Lisa Losada Rojas wins Bilsland Dissertation Fellowship
STSRG Ph.D. Candidate Lisa Losada Rojas was awarded the 2021-2022 Blisland Dissertation Fellowship!
The Blisland Fellowship is awarded by departments and colleges to Ph.D. students heading into the final year of their program. Recipients are expected to devote full-time effort to the completion of all requirements necessary to receive their doctoral degree at the conclusion of the year, which includes a stipend/salary and tuition coverage.
Lisa's doctoral dissertation will focus on the relationship between transportation and health determinants, and a full abstract can be found below.
Congrats, Lisa!
Full Abstract
Rural areas historically are more impoverished, have older populations, and grow slower than urban areas. The predominant sprawl, car-dependency, and lack of active travel infrastructure in rural areas reduce the possibility of gaining health benefits from active travel. Specifically, in the United States, it has been argued that rural communities face more challenges than their urban counterparts in reaching a good state of health. Therefore, to understand the disparities and account for them in different transportation planning phases, it is necessary to study the various geographic settings and recognize the characteristics that make them different. Previous work points out the need to understand these differences to take steps toward improving health and well-being in rural communities and decrease inequalities among rural areas. To reduce the inequalities faced by rural areas, these could benefit from the advent of new technology, such as shared autonomous vehicles (SAVs). However, it is not well understood how a specific population and different settings will use emerging technologies to improve their health status. Notably, rural and suburban settings have a chance to improve their access to opportunities (e.g., health care services), specifically among the population that is not currently driving, such as the elderly or the young. Moreover, the deployment of new technology in rural areas and its impact on accessibility to health-related infrastructure should be studied and could provide helpful insights to prepare rural transit providers for the future.
The overall goal of this dissertation is to examine the complex relationship between transportation and transport-related health determinants in the rural context. To that end, four independent but related studies are conducted to address the following research questions (i) Do the relationships among built environment, physical activity, and access to infrastructure differ among population settings (i.e., urban, suburban, and rural)?, (ii) What is the relationship between travel mode choice and obesity in rural areas?, (iii) What is the influence of health determinants in the relationship between health and travel behavior?, (iv) How can rural areas benefit from transportation innovations such as SAVs to improve access to opportunities that enhance rural population health?
The results of this research can help different rural organizations, such as rural planning organizations and rural health associations, and the public to understand the effects of transportation in improving the health of communities. Moreover, this dissertation offers a link between health and transportation terminology that can promote better communication between stakeholders and professionals working in this area.