PNWU Student Doctor Ivy Stejskal (OMS III) recently presented her research at the American Society for Microbiology’s World Microbe Forum. The event combined two of the microbial sciences’ biggest meetings under one digital platform to “further science and answer some of the most important questions impacting humankind today.” Student Doctor Stejskal’s work focused on two tropical diseases and their impact on a community she cares deeply about.
As an undergraduate student at Baylor University, Stejskal had an opportunity to take part in two non-profit medical missions to rural western Kenya. “I feel like my time spent in Kenya was a turning point in me wanting to pursue a career that was not about my own gain or seeking out the greatest prestige, but it was now about serving those that need love the most,” she explained.
That commitment to serving those in need ultimately led Stejskal to Pacific Northwest University – a non-profit health sciences university with a mission of bringing care to rural and medically underserved communities throughout the Northwest. At PNWU, she took advantage of her opportunity to make an impact on Kenya.
“The education at PNWU encourages students to pursue their passions and provides opportunities for growth, development, and mentoring in every domain of being a physician,” explained Dr. Kimberly Taylor, PNWU’s Chief of Microbiology, who quickly connected with Student Doctor Stejskal to explore the research’s potential and how it could translate from paper to real community impact.
“When I was in Kenya, I saw firsthand just how much the community relied upon their mobility to survive,” explained Stejskal. “If any aspect of their mobility is affected, they lose their livelihood. Whether it is from joint pain, injury or improper footwear, they become unable to walk to get water, lose the ability to kneel over a wood stove to cook and they cannot perform labor intensive jobs such as farming.”
With this in mind, she began looking at two possible tropical diseases that are endemic to Kenya that may be a cause of joint pain and arthritis. As an osteopathic medical student at PNWU, Stejskal started with a literature review on the topic, gathering as much information as she could in hopes of one day taking her findings back to communities like those in Kenya.
“I felt supported from the moment this project was just a baby idea in my brain” she explained. “The office of scholarly activity helped me narrow down my topic and form my research questions; the librarians helped me pull thousands of articles to sort through related to my topic.” Dr. Taylor served as Stejskal’s faculty advisor for the project. “Her knowledge of microbiology, as well as the research and publication process, was instrumental in the success of this project,” said Stejskal. “Presenting this project first at PNWUs Academic Day also was great practice for the World Microbe Forum and helped me focus my project and the message I wanted to get across.”
“Ivy’s heart of care and her efforts to continuously seek to make a difference to local and global community health is inspiring,” said Dr. Taylor. “This work will help her to develop further understanding of the diseases effecting the health of our rural and underserved communities in the United States.”
Ultimately, Student Doctor Stejskal hopes to work with communities and teachers in Kenya to develop a school-age classroom-based curriculum around neglected tropical diseases prevalent in their area, which will not only serve as a collaborative tool to educate kids in schools about these diseases, but will also be project- and experiment-based to empower kids to find their own solutions to problems like this in their communities.
“Even though I may be brand new to research and do not have a lot of experience in the field of microbiology or academia, I still have a unique viewpoint and worthwhile things to share that people actually want to listen to and learn more about,” she said, reflecting on the opportunity to present her work on such a significant global stage. “You don’t have to discover something groundbreaking to do good research; to me, good research is anything that you can turn around to impact a person or a community.”