Department: Division of Epidemiology

Born and raised in Bangladesh, I received my bachelor degrees in medicine and surgery from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. My interest in epidemiology was first anchored during my study at the medical college when I had to take Epidemiology as a basic course. My interest in preventive medicine further developed during my volunteer works for the impoverished population as a medical student and as a physician afterward. After migrating to the USA, I decided to follow my passion and built my career in public health. Prior to enrolling in the PhD in Epidemiology program, I received my Masters in Public Health from VCU, School of Medicine in May, 2015. The experiences I gathered during the MPH program at VCU intensified my interest in Epidemiology and facilitated my understanding of the Epidemiological research field. I wanted to take the opportunity to develop my research career further with a PhD degree in Epidemiology so that I can move closer to my dream of improving overall population health by contributing to the public health research field to find cost-effective, efficient, and innovative solutions to the problems associated with preventable diseases.

I am specifically interested in understanding the epidemiological features of maternal and child health. As a mother of two children, I believe, maternal and child health care are the most important assets in the community. I intend to contribute my skill, knowledge, and time to epidemiological researches on maternal and child health. With that intention, I purposefully focused my practicum, internship and service learning experiences in the areas related to maternal and child health when I was in the MPH program at VCU. Moreover, I have had the privilege of serving as a research assistant in the Division of Epidemiology under the direction of Dr. Saba W. Masho, whose work focuses on maternal and child health. As a PhD student, now my works specifically are focused on maternal morbidities, intimate partner violence, and interpregnancy interval affecting the pregnancy outcome.

I love our program at VCU because of its small size and friendly environment, commitment of our faculty and staffs towards the development of the students, diverse background of the faculty, staffs, and students, and diversity in research areas. The faculty and staffs are very considerate to my individual needs and are always willing to help. I feel very lucky to be a part of this program.

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