Lara plans to pursue research in the field of medical sociology. In particular, she is interested in minority health education, sexual behavior of adolescents and teen pregnancy, and physician-patient relationships. Lara worked with LDI Senior Fellow James P. Guevara, M.D., M.P.H., analyzing data on racial disparities in the diagnosis of behavioral disorders in children.

Holly K. Fernandez Lynch
University of Pennsylvania, Class of 2003
Major: Health and Societies (Concenration: Legal, Social & Ethical Aspects of Science and Medicine), Pre-Law intent

During her SUMR experience, Holly interned with LDI Senior Fellow Pamela Sankar, Ph.D., on a project entitled, "Genetic Difference and Stigma," and with LDI Senior Fellow Glenn McGee, Ph.D., on bioethics program analysis for the American Journal of Bioethics. Holly graduated Penn summa cum laude and then entered Penn's Law School, where she received the honor of being in the initial cohort of the cross-disciplinary Levy Scholars Program and was president of the Bioethics, Law and Public Policy Society. In 2005, Holly won Third Prize in the Seventh Annual Epstein Becker & Green Health Law Writing Competition, with her essay entitled Straight to the Top: A Policy Approach to Negligence Liability of Institutional Review Board Members. She is also the author of Genetic Privacy, Abandonment, and DNA Dragnets: Is Fourth Amendment Jurisprudence Adequate? (Hastings Center Report 35(1):21-23, 2005). Holly received a joint J.D./M.B.E. (Master's in Bioethics) from Penn in 2006. She is currently one of the first cohort of Post-Graduate Fellows at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics at Harvard University. Holly's current research includes bioethical issues regarding the extent to which rights to individual autonomy must yield to social interests, and issues involving tensions between the duties of medical professionals to treat others and their right to follow their own moral beliefs.

Angela worked on two projects during her SUMR internship: "The Socialization of Medical Students: Identifying Racial and Ethnic Bias," with LDI Senior Fellow Judith A. Long, M.D., and "Racial and Socioeconomic Health Disparities," with LDI Senior Fellow Kevin Volpp, M.D., Ph.D..