Annie Heckman '22 | 2021-22 Fellow
About:
My name is Annie Heckman, and I am a biochemistry major with a health and society minor from Denver. From May 2020 - May 2021, I worked with a refugee resettlement agency as a health education intern, where I introduced refugees to the health care system in the U.S. This experience piqued my interest in challenges that refugees face in accessing health care upon their arrival to the U.S. From this interest, I participated in independent research where I interviewed refugees about their experiences with the U.S. health care system. During my senior year, I will continue this research to culminate in my senior honors thesis project. After I graduate, I plan on attending medical school with the goal of working with medically underserved communities in a primary care setting.
Faculty Mentor:
Rachel Washburn is an associate professor of sociology and director of the Health and Society Program at Loyola Marymount University. She earned her doctorate in medical sociology from UC San Francisco. Washburn’s research explores the politics of knowledge production in the environmental health sciences. She is currently working on a project that examines debates about the human health harms of pesticide exposure in the U.S. during the latter part of the 20th century. Washburn is also a co-author with Adele Clarke and Carrie Friese on two books on situational analysis, a qualitative research methodology. At LMU, Washburn teaches courses on the sociology of health and illness, environmental sociology, and science, technology, and society.