Alana Slavin

Hello! My name is Alana (pronounced Uh-lah-na) Slavin. I was born in Los Angeles, California, and I moved to St. Louis, Missouri, at ten years old. I attended college at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, where I pursued majors in Economics and Spanish. During my time at Loyola Marymount, I was first able to explore my interests in patient-centered and trauma-informed care as a Clinic Assistant at the Venice Family Clinic, a free clinic providing healthcare to underserved patients in Los Angeles. After college, I pursued my MSc in Economics with a specialization in Development Economics as a Fulbright Scholar in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. During my year with Fulbright, I researched socioeconomic determinants of healthcare, focusing on gender discrimination in the provision of healthcare to young girls in under-resourced healthcare settings. After my Fulbright, I joined AmeriCorp’s National Health Corps and served as a Health Educator and Patient Advocate in Chicago, Illinois. I subsequently matriculated to the University of Michigan Medical School (Go Blue!) in 2018. At Michigan Medicine, I have participated in many research and advocacy projects. My research has primarily focused on how trauma influences mental health outcomes, with projects ranging from studying the psychiatric health of asylum seekers at the United States-Mexico border to exploring the mental health impact of hospitalization during the COVID pandemic. I have also worked on various advocacy projects focused on asylum-seekers mental health with Physicians for Human Rights and as a leader with the University of Michigan Asylum Collaborative. I am incredibly passionate about this advocacy work, and I hope to continue advocating for this population at Yale! I would love to explore my interests in asylum-seeker mental health, women’s and children’s mental health, trauma-informed care, and integrative psychiatry throughout my training at Yale. I enjoy cooking, traveling, spending time with my family/friends/dogs, and pursuing film photography during my free time.