Welcome Nikita Shirsat!

Please join us in welcoming Nikita Shirsat, Research Program Assistant, to our Division!

Nikita started on Monday (8/26) on Dr. Rebecca Sudore’s team as a Research Program Assistant.  Nikita is a recent graduate from the University of Southern California (USC) and received a B.S. in Human Biology and minors in both Dance and Science, Health and Aging from the Gerontology school. Nikita is an aspiring physician with interests in geriatrics and palliative care. 

She worked for two years with Dr. Susan Enguidanos, PhD, who studies access to palliative and hospice care at USC. Under Dr. Enguidanos’s guidance, she designed and conducted a study on Southeast Asian Americans’ views concerning hospice care and advance care planning. She interviewed over 80 older adults and is currently working on a first-author manuscript. Nikita is also a dance fitness instructor, has been a captain of a dance team, and has danced competitively on both a Bollywood and hip-hop dance team. She volunteers to teach dance to residents at a nursing home and at a Dance for Parkinson’s program. 

As a Program Assistant, Nikita will report to Aiesha Volow, Research Program Manager, and will provide support on a range of projects related to Dr. Sudore's advance care planning research program, including participant recruitment and interviews, advance care planning outreach and PREPARE For Your Care support. Nikita will be stationed at Laurel Heights, 4^th floor (Suite 430) and can be reached at [email protected], phone # TBD.

If you get a chance to meet her, please welcome her to the Division!!