Mariana (Mari) Rocha

Mari is a neuroscience PhD student working in The Grady Trauma Project at Emory University, supervised by Dr. Vasiliki Michopoulos. Mari is from Mexico but was raised in Watsonville, California an agricultural town in the central coast. Mari completed her B.S. in biology at Yale University, followed by a postbac at UC Santa Cruz under the NIH PREP Scholars program. Mari’s research focuses on the physiological impact of traumatic experiences on maternal health in pregnant persons from underresourced and marginalized communities. Beyond research, Mari is part of diversity equity and inclusion efforts at her institution and beyond, and is especially passionate about improving educational access for marginalized students. Mari’s aim as part of Cientifico Latino is to help dismantle educational barriers for aspiring scientists.