Lucia Cichowski Rejzek

I am a PhD student in the Integrated Anthropological Sciences (IAS) program at UC Santa Barbara, broadly interested in social determinants of health and biological manifestations of social environments. Utilizing frameworks like developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) and evolutionary theory, I am interested in how social support can influence development and wellbeing, especially within the birthing sphere, postpartum, and early childhood. I completed a B.S. in Biological Anthropology with minors in Computational Social Science and Human Developmental Science at UCSD, where I collaborated on multiple research projects focusing on preterm birth, overmedicalization, social support, and acculturative stress in immigrant communities. Currently, I am interested in researching the evolutionary mismatch between present care and social support conditions surrounding matrescence and historical conditions, and how this influences postpartum wellbeing and maternal investment, given current disparities in maternal health outcomes.