreach interventions to help document and reduce the spread of the virus among high-risk minority communities. He is currently mentoring both undergraduate and graduate students in the Empowering Resilient Relationships, Identities, and Communities (ERRIC) lab on several NIH-funded projects in the area of combination biobehavioral HIV prevention intervention design, implementation, and evaluation, and PrEP uptake and persistence among minority communities.

Dr. Storholm is joined by Sandhya Muthuramalingam, a junior majoring in Public Health and minoring in Interdisciplinary Studies. Sandhya is a part of Weber Honors College program, an honors program that emphasizes diversity, creativity, and interdisciplinary academic excellence. Sandhya is expanding her research experience by joining Dr. Storholm and ERRIC collaborator Dr. Jennifer Felner, an SDSU SPH assistant professor and Undergraduate Program Director, on a qualitative study examining uptake of PrEP within the LGBTQ+ community through the ERRIC Research Lab. As a research assistant, Sandhya has learned how to analyze and disseminate findings from qualitative interview data to better understand and meet community needs . She is currently collaborating with Dr. Storholm, Dr. Felner, and other researchers on a scientific manuscript based on study findings.