PROJECT: Improve air quality in schools to decrease absenteeism. Her proposal would provide air filters, box fans, and installation supplies to classrooms and educate students about air quality and climate change.

Naomi Castellon-Perez is a first-generation medical student at the David Geffen School of Medicine (DGSOM) at UCLA. She is also part of the inaugural cohort for the Urban Health Equity Pathway at DGSOM, which is preparing her to be an advocate for vulnerable communities as a future healthcare provider.

Castellon-Perez was raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, and she completed her undergraduate studies at Harvard College, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Integrative Biology and Global Health and Health Policy. As a Latina and daughter of Nicaraguan immigrants, her upbringing was centered around resilience, compassion, justice, and a passion for education. These values ultimately led her to pursue a career where she could merge public service, health, and science.

Prior to starting medical school, Castellon-Perez worked as a research assistant on the Equity-First Vaccination Initiative at the Brown School of Public Health, which supported the COVID-19 pandemic mitigation efforts of community-based organizations that worked with marginalized populations. She also supported research at the Indiana University School of Medicine that focused on developing tools to help families at risk of experiencing extreme pre-term birth, aiming to facilitate informed decision-making and improve both physical and mental health outcomes for patients. In addition to research, Castellon-Perez has volunteered at free clinics as a Spanish medical interpreter.

Castellon-Perez plans to continue integrating service, research, and community partnerships to address the systemic and structural barriers that underserved populations encounter in their daily lives.

She spends her free time exploring and learning about nature and environmental health.