Imani Moreno
Alma Mater: Amherst College
Matriculation Year: 2024
About Imani: Imani Marshall-Moreno was raised in Chicago and is now a first-year medical student at UC Davis School of Medicine in Sacramento. She studied the connections between power, health, and place as a Political Science major at Amherst College. As a Bill Emerson Nation Hunger Fellow, in New Orleans and Washington, D.C., Imani developed programs to improve low-income mothers’ access to breastfeeding support and healthy foods and WIC’s national participation and retention rates. In San Diego she led research and engagement initiatives to advance equity in human rights, food access and restorative justice. Her research has directed policy discussions at local, state and national levels. At UC Davis School of Medicine, Imani serves as class co-president, volunteers at the Imani Clinic, advocates with White Coats for Black Lives and conducts research on the Black maternal health disparities.
Research Advisor: Susan Brown
Research Interests: In the United States two public health crises are treacherously tangled: maternal mortality and racism. The especially disparate morbidity and mortality rates that African American mothers and infants face, keep the United States trailing amongst its peer nations in indicators of healthy birth outcomes. There is considerable evidence that racism contributes to poor maternal and infant health outcomes in several ways: Racist beliefs held by providers contribute to poor treatment of Black patients; Structural and individual racism increase the prevalence of negative socio-economic contributors to health like poverty; Chronic and acute racism-related stress negatively impacts health of African American birthing parents and their children. Imani's research focuses on understanding the two lattermost mechanisms by which stress impacts maternal health of African American birthing parents. Specifically, she studies the extent of stress as a risk factor of pre-eclampsia in African American birthing parents and evaluates lifestyle medicine and policy interventions to reduce this stress.
Why ARC: I chose ARC because the directors are committed to nurturing ARC scholars as future physician-scientists who will advance health and wellness for all.
Publications: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-4319-7178