Ingrid Fortes
Ingrid Fortes is a rising senior at Tulane University pursuing a BS in Neuroscience and a BSPH in Public Health, with a minor in Economics. She is passionate about improving healthcare systems and expanding access to care, with the goal of reducing the global burden of disease and improving quality of life. She is interested in pursuing a career in health policy, consulting, or program strategy, where she hopes to help design and implement solutions that address structural barriers in healthcare.
Through the SUMR program, Ingrid works on two research projects. She works with Dr. Matthew McHugh on the state of nursing in rural hospitals, how it has changed over time, and its impact on patient outcomes. In addition, she works with Dr. Maggie Lowenstein on the effectiveness and implementation of Hospital-to-Housing, a large-scale intervention that provides medically supported transitional housing for people experiencing homelessness and opioid use disorder (OUD) following hospitalization.
At Tulane, Ingrid serves as Executive Vice President of Alpha Kappa Psi, Secretary of the Brazilian Student Association (BRASA), and a leader among the Service Learning Assistants at the Center for Public Service. She also has research experience examining disparities in head-and-neck cancer survivorship care in Houston and studying the role of street nurses in supporting unhoused youth in Copenhagen.
In her free time, Ingrid enjoys baking cookies, playing board games, and watching sitcoms.