My desire to help populations with health disparities lead me to pursue a career in Maternal Fetal Medicine or high-risk, complicated pregnancies. I study social determinants and systems-based causes for adverse pregnancy outcomes for patients on the margins of healthcare access. I have a particular interest in how socioeconomic adversity, stress, and nutrition affect commensal microbiota during pregnancy and how these communities promote health and disease. My COBRE project will characterize the vaginal microbiome in women at risk for preterm birth in Hawai’i, and link environmental exposures such as diet quality, social adversity, and perceived or structural racism to microbial variation. We also aim to identify the function or byproducts of the microbes present to find molecular targets for prediction and prevention of preterm birth. Preterm Birth disproportionately affects Native Hawaiian and Filipino pregnant people in Hawai’i. As a healthcare provider of Filipino heritage, I desire to translate my investigations into further research of identifying modifiable risk factors to decrease adverse pregnancy outcomes for those most affected.