UCLA Fielding School of Public Health graduate student Kelvin Nguyen receives fellowship

A UCLA Fielding School of Public Health graduate student has been recognized for academic excellence and his research work at the school, one of the top public health graduate schools in the United States. 

Kelvin Nguyen, a first-year student in the master of public health program, received the E. Richard Brown Social Justice Fellowship, established in honor of the late faculty member Dr. E. Richard Brown, which supports students who conduct research into universal health insurance for all living in the US. The award, which includes a stipend, stems from Nguyen’s achievements at UCLA Fielding, including a 4.0 GPA and multiple research projects and student service. 

“My goal is to promote health equity through the intersection of public health and health policy, through research, program management, community outreach, and patient care,” said Nguyen, who worked as an emergency medical technician before pursuing his graduate degree. “My mission is to create human-centered, data-informed policies to better assist underserved communities and address health disparities.” 

Nguyen, who considers both Dallas, Texas, and Oakland, Calif. his hometowns, received his undergraduate education at the University of Southern California (BA, ’23) and Dallas College (2017-19), having worked as a researcher at USC, Stanford, and now at the UCLA Fielding School’s UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, founded by Dr. Brown. His research projects include analyses of the cost effectiveness of health insurance, the use of race-ethnicity variables within healthcare practices, and post-COVID-19 hospital and emergency department utilization in the U.S., among many other topics. In addition, he has served as a student academic advisor at UCLA Fielding. 

“Kelvin epitomizes all three tenets for this award, including academic excellence, dedication to public health, and engagement in research pertaining to social justice,” said Dr. Burt Cowgill, associate professor in UCLA Fielding’s Department of Health Policy and Management. “Kelvin’s academic drive and accomplishments clearly demonstrate his potential to excel and succeed in a career dedicated to public health policy and social justice, but that only begins to scratch the surface of Kelvin’s potential.”