Cherish Heard

Cherish Heard is a third-year doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology PhD program at the University of Cincinnati. She completed her Bachelor of Arts degree at West Virginia University (WVU) and developed her skills in clinical research as a research assistant at WVU Medicine's Ruby Memorial Hospital in the Pediatric Oncology and Gastroenterology Center. She currently participates in collaborative research focused on pediatric patients with chronic pain and eating disorders at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. Cherish's current research interests center on reducing racial health disparities within medical systems by reducing distrust between patients and medical providers, as well as reducing communication barriers between diverse cultures. She is broadly interested in community factors associated with pediatric health, specifically chronic pain conditions. She hopes to incorporate participatory action research with patients and medical professionals to provide sustainable solutions to reduce these barriers within medicine.