Sonia Gazula
Sonia Gazula is a dental student at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, where she is pursuing her Doctor of Dental Medicine degree as a member of the Class of 2028. She completed her undergraduate studies at Duke University, earning a bachelor’s degree in Biology with a minor in Chemistry.
As a 2025 Leonard Davis Institute Summer Research Fellow, Gazula is engaged in two public health research projects. First, through the Palliative and Advanced Illness Research (PAIR) Center at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, she is working with Dr. Joanna Hart on the “Healthy Lungs” project, which aims to develop and disseminate community- and policy-facing resources to share results from a national trial promoting smoking cessation among underserved patients referred for lung cancer screening. Her second project, with Dr. Danielle Cullen in the Emergency Department at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, is nested within the MOLAR study. This audit study evaluates the accessibility and responsiveness of oral health resources for patients referred from emergency departments, particularly focusing on disparities by age and insurance status.
At Penn Dental Medicine, she serves as Media Chair for Philly Phaces, as a graduate student representative on the University Council, and as a member of the Oral Cancer Walk planning board.