Samantha Becaria is a Public Health major with a pre-optometry focus at the University of California, Berkeley, where she is pursuing a B.A. in Public Health. She is a UC Berkeley STEM Excellence through Equity and Diversity (SEED) Scholar and a recipient of the Cal Alumni Leadership Award. During the summer, she interned with the American Public Health Association (APHA) as an Environmental Health Intern, supporting conference planning, stakeholder engagement, and policy-focused discussions on environmental funding and community health impacts. Her research experience includes work in the Justin Remais Lab, analyzing environmental and epidemiological drivers of coccidioidomycosis in California state prisons using GIS. Samantha is interested in integrating public health and optometry to advance health equity.