CEM announces fall 2025 Srinivasan Family Award recipients

Northeastern students Alana Hislop and Nidhi Prakash will use their Srinivasan Family Award to address maternal and child health disparities in Shandia, a remote Indigenous community in Ecuador's Napo Province. Through their Maternal and Child Health Club, launched in partnership with the Shandia Health Center and Manna Project International, they will provide monthly sessions for expecting mothers and women with young children.

The program delivers prenatal and postnatal health education, nutritional counseling, and emotional and physical wellness support — all rooted in local needs and led by Ecuadorian health professionals. With funding, they will expand the program's duration and reach, add cooking demonstrations, distribute home-based educational materials, and incorporate support networks for family members.

The project aims to reduce high-risk pregnancies and chronic infant malnutrition while fostering long-term trust in community health systems. For Alana and Nidhi, the initiative is also a hands-on opportunity to apply their global health training to maternal care challenges.

Master of Public Health candidate Chikamadu Okafor is leading a participatory research project to better understand how Nigerian youth perceive and experience mental health. With over 30% of Nigerian adolescents estimated to face diagnosable mental health disorders and limited access to care, the initiative seeks to close critical knowledge and service gaps.

Working directly with students, teachers, and community mentors in Lagos, Chikamadu will conduct interviews and focus groups to surface local definitions of stress, coping, and stigma. The findings will inform a youth-centered Mental Health Resource Toolkit, co-developed with participants, to support literacy and access in schools.

The project addresses urgent mental health disparities in Nigeria's fast-growing youth population and aims to guide future policies through culturally grounded evidence. It also builds Chikamadu's field research experience in global adolescent health and contributes to long-term capacity building across emerging health systems in West Africa.

Aaron Bhattachan, a fourth year bioengineering student, is transforming healthcare delivery in rural Nepal through his startup, Verde Health, an AI-powered intake and follow-up tool designed for low-resource settings. Driven by personal loss and a commitment to equity, Aaron is addressing long-standing barriers to early diagnosis, where patients often wait months for care without symptom tracking or support.

Verde Health functions like a conversational nurse, using Nepali language and offline capabilities to capture accurate symptom data and empower providers. The platform aims to reduce health center wait times and improve diagnostic accuracy in Nepal.

Beyond technology, Aaron's project includes educational outreach to inspire youth-led innovation in digital health. With mentorship from the Sherman Center and clinical advisors, Verde Health represents a scalable step toward healthcare justice in emerging market.

Stephen Adepoju, a fourth-year PhD candidate in Chemical Engineering, will utilize his Srinivasan Family Award to lead a pioneering study into the prevalence and clinical significance of the hemoglobin AC genotype among Nigeria's Yoruba population. While often dismissed as benign, this variant may have wider implications than previously understood.

In collaboration with the Federal Medical Center in Abeokuta, Stephen's research will combine retrospective hospital data with new laboratory analyses to examine the genetic and hematological profiles of AC carriers compared to other genotypes. With a focus on demography, inheritance, and health outcomes, the project will generate critical insights to inform genetic counseling and public health strategy.

By filling a major data gap in sub-Saharan Africa's sickle cell landscape, this study aims to strengthen disease surveillance and policy interventions in one of the region's most affected populations, offering broader relevance for emerging healthcare systems facing similar diagnostic and equity challenges.