Lin Ammar, MPH, G4
Research Mentor: Pingsheng Wu, Ph.D., M.S.
Thesis Topic: Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology
Biography
I obtained my undergraduate degree in biological sciences at The George Washington University. After graduation, I worked as a clinical research coordinator where I became more interested in how the data I collected was used to inform clinical decisions and guidelines. This led me to pursue a MPH, with an Epidemiology focus, at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. For my MPH thesis project, I used the Pregnancy Risk Assessment and Monitoring Survey (PRAMS), under the mentorship of Pingsheng Wu, PhD, to study the effect of maternal electronic cigarette use, during the third trimester of pregnancy, on infant related outcomes. As I continue my education at Vanderbilt, I have the pleasure of continuing to work with Dr. Wu.
Why Vanderbilt?
I chose to pursue my PhD at Vanderbilt due to many reasons including the curriculum design, extensive variety of advanced coursework, integration across multiple disciplines, and exceptional faculty members and mentors. I experienced the supportive and collaborative nature of the academic and research work conducted at Vanderbilt firsthand during my MPH program and this is the type of environment that I wanted to be a part of as my training in advanced epidemiology progressed.