Gergana Kodjebacheva
Currently working at University of Michigan - Flint Public Health Sciences department as a professor and a researcher.
Background
Gergana is originally from Bulgaria in a city surrounded by the Rhodope Mountains. She wanted to pursue education in the United States, which lead her to transfer to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and majored in Economics. She continued on to acquire a masters degree in Urban Planning from UCLA. Throughout her academic years, exposure to public policy through classes at UCLA led her to get a Ph.D in Community Health Sciences from UCLA, and contribute heavily to the Public Health research community. She now teaches courses related to health economics and public policy at the University of Michigan - Flint.
Past Projects
One of Gergana’s biggest projects in the past was promoting the usage of eyeglasses amongst children in school. She found that there were a lot of children in school that needed eyeglasses but did not have them. She paired up with nurses, health officials, and other research partners to provide these children two pairs of eyeglasses for children in first grade. She also educated parents on why eyeglasses are needed in even in some young children and showed them how to encourage children to wear them.
Gergana is currently doing research on Telehealth during times of COVID. She is taking in the opinions of both families and pediatricians on Telehealth and its effectiveness, as well as how to implement it in the most effective way possible. Using this data, she is working on how to develop interventions promoting Telehealth usage and how to make the connection between doctors and patients better virtually.
Contributions to STYH
Gergana met the STYH team through a referral. She has contributed her background knowledge on public health and research to help develop the survey itself through monthly meetings. She has helped brainstorm and create questions to be put on the survey for the most accurate health data to be collected.
Future Plans & Hopes
Gergana hopes that projects like STYH continues to occur regularly so that data can be collected on the health problems people are experiencing and so that these problems can be solved. She also wants to increase future research focus on early intervention of health, especially in children and pregnant women. Finally, she hopes for the better health of the Genesee County community and Flint.