About

Welcome to my website! My name is Preeti Juturu and I am an incoming second-year M.S. student in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Fielding School of Public Health.

Hailing from a small, unincorporated, and planned town experiencing rapid development in the San Joaquin Valley, my lived experiences and observations have fostered my commitment to equity and social justice. Moreover, my residence in the Inland Empire while I completed my dual-B.A. in Public Policy and Economics from the University of California, Riverside (UCR) has further solidified this passion and commitment.

My career aspirations branch out into research and academia. I am interested in work that is interdisciplinary in nature, focusing on health disparities, social mobility, environmental justice (built, natural, and social), public policy, and equitable community infrastructure. Specifically, I hope to conduct mixed methods research and study these broad topics through an intersectional lens (i.e. considerations of gender, race, disability, immigration status), assessing how socio-cultural and structural/political barriers shape community conditions, health outcomes, and access to resources. Much of my work has been centered around health services and related supports, assessing the accessibility of health services and related experiences from a spatial and/or sociocultural lens.

Presently, I am a Graduate Student Researcher at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, as well as the Primary Investigator of a study titled “Exploring and Assessing the Validity of Food Security Measures Among Asian-American Pacific Islanders (AAPI) and Native Hawaiians (NH) in O’ahu,” which has received funding through the University of California Global Health Institute (UCGHI) and the UCLA Institute of American Cultures (IAC).

I also work in collaboration with colleagues and faculty based at UC Irvine, UC Riverside, the University of Washington, and San Diego State University on projects ranging from COVID-19 racial/ethnic disparities to harm reduction initiatives (i.e., predictive modeling of overdoses). I am also involved with grassroots advocacy efforts related to disability justice and trans/non-binary healthcare access. In my spare time, I am a public health volunteer for the UCLA Mobile Clinic Project, where we provide unhoused residents of Los Angeles with healthcare and basic needs resources. I also enjoy film and photography work and am an Associate Producer of an independent, indie sci-fi film. I am passionate, diversely skilled, and highly motivated in whatever I partake in. Feel free to connect with me via email or social media.