Alysha Siddiqi (TD’23) is a Political Science major on the pre-medicine track, interested in healthcare accessibility and inequities primarily in immigrant/refugee group in the United States and women in South Asia. As a Pakistani-American, Alysha has noticed culture often operates as a healthcare determinant in South Asian communities, disincentivizing healthy lifestyles for women due to cultural stigmas. Moreover, her work with refugee communities in Connecticut, especially in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, has elucidated the need for more effective systems which engage diverse communities in health-related conversations.
By combining both political science and global health, Alysha aims to focus on why status quo perceptions of health and healthcare are not only affected by those in the medical field, but by politics and sociology as well – emphasizing the nature of global health as an interdisciplinary field. She hopes to integrate these interests by focusing on culturally-sensitive models to incentivize health care accessibility and equality.
Apart from her studies, Alysha’s main area of research at the Yale Institute for Global Health regards social mixing patterns in corporate and global settings. She is involved with the Yale International Relations Association, Havenly Treats, the Yale Muslim Students Association and Yalies for Pakistan.