About Ariela
Building toward the intersection of women's health equity, evidence, and informatics
Academic & Professional Path
From building systems to studying what they can reveal.
I'm pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Health Services Management at the University of Maryland Global Campus, alongside certificates in Health Information Management & Data Analytics and Data Analytics.
Through my undergraduate education, I'm building a foundation in healthcare systems, health information, data, research, and the organizational context in which care occurs. I'm especially interested in developing the research and analytical skills that will prepare me for graduate study in clinical and biomedical informatics.
Before moving into healthcare, I worked in software development, building and supporting digital applications, databases, APIs, and operational workflows. That experience taught me to think in systems and to pay attention to structure, data, documentation, accessibility, reliability, and how information moves between people and technology.
I don't intend to leave that technical foundation behind. Instead, I'm learning how to apply it to a different set of questions.
What information are healthcare systems capturing? What are they missing? Whose experiences are represented in the data? What patterns might exist across years of care? How can those patterns become evidence, and how can that evidence contribute to better decisions?
Those questions are leading me toward clinical and biomedical informatics, where I hope to connect healthcare knowledge, data, research, technology, and advocacy.
Academic Path
BS in Health Services Management at UMGC, alongside certificates in Health Information Management & Data Analytics and Data Analytics.
Certificates in Progress
Advocacy Focus
Racial and systemic disparities affecting underserved and underrepresented women across whole-body health.
Research Interests
Longitudinal health data, clinical phenotyping, diagnostic disparities, clinical and biomedical informatics, precision medicine, and equitable clinical intelligence.
Developing Methods
Research methods, statistics, scientific literature evaluation, health-data analysis, R, Python, and SQL.
Technical Foundation
Software engineering, structured data systems, databases, APIs, documentation, accessibility, testing, and systems thinking.
Long-Term Direction
Women's Health Equity Advocate, Clinical & Biomedical Informaticist, and researcher.
Equity Lens
The problem came before the technology.
The advocacy and research fuel the technology, not the other way around.
I'm interested in what happens when women aren't adequately represented, recognized, believed, studied, or understood within healthcare.
My advocacy centers racially underserved and underrepresented women across whole-body health, not only reproductive health. I'm especially interested in delayed diagnosis, undertreatment, fragmented care, research gaps, and information barriers.
My interests extend across reproductive, endocrine, metabolic, cardiovascular, autoimmune, chronic illness, mental health, and multisystem concerns across the life course. Women's health cannot be understood through reproductive health alone.
Those problems are what draw me toward research and informatics. I want to understand whether better data, stronger evidence, thoughtful informatics methods, and responsible computational tools can help identify patterns that medicine has historically overlooked.
I'm particularly interested in how longitudinal clinical and biomedical data can help investigate diagnostic disparities, improve clinical understanding, and support more precise and equitable care for women who have been underserved or underrepresented in healthcare and research.
Working Approach
Systems thinking. Evidence-conscious inquiry. People at the center.
I'm drawn to work that requires accuracy, organization, thoughtful questions, clear documentation, evidence-conscious thinking, and respect for the people represented by the information.
Understand the full context
I look at relationships among people, information, processes, technology, constraints, and decisions rather than treating problems in isolation.
Question carefully
I value rigorous research, transparent limitations, reproducible thinking, clear documentation, and distinguishing what evidence shows from what I infer.
Remember what the data represents
Behind every record, variable, outcome, and disparity are people. I want research, information, and technology to contribute to clearer understanding and more equitable care.
Where I'm Going
Building toward research with room to contribute across healthcare.
After completing my undergraduate education, I intend to pursue graduate training in clinical and biomedical informatics while continuing to develop as a Women's Health Equity Advocate and researcher.
I'm preparing for work that can span research, health systems, government, industry, and mission-driven organizations. The setting may change, but I want the purpose of my work to remain consistent: connecting rigorous evidence, health information, and responsible technology to meaningful improvements in women's health.
Current Research Direction
How can clinical and biomedical informatics use longitudinal phenotyping to help shorten diagnostic delay in women's health?
Explore Further
Follow the research, learning, and work behind the direction.
I'm still developing the healthcare knowledge, research skills, technical fluency, and experience that will shape this path. My research, writing, and projects document that development as it happens.