Faith Dempsey
Faith Dempsey is a second-year student pursuing a Bachelor of the Arts double major in Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Dempsey plans on attending medical school in hopes of becoming a pediatric psychiatrist. With her role in garnishing support and advocating for mental health Senate Bill No. 387, a bill that would allow Pennsylvania students to have a mental day off from school, she has acquired a passion for mental health work. Her hope is to continue her advocacy through undergrad to her medical career and beyond. She desires to work with the health inequalities that children, particularly those in disadvantaged groups, face and provide resources in an attempt to serve them.
As a scholar in the Get Experience in Aging Research Undergraduate Program (GEAR UP) at Penn, Dempsey also had the unique opportunity to complete the Summer Undergraduate Minority Research (SUMR) Program during the inaugural summer of GEAR UP.
She interned on two projects. The first was with Dr. Allison Willis where Dempsey worked on neurological-based research that allowed her to have a hands-on approach. She was an integral part of her own research with the assistance of Dr. Willis, who aided in further developing skills of communication with patients, and analyzed and quantified data through data programming. With Dr. Colin Adamo, Dempsey worked on the “Penn Collaborative for CBT” through the AFFECT project and worked as a research assistant for the Implementation Science Summer. She was exposed to R programming, writing a literature review, and developing the necessary requirements to make her well-rounded as she enters the healthcare field.
At the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Dempsey worked on the “Child and Adolescent Mood Program” with Dr. Rhonda Boyd, PhD as a research assistant in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. She is immensely involved at Penn as a board member of the Penn African Student Association, a writer for Faces of Black Penn, and the social and marketing chair for the Minority Association for Pre-Medical Students. Dempsey also spends her time as a student manager for the Penn Men’s Varsity Basketball team.