Vanessa Voller

I am a doctoral student at the College of Education and Human Development and School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota and a visiting instructor in the Community and Global Health division of the International Studies Department at Macalester College. Broadly, I am interested in the intersection between adolescent sexual and reproductive health outcomes and (in)access to comprehensive sexuality education and adolescent-friendly healthcare services. Through my ongoing work at the Center of Urban and Regional Affairs at UMN, I am training as a community based participatory researcher and seek to utilize innovative techniques to involve adolescents in my research.

During the 2020-2021 academic year, I will be finalizing my application materials for the University of Minnesota’s Medical School with the aspiration of coupling my current training as a social scientist with a medical degree to ultimately become an interdisciplinary educator-medical doctor-activist.

Prior to joining the CIDE program, I directed an environmental education program for youth in Costa Rica and worked for a public health NGO in Bolivia.