Nikita Viswasam is a PhD Candidate in the Sociology Department specializing in mixed-methods research, with expertise in both qualitative and quantitative methods.  Currently, she is working on several research projects that link advocacy actors to policy outcomes: 1) a computational social science study examining environmental advocacy networks and their collaboration strategies to achieve policy outcomes. 2) A second study examines the modern development of skill discourse in the intersection of U.S. labor and immigration policy, following labor organization policy actors in relation to capital and state actors.

Prior to UMD, Nikita worked as research staff at the Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health and Human Rights, working on data capacity-building, implementation science and research studies with governmental, NGO and community stakeholders on HIV health outcomes and its social determinants at the individual, community, and policy-level among marginalized populations globally.

Nikita got her Masters of Science in Public Health specializing in Global Disease Epidemiology & Control at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and her Bachelors of Science in Neuroscience and Global Health at Trinity University in San Antonio, TX.

Areas of Interest

  • Policy & Advocacy
  • Mixed-methods
  • Migration
  • Social determinants of health

Degrees

  • MA
    Sociology, University of Maryland, College Park
  • MSPH
    International Health, Johns Hopkins University, School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
  • BS
    Neuroscience and Global Health, Trinity University, San Antonio TX

Awards

  • 2025-26 Dean's Research Initiative, Doctoral Dissertation Research Award, College of Behavioral and Social Sciences
  • 2024-25 Outstanding Graduate Research Assistant Award, University of Maryland Graduate School
  • 2024 Form Fellowship, Department of Sociology, University of Maryland, College Park
  • 2024 Poster Award - Population Association of America (PAA) Conference, April 2024, Columbus, Ohio
  • 2022-2023 Dean's Fellowship, College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park
  • 2017 Global Health Established Field Placement Grant, Center for Global Health, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health
  • 2015 ASIANetwork Student-Faculty Fellowship, Freeman Foundation
Campus
Department of Sociology Graduate Student Forum Co-President, 2023 - 2024
portrait of South Asian American woman with black glasses and blazer
Art-Sociology Building
Department of Sociology
Email
nviswasa [at] umd.edu