6 minute read
Feature
Q & A
Being the Change We Wish to See: Madeline Baxter
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By Rachel Chiu and Jada Morgan
Madeline Baxter is a third-year undergraduate pursuing majors in global health and in learning and organizational change as well as a minor in business institutions. Baxter is passionate about social impact work and learning about the healthcare system and its intersections with the social determinants of health. The Journal sat down with Baxter to learn more about her experience with social justice research.
[This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.]
Why did you decide to pursue research specifically addressing social justice work? A lot of my interests right now revolve around global health. I’m greatly influenced by the content of the courses in the global health department as well as my experiences as a Black woman. It feels very superficial to say, “I have all this knowledge, but I’m just going to sit with it and wait for four years and then maybe decide to do something about it.” I have a really hard time learning about disparities and not doing anything to actively mitigate those disparities. However, I don’t know that doing social justice work has ever been my ultimate life goal. It’s always been something that I’ve been passionate about in order to give back to the community from which I’ve come. It’s just who I am, what I care about doing, and what I want to do with the education that I’m getting right now.
Give us an overview of your research experience. For nine months in 2020, I worked with the Northwestern Global Health Institute in their Department of Education. I worked on producing a descriptive analysis which is a type of statistical modeling. I helped translate qualitative data and make it quantitative in order to advocate for more funding and really show the success of the Institute. It was really exciting to be a part of something so tangible and see immediate effects of it all.
Right now, I’m getting ready to work with the Chicago Public Health Department (CPHD). I’m helping them lead some research in East Garfield Park, which is a neighborhood of Chicago with the worst African American female maternal mortality statistics. We’re researching in the area more and helping to support the community and citizens.
How has it been working on these large, multifaceted projects as an undergraduate? I was the only undergraduate with the Global Health Institute for the first six months. That was definitely really difficult because we went through the shift with COVID-19; it was really tough to get the lay of the land. I had a hard time understanding how the organization was run and what was expected of me. I was never meeting anybody face-to-face besides my boss, so trying to find my place in the organization was definitely more difficult.
How did you go about finding these social justice research opportunities? I spent a lot of time researching different organizations in Chicago and began coldemailing people. For example, to get in
touch with the brilliant woman who I’m working for right now, I messaged her on LinkedIn. She’s the medical director of the CPHD, and she got back to me almost immediately. We were able to coordinate a time to talk, and seeing as our interests aligned, they put me in their HR system — the rest is history.
What do you think these organizations really value about undergraduate students and specifically you? What do you think you contribute in the long run? I would hope that what I contribute in the long run is a sense of optimism [by] being a new person that says, “I care about this work; I’m willing to do whatever it takes to help [make] it happen.” There’s so much work that needs to be done, especially in the context of Chicago. It’s really hard to take part in all that work by yourself; I hope to equalize the burden they’re carrying right now to start to work against these disparities. I’ve been trying to act on the things that I find the most important and help alleviate the racial, economic, and health disparities that we spend so much time talking about in the classroom.
What is the most rewarding aspect of doing handson social justice work? The biggest things that I’ve gained are the out-of-the-classroom knowledge and the mentors. I can learn more about these disparities and how to work against them while also gaining connections with people who care about me getting the right experience and education. My supervisors in both of those research positions have really been ahead of the game in terms of being women in the global health field. They’ve helped lead me through the process and also connect me with the right people.
How has getting involved in this type of research during your undergraduate years impacted your desire to get involved in research after you graduate? Getting involved in social justice research has shown me what I don’t want to do as well as the research that I’d be interested in doing in the future. My first experience with the Global Health Institute was a lot of data analysis. I realized that it’s one thing to learn about global health disparities in classrooms and another to just write down numbers pertaining to grants. Those are two very different things in terms of quantifying the work. My current research interests are in quantifying the disparities along racial lines in cities like Chicago and other urban
areas. I’m interested in breaking that down further and understanding the function of the neighborhood and where these arbitrary neighborhood lines are as well as how that impacts people for the rest of their lives. I’d like to focus on interacting with the individuals that these disparities impact and working hands-on with these communities rather than simply quantifying the research on the back end.
Do you have any advice for undergraduates who want to get involved in the field but are intimidated by the amount of opportunities or needing to reach out to independent organizations on their own? My biggest advice is always to just ask. The worst thing that can happen is that they don’t email you back. In terms of mitigating that fear and intimidation, I think that there’s so much work to be done, and social justice workers and researchers are really excited to see young people who care so much and have the tactical skills to impact the work.
How do you balance social justice research work with onthe-ground activism work? In terms of balancing them, I spend more time on the research right now than on on-the-ground activism just because that’s how I am. Currently, it’s really hard to engage in activism because it’s hard to meet people as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, so I think my answer is skewed in terms of what facilities I have access to. Both research and activism actionably impact the world and make it a better place. I think as long as we’re intentional in the way in which we walk through life and interact with people, we can create the positive change that we want to make.
Madeline Baxter’s success in finding and pursuing research demonstrates how important it is that students continue to seek out opportunities to gain knowledge and create tangible change in our communities. Baxter encourages students to be bold in reaching out to individuals in the professional world who share their research interests, as they are waiting for undergraduates to share their insights as much as the undergraduates are hoping to learn from the professionals in the field. Through participating in social justice research, one can develop valuable skills and connections that will carry throughout the remainder of one’s professional career. ■
