As Director of the ERHD program, I want to recognize the OUTSTANDING progress of one of our ERHD students – GRACE OSUSKY!
Grace Osusky is a second-year ERHD and Anthropology graduate student at ECU. She is completing our ERHD Graduate Certificate and her Master Thesis in the Department of Anthropology. Her thesis research focuses on the impact of segregation on life expectancy for Black and White individuals during and post the Jim Crow period in the Southern United States. To answer questions on changes in mortality across time, Grace plans to use both statistics and ethnographic research to dive deeper into complex questions about community health on a personal level. This mixed-methods approach allows Grace to apply statistical modeling to a large data set while using interviews to further expand on what the data may show – or what the data doesn’t show. Preliminary results of her thesis work show there is a clear increase in life expectancy across time, particularly for women in the rural community of Ayden, NC. These gains in life expectancy are crucial in understanding how social conditions have changed and the creation of spaces for positive health outcomes. Grace is eager to continue her research into the spring and summer, and to make that research available to the community she works in. She hopes the results of her research will inform policymakers and health professionals on how to create policies that prioritize improving health for all community members.
Grace is an excellent example of an ERHD student utilizing the knowledge and skills acquired from her ERHD courses and applying them to her medical anthropology Master Thesis project in Anthropology! Please recognize our OUTSTANDING ERHD student — Grace Osusky!
