Psychological Sciences student Anna Epperson and Environmental Systems student Ryan Lucas are at the state Capitol today with UC President Janet Napolitano and 20 other UC graduate students. The group is promoting the value of graduate research to state lawmakers for the annual Graduate Research Advocacy Day.
Left to right: Anna Epperson, UC Merced Vice Provost and Graduate Dean Marjorie Zatz, and Ryan Lucas.
Each year, delegates from each campus head to the Capitol for a day of informal chats with lawmakers. The visits have established valuable relationships between graduate students and elected officials, who have often invited researchers back to Sacramento to tap their expertise on critical issues.
Epperson and Lucas were selected by Vice Provost and Graduate Dean Marjorie Zatz to represent UC Merced for 2015.
Epperson researches adolescents’ health choices and seeks to answer the question every parent asks — why do adolescents engage in risky behavior? As a member of the Choctaw tribe, whose adolescents are almost twice as likely to smoke as the average California youth, Epperson is investigating how peers, family, culture and class influence teens’ health decisions. “The disparities in negative health behavior are well known, but there is a real lack of insight into what’s driving those choices,” Epperson said.
Lucas studies how various types of vegetation and soil pay off in increased groundwater storage. As California faces a historic drought, part of the California Water Action Plan calls for restoration of Sierra meadows that may serve as critical reservoirs for water for the state. Lucas' findings suggest that restoring meadow topsoil may make the biggest difference in how meadows store water.
See more about the Graduate Research Advocacy Day program and the 2015 delegates here.
