Student Fellow Spotlight: Alex Gonzalez Researches Local COVID-19 Disparities

Alex Gonzalez is “diving headfirst” into a new research experience. A senior biology major, she’s working with Dr. Susan Murray and two other student fellows, studying COVID-19's effect on the BIPOC community. Alex enjoys the collaborative and intimate nature of this project; she feels like she’s been given a space to raise ideas and to work in a tight-knit group.

Public research is a new experience for Alex. Through PRF, she’s been exposed to projects across disciplines that widen her scope of what research can look like and do. She now sees the “need to change the discourse so that it can reach the public,” a bridge she thinks is too often forgotten in the bubble of academia and STEM. She’s inspired by this new experience of public health and hoping to continue public-facing work in her journey after UP.

Indeed, Alex now gets the opportunity to engage in community outreach and cultural awareness. She recognizes the importance of establishing care, not condescension, when working with the real people who are behind the data. She emphasizes her team’s intentions to listen to people and stay humble in their studies: “Who knows the community better than the people who live there themselves?”

The thrill of this project, Alex finds, is the dynamic, live development of it all. While the progression of the pandemic (and our faces) remain masked, the project helps unmask the diseases of racism and poverty; it's a crucial moment to be studying the intersection of the two issues. Alex is eager to see her group’s work mutually evolve with COVID-19 and racial justice over the year.