Sydney Puerto-Meredith

Sydney is a second-year medical student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. She fell in love with infectious disease and outbreak surveillance when competing in Science Olympiad competitions in middle school. This inspired her to conduct malaria research in Malawi with the Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Ecology Lab (IDEEL) during her undergraduate degree in Biology and Global Studies at UNC-CH. After university, she followed her research to Lilongwe, Malawi, where she lived for 1-1/2  years investigating transfusion transmissible infections in the blood supply and acute HIV infection detection studies across the country. This experience, along with her own family’s experience immigrating from Nicaragua, allowed Sydney to realize her passion and dedication to global health. She aspires be a leader in medicine to help alleviate health disparities among vulnerable populations through research and clinical care. She has specific interests in immigrant and refugee health, disease outbreaks and health inequity.

Throughout her time in medical school, Sydney has been co-president of the Farmworker Student Health Alliance organizing and delivering care to the migrant farmworker population of Eastern North Carolina. She also holds leadership roles as the events and advocacy chair for Physician for Human Rights and is a student physician at the Cardiology Clinic through the Latino Medical Student association clinic for primarily underinsured Spanish-speaking patients. In her free time, Sydney enjoys playing volleyball, experimenting with new soup recipes and getting outdoors.

What does the Kean Fellowship mean to you?
I am deeply honored to be awarded the Kean Fellowship, which allows me to continue my global health pursuits and learn from my colleagues in Bolivia. The scholarship makes me feel encouraged about my future in tropical medicine, in addition to giving me the opportunity to explore the various avenues in which I could take in my career. Furthermore, I am very grateful to be joining a motivated cohort of global health scholars and connecting with other professionals committed to similar goals.

What do you anticipate learning?
The project I will be participating in this summer investigates congenital Chagas transmission and epidemiology in Santa Cruz de La Sierra, Bolivia. I am eager to learn more about the reality of neglected tropical disease research, understanding the impact of such diseases firsthand from those living in endemic areas, as well as learning current culturally relevant approaches to Chagas research methods and tools. I also am excited to continue my goals of achieving professional fluency in Spanish, specifically in scientific and medical settings. Finally, I am interested in learning about the sociopolitical history and culture of Bolivia.

What interests you about tropical medicine and what problems are you interested in solving?
Tropical medicine is a curious field as many of these diseases have cures and practical approaches, but inequality and systematic disproportional access to resources allows these diseases to afflict millions that could have been avoided. I love the multidisciplinary approach tropical medicine requires. You must balance One Health scientific approaches with political and sociological perspectives. Tropical medicine connects you intimately with new people, places and experiences, and I am eager to be involved in the effort to change the previous paternalistic relationships of global health into the bilateral equitable partnerships that are essential for sustainable change.