Dashauna M. Ballard

Dashauna M. Ballard is a Health Education and Health Promotion doctoral student at the University of Alabama who has interests in mental health awareness and bullying prevention in minority adolescents. She received her Master’s degree in Public Health in 2014 from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and is currently seeking to combine personal knowledge with academic knowledge to become a more empathetic public health professional. Dashauna has always had a passion for youth, as reflected in her experience as a Science Teacher in an alternative program geared towards cultivating academic success in at-risk students. During the 2018-2019 academic year, Ms. Ballard won school-level “Alabama Teacher of the Year” and “Innovative Technology” awards. While Ms. Ballard enjoyed teaching, her desire to advocate was ignited due to a traumatic experience with COVID-19 that resulted in a brief hospital stay. The after-effects of the disease fueled her passion to spread awareness about COVID 19 in terms of recovering from symptoms and navigating disease stigma. What Dashauna initially viewed as traumatic, she used to influence her current work in assisting college students impacted by COVID-19 who are seeking help with academic resources. In her free time, she enjoys cooking and beauty DIY projects.