After losing her father to an incurable disease, PhD student Ceejay Boyce was driven to develop more effective tools and technology to fight diseases. “I wanted to help others avoid that same experience,” Boyce says of her father’s illness.
As an undergrad in biomedical engineering in Ohio, Boyce worked with researchers to study viral hepatitis. She also joined a student network that partnered with health organizations abroad, and grew passionate about global health and social justice.
“Health is a human right and as students we can make a difference,” says Boyce, who traveled to Thailand in 2013 and saw firsthand the lack of access many communities had to basic health care. This experience motivated her to pursue a PhD in pathobiology.
The Kenny Pathobiology Endowed Fellowship allowed her to relocate to the UW and to “start an exciting new chapter” with less financial burden. Boyce says the pathobiology program, housed in the Department of Global Health, “truly combines all of my interests and provides a unique training program that I believe will help me accomplish my career goals.”
Find out more about the PhD program in pathobiology.