Maiura Muralitharan

Maiura is a graduate student in the Master of Public Health program at McMaster University. Her interest is addressing the impacts of the social determinants of health with the aim of improving health and social equity. She is pursuing this focus in three ways: 1) through her master’s thesis which is exploring the impact of racism on South Asian health outcomes; 2) through her community engagement work in informing recommendations to police services relating to over-policing and hate crimes to better safeguard the health and wellness of racialized populations; and 3) by starting the inaugural public health student-run journal at McMaster alongside her colleagues.

As an outgoing Queen Elizabeth Scholar, Maiura will be travelling to South Africa to work at the Africa Centre for Evidence at the University of Johannesburg. During her internship, she hopes to learn more about and performing/conducting evidence synthesis in a South African and global context, gather evidence on end-of-life services through an environmental scan and report findings as a scoping review in an academically-rigorous and applicable manner. As she believes that the intersection of public health, healthcare/medicine, community engagement, and interdisciplinary collaboration provide a unique opportunity for transforming health and social systems, Maiura is excited to engage in this global experience to understand the intricate policy and practice networks in South Africa and how they adapt to the population’s needs.