2023 Finalists

Karla Murillo, Cameron Salehi, Nikolas Wianecki, and Nadeeka Karunaratne were selected as the grand prize winners of the inaugural UCLA Health Equity Challenge. Read the press release. 
 

Meet all 14 finalists and learn more about their projects.

Katie Fruin

Project: A multilingual financial health toolkit in the form of a cookbook that combines recipes with a basic financial health curriculum for immigrant families who are undocumented.

Chenglin Hong

Project: Technology-based interventions to facilitate Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) prevention, predict IPV victimization using social media data, and inform IPV help-seeking strategies that are specifically tailored for gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men.

Nadeeka Karunaratne

Project: Integrate trauma-informed yoga services into domestic and sexual violence agencies in Los Angeles County, providing Asian and Pacific Islander survivors access to healing modalities, and supporting their trauma recovery and overall health and wellness.

Mariam Khan

Project: A pilot program that offers financial services and education, including tailored employment, credit, debt, and budget counseling for low-income communities in South Los Angeles, in a trusted community-based setting.

Cassandra Lautredou

Project: Combines a behavioral approach that uses systemic reinforcement (either money or vouchers) with the administration of oral PrEP— to decrease the risk of HIV acquisition in people experiencing homelessness and at risk of HIV infection.

Patrick Liu

Project: Transform safety net health care clinics into anti-poverty gateways through the development of a web app that provides low-income families with easy-to-understand information and digital applications for anti-poverty programs at the federal, state, and local levels.

Mohammad Khorgamphar

Project: A water quality improvement program to prevent and reduce the rate of related disease among people from lower socioeconomic statuses who are more at risk.

Purnima S. Mudnal-Bharath

Project: A social support public health intervention for overweight/obese children and children with special health care needs in Riverside County, California.

Karla Murillo

Project: A comprehensive mobile health screening protocol for chronic eye diseases designed for use in low-resource settings, titled Integrated Screening Eye Exams – Los Angeles (iSEE-LA).

McKayla Poppens

Project: Expands access to sun protective measures for people experiencing homelessness and reduces skin cancer by providing sunscreen dispensers in community parks and nearby highly-trafficked areas.

Virginia Reyes

Project: A hybrid health education and peer support program to address low rates of exclusive long-term breastfeeding practices among low-income Latina women in Los Angeles County.

Cameron Salehi

Project: A continuing education program to provide Community Health Workers (CHWs) with the knowledge and skills necessary to build capacity for risk mitigation and resilience against the health effects of climate change in indigenous communities.

Nikolas Wianecki

Project: Develop extreme heat survival trainings and toolkits for caregivers of older adults and people with chronic conditions to prepare them to respond to increasingly devastating natural disasters and protect vulnerable communities.

Cecile Yama

Project: Implementation of a novel tax filing app, Let’s Get Set, to increase receipt of direct cash payments via tax credits for low-income families in community and health care settings.