Dasy Resendiz

M.A. Latin American Studies; M.P.H. Health Behavior Health Promotion

My name is Dasy Jazmin Resendiz Torres, and I am a third-year graduate student doing a Master of Public Health in Health Behavior Health Promotion and a Masters in Latin American Studies. I was born in a rural community located in Rioverde, San Luis Potosi, Mexico, and grew up in a small town in Ringwood, Oklahoma. I completed my Bachelor of Science at the University of Kansas in 2018. My educational and personal experiences motivate me to continue to learn more about rural and underserved communities. My interest in learning more stems from my passion for addressing the importance of engaging with communities through quality community-based research approaches.

Since August 2019, I’ve been keeping busy:
• I was accepted as a scholar for the AHEC Scholars Program in 2019. The AHEC Scholars Program (ASP) is an innovative two-year community-based interprofessional and experiential training program in Arizona's rural and underserved areas.
• I received two Foreign Language & Area Studies Fellowships from the University of Arizona and from Tulane University. Both Fellowships allowed me to participate in an 8-week online intensive Kaqchikel program with instructors from Guatemala.
• I’ve been a graduate assistant for the Center for Latin American Studies department and a graduate research assistant for a chronic disease prevention program in Nogales, Arizona. I've also had the opportunity to teach Spanish for the Spanish and Portuguese Department.
• I’ve participated with Cosechando Bienestar, a local food system initiative in Nogales, Arizona.
• I've volunteered for Casa Alitas, a local organization that is helping those newly arrived migrants from Central America.
• I've traveled to San Luis, Arizona with the Mobile Health Unit to help with a health clinic offering services to migrant farmworkers.
• Since 2021, I’ve been volunteering with the Mobile Health Unit by assisting with COVID-19 vaccine efforts.

Future plans:
For my thesis I will analyze the impact of COVID-19 among Guarijio communities Alamos, Sonora, Mexico. This project aims to examine the role of telehealth services implemented by the University of Arizona and the Clinica Integral Almas in seven indigenous communities residing in Sonora, Mexico. Through participating in Alamo’s telehealth program and interviewing members of participating indigenous communities, I will analyze both the consequences of telehealth initiatives, both intended and unintended. As more providers are offering these services, telehealth use will extend beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, it is imperative to provide information on the unintended consequences that arise due to their rapid scale-up implementation. After completing my degree, I intend to enroll in a medical translation program to work alongside nurses and doctors to ensure that Latin@, Mexican, and Indigenous individuals are receiving the best healthcare available.