Diksha Deshmukh at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene offices in Long Island City. Portraits by Tracey Friedman.
For Diksha Deshmukh, the best part of being selected as an Epi Scholar and HRTP intern—prestigious summer placements for top graduate epidemiology students at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene—is the sense of purpose that comes with the role. Through her data analysis and research for the Communicable Disease Bureau's Zoonotic and Vector Borne Diseases Unit, she knows she is having a direct impact on the health and wellbeing of New Yorkers.