HEZ Graduate Students
HEZ graduate assistants assist with a community-based study examining the environmental impact on health for people with disabilities. They also assist in recruiting participants with mobility impairments within a designated ‘Health Empowerment Zone’ that includes the UIC and Pilsen area, conducting phone survey sessions, assessing the outdoor environment and transportation elements, and other day-to-day tasks.
 |
Kalycia Trishana Watson, MUPP, is a graduate assistant with the Health Empowerment Zone Study. Kalycia received her undergraduate degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Spanish and Speech Communication. She is currently in the Urban Planning and Policy program, at the University of Illinois at Chicago, working on a Masters in community development, international development (globalization of health care), and health planning and policy. |
 |
Vandana Chaudhry, M.S.W., is a doctoral candidate in Social Work and Disability Studies at UIC. Originally from India, she joined the program on an International Ford Foundation Fellowship in 2002, and is currently writing her dissertation. Her dissertation focuses on issues of disability and development in the context of rural India. She specifically examines a World Bank project which seeks to empower rural disabled people through self-help groups and the possibilities and paradoxes such participatory development presents in the light of globalization. She is currently working as a research assistant on the Health Empowerment Zone Study. |
 |
Vijay Vasudevan, M.P.H., graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor’s degree in Health Science and a Master’s in Public Health. His current research interests include how race/ethnicity affects barriers and facilitators to physical activity for people with disabilities. Vijay is a graduate assistant under the Health Empowerment Zone grant. |
