Kelly Harris, an assistant professor of occupational therapy at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been named one of five William T. Grant Scholars nationwide. The prestigious award, funded by the William T. Grant Foundation, supports early-career researchers and provides $425,000 for each of the scholars to develop their research and broaden their skills and expertise.
Harris specializes in the intersections between health and education and is interested in identifying ways to improve outcomes for students with chronic conditions such as asthma and sickle cell disease. The William T. Grant Scholars Program award will help Harris develop and investigate whether a technology-aided platform that coordinates care between medical and educational settings can improve outcomes for youth with asthma, with a particular focus on Black children and adolescents. In the U.S., Black youth are affected by the condition at twice the rate of the general population, and complications of asthma often result in missed school. The goal of Harris’ platform is to support school-based management of asthma to improve health and academic outcomes.
Harris will pursue the research with mentorship from Adam Wilcox, a professor of medicine in the Division of General Medicine and Geriatrics and the director of the Center for Applied Health Informatics at WashU Medicine.
