The Stewart Fellowship
Barbara Mottey
Barbara Mottey is a third year PhD student in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at UMass, Amherst who hails from Ghana. Her research interest in air pollution in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) stemmed from her discovery of how this can impact birth outcomes. Her research centers on air pollution and its impact on birth outcomes in SSA. Using a longitudinal data (5 years) from 10 fixed sites in Greater Accra Metropolitan area (GAMA), Ghana, she aims to assess the trend in PM2.5 as well as Black carbon and what factors are driving these. She would also assess how prenatal exposures to these pollutants are associated with adverse birth outcomes using a recently developed land-use regression model.
Thank you for being so generous and willing to support the drive towards a better health outcome for all by reducing exposures and/or their impacts on health through research that informs policies. Your trust in my abilities and scientific contribution means a lot to me. I am grateful for your support as I embark on my journey in becoming a professor and researcher in Environmental Health Sciences.
Kaniz Rabeya
Kaniz Rabeya originated from Bangladesh. She is a second-year PhD student in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the School of Public Health and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Kaniz earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in pharmacy from a prestigious public university in Bangladesh and she is a registered pharmacist in Bangladesh. Pursuing her passion for public health and environmental epidemiology, she is actively working on exposure to ambient temperature and its impact on men's and women's reproductive health and pregnancy outcomes under the supervision of Dr. Carrie Nobles. She is working with Dr. Nobles as a research assistant. Moreover, Kaniz had three years of teaching experience prior to enrolling at UMass Amherst and worked as a teaching assistant for the Environmental Poisons course at UMass Amherst. She wants to pursue a career in academia after leaving UMass Amherst and particularly interested in continuing research to investigate environmental risk factors for women's health, contributing to the advancement of public health knowledge and addressing pressing issues in the field.
Receiving this prestigious award is a significant milestone in my academic journey. Thank you once again sincerely for your generosity and for helping students to pursue their career. I am deeply grateful to the Environmental Health Sciences Department at UMass Amherst and the EHS Scholarship Committee for allowing me to continue my PhD program. Support from the Stewart Fellowship is crucial in helping me achieve my goals, and mere words cannot fully express my gratitude.