I am third year doctoral student at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University.

I obtained my BS in Psychology Pre-Medicine from the Xavier University of Louisiana and an MPH from Georgia State University School of Public Health. Before coming to Emory, I was the Director of Cancer Control Initiatives at the American Cancer Society where I launched several health equity initiatives to address breast, lung, and colorectal cancer disparities. After working in the field for more than a decade, I decided to return to school to gain a better understanding of patient care and clinical systems. As the pandemic began, I was accepted into the AMSN program at Emory Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and graduated with my BSN in August 2021. Currently, my research focuses on experiences of anti-Blackness (racism, prejudice, and discrimination) at the level of the healthcare encounter and its impact on cancer mortality and outcomes among middle-class Black women. I am interested in using a Black Feminist and Womanist lens to understand how history, colonialism, racial hierarchy, gender, class, and the professionalization of medicine have led to the health disparities that Black women experience today. I am also interested in questions about how anti-Blackness operates differently based on nativity, ethnicity, and body size among Black women.

At Emory, I have taught in classes on the history of race in US health care and evidence-based practice for nurses. I have guest lectured on the social construction of race, racism in health care, the social determinants of health, and bias in research.

For information, please contact Octavia at octavia.vogel@emory.edu.

Learn more about my dissertation work

Current Assistantship