UCLA Fielding School of Public Health student Shreya Sundar receives Academic Excellence Award

A UCLA Fielding School of Public Health student has been recognized for academic excellence at the school, ranked as among the top public health institutions in the United States.

Shreya Sundar, who graduated this month with her bachelor of science in public health, received the Kim-Farley Family Award for Academic Excellence in Public Health at UCLA Fielding’s 2026 Student Academic Honors and Awards Ceremony.

“Upon graduating, I plan to work for a few years as a research coordinator and then pursue a Master of Public Health in Health Policy and Management while continuing to explore my interests in family medicine, health systems improvement, and public sector leadership,” said Sundar, who considers Fremont, Calif., her hometown. “Clinical practice keeps physicians closely connected to the communities they serve while uniquely positioning them to influence systemic changes in healthcare, which is why it deeply intrigues me. At the same time, I have learned that improving public health cannot be achieved through healthcare alone.”

The Kim-Farley award goes to undergraduate public health majors – in both BA and BS programs - with the highest cumulative GPAs at the end of the winter quarter in their senior year; Sundar’s cumulative GPA at UCLA is 4.0. The award is funded by an endowment from Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, professor-in-residence with joint appointments in the departments of epidemiology and community health sciences at the UCLA Fielding School, and his spouse, Han Ju Kim-Farley, an MPH from UC Berkeley.

“The intent of these awards is to support our undergraduate students with interest in serving in public health agencies, who may often be first-generation college students,” said Kim-Farley, a physician who served as director of the Division of Communicable Disease Control and Prevention at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health from 2004-18. “It is really designed to support bringing the brightest of our students into the public health workforce, and Han Ju and I are very pleased that Shreya, with her combination of academic excellence and both research and clinical experience is one of this year’s honorees.”

Sundar has been involved in a range of community health projects throughout her time at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, both locally in Los Angeles and internationally in India. Her work has focused on community-based participatory research as a means of advancing health equity and supporting ethical, community-driven social change.

“These experiences brought to life concepts I first encountered in Dr. Kim-Farley’s classroom, reinforcing my understanding that long-term health and wellbeing are often shaped more profoundly by structural factors such as poverty, racism, housing, and education than by healthcare alone,” Sundar said.