Shivani Iyer

Shivani Iyer is a second-year dental student at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Dental Medicine, where she is pursuing her doctorate in Dental Medicine. Iyer was a student in the 2023 SUMR LDI Dental Fellowship Cohort, where she was involved in two health services research projects. In her first project, she worked with Dr. Jaya Aysola and Dr. Mihir Kakara on a project that aimed to understand the accessibility barriers for people with disabilities in clinical environments through the use of qualitative methods. The second project was under the guidance of Dr. Emily Vail, Dr. Caiomhe Duffy, and Joan Gluch, where they collaborated on a project that examined the unique challenges female academic anesthesiologists and dentists encounter during pregnancy, childbirth, recovery, and breastfeeding. Her past experiences with LDI have helped Iyer develop a deep interest in public health research, and she hopes that by engaging in research that identifies the many social, financial, and structural barriers patients face daily, she will have a stronger foreground to deliver thoughtful, patient-centered care as a future dental provider. Iyer is a recent graduate of Muhlenberg College, where she earned her Bachelor’s in Science in Biology with a minor in Public Health.