#WeAreEmoryEPI: RISE Student Feature

We hope you all have been taking care as we begin to close out the Fall semester! This week, we heard from Shimoli Parikh, a second year GLEPI MPH student working for the Center for Reproductive Health Research in the Southeast (RISE). Read more below to hear about the organization and her compelling work!

Tell us about your academic history/where you went to school. 

Before the MPH program, I completed a B.S. degree in Biology and a minor in Psychology at Seton Hall University in my home state of New Jersey. During my time at Seton Hall, I worked in spaces on campus that influenced my decision to join the public health field, such as working to advance menstrual product access, the expansion of sexual education, and the prioritization of Title IX violations among the student body and university administration.

How long have you been with RISE, and how did you start your work with them? 

I started working for RISE during the fall of my first semester, so it’ll be almost two years by the time I complete my MPH degree. During my first semester, I took an elective called Technology of Fertility Control with Dr. Narasimhan, which is how I came across the GRA position for her current study.

Are there any projects you are working on/have worked on involving RISE that you’d like to share?

I’m involved with two different RISE projects: the Telehealth Medication Abortion (TMAB) study and the Induced Terminations of Pregnancy (ITOP) study. The current TMAB study is a survey assessing how patient-centered family planning care may be delivered via a variety of new modalities in the rural South, for which I have been involved in the literature review, survey development, and now data analysis stages over the past year. My subset of the ITOP study is my thesis, where I am using abortion incidence data to analyze how procedure method, age, and weeks gestation trends differed by geographic location within Georgia from 2010-2022.

What is your favorite part about being a part of this organization? Alternatively, what compelled you to work with RISE? 

I honestly knew I wanted to work with RISE when I applied to Rollins. As someone who has some prior experience in the public health aspects of reproductive health, I was drawn to the opportunity to contribute to the field during some of the biggest shifts in the abortion and contraception landscape following the Dobbs decision. My favorite part about being a part of this organization is their continuous emphasis in giving me the opportunity to build the skills that I want to build.

Are there any other related initiatives on and around RSPH that you’ve been a part of that you’d like to share? 

I also serve as Community Liaison of the Emory Reproductive Health Association! Through my role, I was able to organize a successful Reproductive Networking Night in the Spring as well as present my thesis research this past October at GEMMA (the Global Elimination of Maternal Mortality from Abortion) Night.

Are there any upcoming projects or studies with RISE that you’d like people to know about?

I’d definitely encourage people interested in the abortion field to take RISE’s “Public Health Approaches to Abortion” course on Coursera. https://www.coursera.org/learn/public-health-approaches-to-abortion

How can interested students/faculty get involved with RISE? 

Reach out to anyone on the RISE team! They are super helpful and will direct you to the right person. Also, follow the RISE instagram page (@emory.rise) to stay updated.

What are three fun facts that you want people to know about you? 

1. I have two cats named Mango and Olive. 🙂
2. I listen to a lot of Bollywood music, but some other current favorite artists are Summer Walker, SiR, Ari Lennox, Dhruv, and melvitto. 
3. I LOVE modern art, and I also love to read feminist and South Asian books. (My favorite nonfiction book: The Right to Sex by Amia Srinivasan)

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   Thank you for joining us, Shimoli! As an additional reminder, be sure to follow the RISE Instagram page @emory.rise, and check out RISE’s “Public Health Approaches to Abortion” Coursera course at https://www.coursera.org/learn/public-health-approaches-to-abortion. Stay tuned to see who we talk to next, and we hope you all have a great Thanksgiving break!