Keck School of Medicine commencement to feature behavioral scientist with international impact

Jasmine Abrams, PhD, is an internationally recognized behavioral research scientist whose work is transforming health outcomes for women of African ancestry in the United States, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and beyond. Despite early achievements as an honor roll student, she didn’t originally conceive of pursuing higher education. Encouraged by mentors who recognized her immense potential and provided active support, she found her way and has since emerged as a leading voice in the global movement for health equity.

“I’ve always been a curious person and being able to ask the questions that I want, and work to discover the answers, made me fall in love with research during graduate school,” said Abrams, a research scientist at Yale University’s School of Public Health. “I didn’t always see myself in academia, but once I discovered research, I realized it could be a tool for liberation, both personal and collective. It gave me a way to ask and answer the questions that matter most to my community.”

Dedication to health equity and real-world impact underpin her science — an ethos shared by faculty, trainees and staff at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. So it seems a natural fit that Abrams will address graduates at the USC medical school’s 2025 commencement ceremonies. She will deliver remarks at ceremonies taking place on May 17 at 9 a.m., 1 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.

Community-led solutions to global health problems

Although she is considered an early-career researcher, Abrams’ contributions have already helped shape national and international conversations around maternal health, HIV prevention and community-driven research methods. Her work centers on culturally grounded, community-led solutions to health challenges that disproportionately affect Black women and other underserved populations. Abrams is the director of the Health Equity Action Research Team and an affiliate faculty member of the Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health at the Boston University School of Public Health. 

“Science should not just seek to include the community, it should be accountable to it.”
– Abrams

Her research, supported by the National Institutes of Health, uses culture as a lens for understanding and addressing disparities in sexual, reproductive and perinatal health. She creates, implements and evaluates innovative health interventions, with a specialty in participatory methods that facilitate risk reduction for negative outcomes. Abrams’ approach centers on a belief that those most impacted by health disparities should have a central voice in shaping the solutions. 

“Science should not just seek to include the community, it should be accountable to it,” she said.

From adversity to achievement

While Abrams is known for her scholarly impact and entrepreneurial ventures, her path to becoming a research scientist was anything but conventional. The values that drive her work today, including equity, community and resilience, were established long before she first stepped into a research lab.

“You can’t pour from an empty cup. You don’t have to light yourself on fire to keep other people warm.”
– Abrams

Abrams’ journey began in an environment of hardship and instability. She remembers a crowded one-bedroom apartment shared with her four siblings and her mother; she also remembers time spent in homeless shelters as a child. Years later, while pursuing her graduate degrees, she used student loans to support her education and help pay her mother’s mortgage. 

“The position I’m in now is a world away from the space that I grew up in,” Abrams said. “My origin story is very important to who I am, and I hope it’s inspiring to someone.”

Empowering the next generation by prioritizing wellness

Reflecting on her journey, Abrams offers encouragement to first-generation college students like her, who may feel the weight of expectations from loved ones and others who helped them along the way. While gratitude is important, it’s also vital to protect your own well-being, because burnout is a real risk.

“My origin story is very important to who I am, and I hope it’s inspiring to someone.”
– Abrams

“I always want those people to know, you can’t pour from an empty cup,” Abrams said. “My favorite way to say this is, ‘You don’t have to light yourself on fire to keep other people warm.’”

Her awareness of the prevalence of burnout and her own experience with it also shaped Abrams’ entrepreneurial ventures. She is the founder of the Thrive Institute for Professional Development, an organization focused on helping researchers protect their well-being, maintain productivity and build meaningful careers without sacrificing themselves in the process. She is also co-founder of Research Unlimited, which helps scientists recruit and retain study participants and build stronger academic-community partnerships. Through her entrepreneurial ventures, Abrams aims to reshape the culture of academia and public health. 

“Equity doesn’t end with patients, it must include researchers, too,” she said. “That’s why I create spaces where early-career scholars, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds, can move beyond surviving this career path to thriving in it.”

A commitment to lifting all boats

Her reputation as an expert in maternal health began to take shape in the early days of her career, rooted in fieldwork that bridged her graduate studies with real-world application. She was part of a team aiding the nonprofit Midwives for Haiti, which trains birth attendants and operates clinics serving remote rural communities. Abrams and her colleagues listened deeply to the needs of the women receiving care and used those insights to guide strategic shifts within the organization.  

The impact was tangible. The upshot included mobile clinics being augmented by stable resources for expectant and new mothers. At the recommendation of women in care, the voice of the community began to play a stronger role, guiding the nonprofit to establish a Haitian advisory board and free-standing birth centers in rural communities.

“Transformations occurred from that research,” Abrams said. “I was so happy to see the manifestations of our work there.”

She was originally trained as a sexual-health researcher, and the focus on maternal health wasn’t necessarily part of her original plan. She found that her interest in the topic redoubled as friends and loved ones in the United States started having children.

When her best friend was pregnant, Abrams trained to become a doula to support her through labor and delivery. Before long, she had several doula clients, and those experiences inspired new directions in her research. 

“I could see very clearly the ways our system failed people, and the missed opportunities for intervention,” she said. “It can be hard to take an opportunity that wasn’t part of your overarching plan, but for me it led to a lot of exciting, impactful work. Maternal health sort of grabbed on to me and never let go.”

Her own experience of becoming a mother only deepened that commitment. Today, her research continues to center the needs, voices and wisdom of birthing people who are too often ignored.

She points out a seldom-discussed advantage to health investigations targeting underserved populations. The old saying, “A rising tide lifts all boats,” comes into play. 

“Improving care for the most marginalized ends up benefiting the mass majority of people,” Abrams said. “Health equity work involves reimagining the systems and structures that define care and doing the hard work to transform them. That work will inevitably benefit everyone. For example, if we’re trying to improve maternal care for Black women, that benefit is not just going to exist for Black women. It’s going to exist for everyone.”

With her unwavering focus on justice, community and access, Abrams’ work is deeply personal. Her lived experiences fuel a mission rooted in the belief that no one should be left behind by the systems meant to serve them. 

As she prepares to address the Keck School of Medicine’s 2025 graduating class, her message is clear: “The future of medicine will be defined by how we respond to today’s challenges, by our commitment to equity, our resilience in the face of adversity and our courage to build systems with our most vulnerable in mind.” 

For more about commencement at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, click here.