Research Assistant
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Selena Murcia Mendez is a Clinical Research Assistant in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, where she supports research that focused on strengthening family-centered supportive care through innovative, poverty-targeted interventions that aim to reduce disparities and improve outcomes for children with cancer and their families.
Her current research focuses on caregiver social support and family-centered supportive care, with particular attention to unmet social needs and how structural factors shape families’ ability to navigate childhood cancer. In her role as an interventionalist on a supportive care pilot study, Selena works directly with families during active cancer treatment, translating research into meaningful, real-time support.
Her research interest are grounded in a strong commitment to equity and community engagement, shaped by prior experience in community-based health promotion, social needs assessment, and patient navigation.
Selena holds a Bachelor of Arts in Biology and Criminology from the University of Texas at Dallas, an interdisciplinary foundation that support her system-level approach to health equity. She plans to pursue graduate training focused on health services research, with the goal of leading equity-centered research initiatives that advance supportive care models and improve outcomes for vulnerable pediatric cancer populations.
Friday, March 6, 2026
2:50pm - 3:10pm PST
Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose