Olivia Pessima

Yale-Howard Scholar '04

Pregnancy Attitudes and Outcomes in Black American Adolescents

Olivia Pessima worked with Dr. Lois Sadler, Associate Professor of Nursing at YSN, to investigate pregnancy attitudes and outcomes in black American adolescents. In discussing her project, Olivia stresses her sense of the importance of culturally sensitive people addressing healthcare needs. She says, "The influx of healthcare administrators who are business driven has turned the goal of healthcare away from caring for the patient and toward profit, in many ways creating a risk for more health disparities."

Olivia says her experience at Yale has enabled her "to understand that there is a collaborative effort in eliminating health care disparities as it merges different disciplines, different ethnic backgrounds, different genders, etc. It has helped me to also understand the importance of networking." Olivia continues, "I feel that nursing research offers an opportunity to examine disparities in healthcare. In many ways it forces us to look at the problems and create solutions in nursing practice and theory." She adds, "I see my education and eventual nursing career leading me toward health policy, possibly in a hospital administration setting."

Yale-Howard Scholars 2006

• LeSabre Bowens
• Sharita Liser
• Foluke Oladeinde
• Oluseyi Sofoluwe

Yale-Howard Scholars 2005

• Katherine San Gabriel
• Nightingale Gacheru
• Richard Phillips
• Jessica Holmes

Yale-Howard Scholars 2004

• Stella Akintomide
• Gilberto Andino
• Eric Foster
• Dwignt Hampton
• Olivia Pessima

Yale-Howard Scholars 2003

• Tracy Brewington
• Krystal Perkins
• Jessica Campbell-Hamilton
• Graciella Rodriguez-Santos
• Chinenye Udemezue

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