Student Profiles

Jasmine graduated from Emory University with a B.S. in Biology and Psychology/Linguistics. As an undergraduate, she worked at the Clinical Virology Research Laboratory under the supervision of Dr. Colleen Kraft, learning the microbiological and immunological components of clinical and public health research.

Inspired by her lab experience, Jasmine attended Boston University to pursue a Master of Public Health in Maternal and Child Health and Biostatistics, where she developed a passion for integrating public health and statistics. During this time, she was a Maternal and Child Health Research Fellow working with Dr. Emily Rothman as an interventionist for adolescent dating violence perpetrators in the pediatric emergency department at Boston Medical Center. Jasmine also interned at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health performing the analytics of perinatal periods of risk for feto-infant mortality under the leadership of Dr. Hafsatou Diop.

After graduating with a degree in public health, Jasmine worked as a research statistician at the University of Florida Department of Epidemiology under Dr. Linda Cottler. She had the opportunity to lead a data team and mentor students, focusing on community engagement research needs in Florida.  She transitioned to the Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics where she supported data analytics for pediatrics research under Dr. Matthew Gurka. A number of publications were produced during this time.

Jasmine’s interests further developed in perinatal epidemiology and statistical genetics. She was selected as a NHGRI T32 predoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan, gaining a Master of Science in Biostatistics. As a fellow, she focused on genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of preterm birth and preeclampsia with Dr. Bhramar Mukherjee. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, research shifted to racial and ethnic disparities related to COVID-19 illness severity. She also explored methods of trans-ethnic GWAS of cardiometabolic traits in UK Biobank with Dr. Jean Morrison to increase ancestrally diverse participants represented in genetic studies. Following graduation, Jasmine was selected for an internship with Janssen/Johnson & Johnson focusing on modeling COVID-19 exposure during pregnancy.

Jasmine’s varied experiences in academia and industry as a biostatistician have fueled her desire to pursue a PhD to address health inequity. As an NIH Cambridge Scholar, her PhD research will delve into methods development in statistical genetics with focus on gene-environment interactions. Her work will be applied in maternal health research, exploring genetic and environmental contributions to adverse pregnancy outcomes across diverse populations.