Biography
Sumayya is a PhD candidate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Center for Indigenous Health. She grew up in Northern Nevada and Mauritius.
Prior to joining Johns Hopkins University, Sumayya worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Field Services Branch. Before COVID-19, she was a Youth Violence Prevention Specialist partnering with 45 organizations actively working to prevent and reduce youth violence in Richmond, Virginia. During COVID-19, she deployed to a quarantine station, various Emergency Operations Center taskforces, and local health departments. Sumayya’s research focuses on community-based participatory research using mixed methods and collaborating with Indigenous and other marginalized communities.
She completed her MPH in Epidemiology at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Public Health.