AMBER ELIZALDE

Amber Elizalde is a third-year student at the University of Texas at San Antonio pursuing a degree in Neuroscience. Growing up with a young mother who was raised in the foster care system motivated Amber to be an active volunteer for this community from a young age. It was here where she noticed the health disparities that make foster care youth more susceptible to significant educational gaps and a lack of STEM access. She is currently an NSF-funded APPEX scholar conducting neuroengineering research as well as being an active IES P20 Pathways fellow. Through the IES Pathways program, she is determined to develop a solution to combat the harmful health disparities that intervene with the academic success of youth in foster care, and increase the quality and availability of STEM access. Amber’s long-term vision is to pursue an MD/Ph.D. where she can implement the unique training of the dual degree to accelerate the advancement of therapeutics and community outreach in STEM.