During medical mission trips to Appalachia when she was younger, Gloria Tavera recognized the economic injustice many of the people she was helping faced—and she wanted to fight it.
“We weren’t going to solve the problem by going there and giving them gift cards to Walmart,” she said. “Someone was eventually going to need to solve the problem by preventing why they had to live in [such conditions] in the first place.”
Those trips fueled an early interest in social justice—as well as medicine—for Tavera, now a sixth-year in the Medical Scientist Training Program.
“Being exposed to injustice at an early age made me feel like I needed to do something about it,” she said. “When I became really interested in science in high school, I thought, ‘The way I’m going to do that is through science.’”
So, with a passion for research, medicine and social justice, Tavera has built her academic career around helping disadvantaged populations. And her work is getting noticed: In January, Forbes named her to its “30 Under 30” list in the health care category.
The recognition “was a validation that research and policy can be done together and that we can act now, as students, to change large systems that impact what is researched and how patients access the results of that research,” Tavera said.
Tavera’s research largely focuses on diseases that impact marginalized people. Previously, she studied malaria immunology, but her current project is on H. pylori—a bacteria that, if left untreated, can cause gastric cancer.
Outside of the classroom and lab, Tavera also is active—especially when it comes to ensuring people from all backgrounds receive quality care. Since 2011, she’s been president of the North American board of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, an organization that advocates to make medicines and health technologies more affordable.
In addition, Tavera volunteers with Street Medics, a group of individuals who provide care during natural disasters and protests as well as to underserved populations.
After completing the Medical Scientist Training Program, Tavera hopes to stay active as a social justice advocate while working as a scientist and physician.
Read Tavera’s full “30 under 30” profile in Forbes, but before you do, check out her answers to this week’s five questions.
