Briana Williams, MPH

Briana is a 4th year PhD student in the department of International Health and Sustainable Development. Her primary research interests are in using critical approaches to study health equity in Afro-descendant communities in Latin America and the US. While at Tulane, Briana has assisted in teaching Social and Behavioral Perspectives of Health and guest lectured in other classes on health equity and the role of race and racism in health in Latin America. She has also worked as a research assistant for many different professors aiding in creating reports for USAID projects in Nigeria, secondary data analysis on the health of Black Americans, and a primary data collection study on racialized policing and its impact on maternal and child health outcomes. 

Before starting at Tulane, Briana earned her MPH in Global Health from the University of Washington in Seattle. There, she completed a certificate in the Global Health of Women, Adolescents, and Children (Global WACH) which required a capstone, which Briana completed collaboratively with the International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH Caribbean) to do an evaluation of an HIV program in Trinidad. Her master's thesis was a Systematic Review for Global Interventions for Children with Co-Morbid Diarrhea and Malnutrition. 

During her time at Tulane, Briana has taken coursework on advanced research methods, social innovation, cardiovascular health, grant writing, pedagogy, social determinant theory and international development theory. She has also participated in training on policy communication, intersectionality, and data equity. She is currently working on her dissertation entitled Applying an Intersectional Approach and Human-Centered Design Methods to Address Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health among Afro-Descendant Adolescents in Two South American Countries.