PhD candidate Clevanne Julce, MPH, credits her parents’ journey from Haiti to Boston as the driving force behind her pursuit of higher education. She remembers her mother working two jobs as a certified nursing assistant and her father working seven days a week, 16 hours a day, as a taxi driver.
“As a first-generation student, I felt I had to work twice as hard to be considered equally competent to my peers,” said Julce, who has a bachelor’s degree in public health from UMass Amherst and a Master of Public Health from Boston University. “This mindset influenced my decision to pursue higher education. Being the first in my family to earn a bachelor’s, master’s, and hopefully a PhD, is a dream come true for us all.”
Julce, who is in the Clinical and Population Health Research program in the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, studies with Nancy Byatt, DO, MS, MBA, professor of psychiatry, obstetrics & gynecology, and population & quantitative health sciences. Julce is focused on preconception mental health care and equipping people with mental health tools and resources before they become pregnant.
Julce’s ultimate goal is to become an independent investigator and design culturally responsive preventive interventions for historically underrepresented populations with mood and anxiety disorders.
“Historically, the scientific field hasn’t always involved individuals with lived experiences in research, so it’s crucial to have their perspectives at the forefront of our work,” said Julce. “We ensure that scientific research isn’t isolated in academia and can have real-world impact beyond the confines of the lab.”
Julce reflected on her childhood obsession with Band-Aids and compared it to the impact she hopes to make within her scientific career..
“I laugh when I recall asking my mother for new first aid kits because I wanted to save the world one Band-Aid at a time at 10 years old. While Band-Aids provide a temporary solution, it’s important to get to the root cause of problems, and that’s what I’m able to do in this program.”
The Student Spotlight series features UMass Chan Medical School students in the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing and T.H. Chan School of Medicine. For more information about UMass Chan Medical School and how to apply, visit the Prospective Students page.
