WASHINGTON (April 17, 2026) — On Wednesday, April 15, 2026, the Milken Institute School of Public Health hosted its largest-ever Research Day, uniting our community to celebrate scholarship and innovation spanning the full spectrum of public health disciplines.
This year’s event marks extraordinary growth, expanding from 90 posters in 2023 to over 270 presentations in 2026. The day showcased the breadth and impact of research taking place across our school, including participation from nine disciplines and support from over 20 research centers and institutes.
A special thank you goes to our presenters, attendees, faculty and staff mentors, alumni judges, and the many collaborators across the university who made the day possible. Judges represented eight GW schools and more than 45 university offices, underscoring a broad institutional commitment to research excellence.
A meaningful highlight this year was the increased participation of alumni judges, who brought invaluable professional insight and practice-based feedback to our presenters.
The impact of Research Day extends far beyond the day, with research from past showcases now reaching more than 300 institutions worldwide and generating over 1,300+ annual downloads each year. We invite our community to explore the abstract booklet to learn more about the outstanding work being done across the school.
Research Day continues to celebrate the ideas, partnerships, and discoveries shaping a healthier and safer world powered by public health. A full list of awardees by prize category is available here.
GW Milken Institute School of Public Health Research Prize Winners:
Undergraduate Research
First Place: Nikhil Ahuja - Prevalence of Generalized Joint Hypermobility and
Its Association with Gastrointestinal Symptoms in a College Population
Second Place: Jordyn Walters - Characterizing Obesity Phenotypes through Fitness
and Metabolic Markers in Women
Master’s Research
First Place: Alia Jamil - Natural Disasters and Disruption to Continuity of
Care: A Systematic Review
Second Place: Angel Sun - Angel Effects of Maternal Bisphenol and Phthalate
Exposure on Congenital Anomalies in Children: A Systematic Review
Doctoral Research
First Place: Cynthia G. Lorang - Humoral Immune Signatures as Surrogates of
Functional Neutralization for Flavivirus Classification in Co-circulation Settings
Second Place: Christine St. Pierre - The Food Literacy BITE Scale: Development and
Measurement Properties in Elementary School Children
Research Staff, Postdoc, and Alumni
First Place: Sara Luckenbill - Marriage timing and reproductive autonomy in crisis-affected contexts: examining inequalities among adolescents in Bangladesh and Jordan
Second Place: Jenny Hernandez - Awareness, Knowledge and Perceptions of
Undetectable Equals Untransmittable (U=U) Among Latina Transgender Women in DC: A Longitudinal Mixed-Methods Study
Lab Based Research
First Place: Ashley Bastin - The Role of Nef-containing Extracellular Vesicles in
the Induction of Neuroglial Trained Immunity
Second Place: Jahred Liddie - Trifluoroacetic Acid Exceeds All Other Extractable Organofluorine in Drinking Water from Eastern Massachusetts, United States