Ben Nikitin (SY ’23) is a Global Affairs major from Portland, OR on the premed track. He is interested in studying gun violence through an epidemiological lens and has been a longtime advocate for public health solutions to this epidemic, serving as an organizer for Scrubs Addressing the Firearm Epidemic and as the lead coordinator of March For Our Lives in San José, CA. Ben also finds the intersection of immunology and global health to be a crucial route for initiatives in public health, and he hopes to continue exploring global immunology through his research. Most recently, he worked in the lab of Dr. Kristine Yaffe at UCSF, studying the association between the onset of periodontal disease (as a proxy for inflammation) and the incidence/progression of dementia.