Simona Hausleitner (Branford College ‘25) is pursuing a BS in neuroscience with certificates in global health studies and human rights. She is from Scottsdale, Arizona, and her family is from Austria, so she grew up speaking German fluently. She often enjoys the perks of being a U.S.-EU dual citizen by making fun of her friends who have to take the long line at the airport.

Previously a volunteer at a crisis center for immigrants and refugees from Latin America, she is now researching the Marea Verde movement in Mexico and its implications for cross-border reproductive health networks. Simona has conducted research at the National Institutes of Health as an Amgen Scholar and, most recently, interned at a healthcare and life sciences consulting firm in New York. With an interest in studying medicine and improving health equity by expanding healthcare access for underserved populations, she hopes to work at the intersection of global health policy and biomedicine. She would also like to one day heroically save someone on an airplane.

On campus, Simona has conducted research on the molecular mechanisms of Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis and is now studying stress, memory, and addiction in the Goldfarb Lab. She is also the president of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, a global organization pushing for equitable access to medications; volunteers in the reproductive department at HAVEN Free Clinic; and works as a Math Department peer tutor. In her free time, you can find her chasing adrenaline highs while scuba diving, skiing, and backpacking around the world, as well as trying every bacon-egg-and-cheese-bagel-with-avocado-and-hashbrowns in the northeastern U.S.