Emerging Technologies
Grace Wickerson is a Science Policy Fellow with the Federation of American Scientists. They are a Ph.D. student in Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University, where their research focuses on therapeutic medical devices that safely dissolve in the body after use.
They are passionate about re-tooling engineering education to serve the public good. Recently, Grace co-founded Heal Our Future, a mobilizing effort that uses policy, innovation, community-organizing, and organizational-capacity-building to imagining a more equitable health system.
Prior to Northwestern, Grace received their B.S. from Rice University, where they served as Student Body President during their senior year and co-chaired the Mayor of Houston’s Higher Education Student Leadership Alliance. Through this work, they helped establish a multi-million-dollar sustainability initiative, created a Vice Provost position for DEI, ensured a community benefits agreement for university-led developments, and organized +160 student body presidents across the country to rally for P/F grading and expansion of telehealth services.
As a high-school sophomore, they founded a nonprofit organization, Kickin’ Violence, that sought to educate middle- and high-school students about relationship violence. Over five years, Kickin’ Violence impacted the lives of 5,000 students across Florida and raised $800,000 to support survivors of violence nationwide.
Maternal mortality is a crisis in the United States. The Biden-Harris Administration should establish an AI Center of Excellence to bring together data sources and then analyze, diagnose, and address maternal health disparities, all while demonstrating trustworthy and responsible AI principles.
There’s more work to be done to build a healthier future for all Americans, but here are some ideas for starters.
Just over a year ago, I found myself pausing during a research lab meeting. “Why were all the subjects in our studies of wearable devices white? And what were the consequences of exclusion?” This question stuck with me long after the meeting. Digging into the evidence, I was alarmed to find paper after paper signaling embedded […]
Pulse oximeters are medically transformative, but racially biased. The FDA must take steps to correct the problems with these ubiquitous devices.
The Biden-Harris Administration must act to address bias in medical technology at the development, testing and regulation, and market-deployment and evaluation phases.