CPERL Alum Spotlight: Shivani Saluja

The CPERL team is thrilled to shine our Alum Spotlight on Shivani Saluja. This Spring, Shivani graduated with a major in Public Health and a double minor in Biology and Spanish. Shivani joined CPERL in May 2022 and completed her capstone project exploring how caregivers of children and youth with craniofacial differences create participation-focused strategies, which was a sub-study in a recently published project on this topic. Throughout her time in CPERL, she was awarded the Honors College Undergraduate Research grant and successfully presented her capstone project findings at the UIC AHS Research Day 2023.

Shivani's passion for public health was evident throughout her time at CPERL. We are excited to announce that she will begin pursuing her Master of Public Health degree at the Yale School of Public Health this Fall. The CPERL team congratulates Shivani on her successes, and we are excited to see her future engagement in research as a public health professional. We wish you the best of luck, Shivani, on this exciting new chapter in life!

Shivani shares, 'I have infinite gratitude toward CPERL for allowing me to begin my experiences in research. I have learned so much from both the wonderful researchers within the CPERL team, as well as from the ongoing projects I was exposed to during my time in lab. Mary and Vera have both been wonderful mentors and set me up for success. I believe the experiences they have guided me through are major contributors to upcoming opportunities in my life. I'm excited to apply what I've learned to my future work!'

Mary shares, 'As an aspiring physician with a penchant for contributing to public health, Shivani pushed our lab to consider how our scope of work connects with maternal and child health, both by population and by outcome. We are grateful to her for hunkering down to help us begin exploring how caregivers develop strategies to promote their youth's participation, and for choosing to be open in taking part in co-authoring two related studies led by her co-mentor Vera during her time in our lab. Witnessing Shivani catch the 'research bug' during her time here was a delight, and to see her translate her learning to systematically identify, apply, and appraise her graduate school options brought me real joy. She is ready to take flight!'