The recipient of the 2023 Dr. Suzanne Kneuper Linder Research Award for Patient-Centered Outcomes Research is 4th-year medical student Pooja Agrawal

Her research mentor, Dr. Lorraine Reitzel, wrote the following:

“Under my mentorship, Pooja has authored or co-authored 7 empirical publications and 20 empirical poster presentations. In the most recent year of her work in my lab, Pooja’s interest in cancer screening spurred a project meant to better understand influences on breast cancer screening among Black/African American patients. This research project was selected for the AΩA Carolyn L. Kuckein Student Research Fellowship, a competitive program that provides $6000 in funding to student researchers. Her efforts resulted in first authorship of a manuscript titled, Factors Associated with Breast Cancer Screening Adherence Among Church-Going African American Women, which was published in the International Journal of Environmental and Public Health. This work was entirely conceptualized by Pooja, and she did an outstanding job of producing an excellent and novel manuscript within a limited timeframe. Results of her work have implications for multi-level interventions to improve breast cancer screening inequities among Black patients. Additionally, Pooja was selected as an Albert Schweitzer fellow, a program that selects exemplary students to design a community service project. As an Albert Schweizer fellow, Pooja designed a project to provide free mammograms to homeless and low-income women at the Luke Society. Pooja’s project has provided mammograms to numerous women in Galveston, and she received the MLK award in 2021 for these efforts. These achievements are extraordinary at such an early career stage and highlight Pooja’s commitment to using scientific research as a basis for providing compassionate, humanistic patient care.”

The Dr. Suzanne Kneuper Linder Research Award Fund is a permanent endowment in the School of Health Professions, established in memory of Dr. Suzanne Linder, former Edna Seinsheimer Levin Endowed Professor in Cancer Studies and Assistant Professor in the former Division of Rehabilitation Sciences. Funds distributed from the endowment are used to give an award to a Fellow, Student, or other Trainee working in patient-centered research. The awardee is selected by the Director of the Sealy Center on Aging in consultation with the Dean of the School of Health Professions.