Sophie Mbongo

I am a passionate advocate of maternal child health, and am dedicated to increasing positive health outcomes and living conditions for women and children. As a researcher, I excel in qualitative methods, community-based participatory research, digital ethnography, and academic writing. During undergrad, I assisted Anthropology, Public Health and History professors with reproductive research and presented posters at academic conferences. I have served as presidents of undergraduate clubs, a postpartum doula, and as a teaching assistant.

• Transformed Birth Services, In the summers of 2024 and 2025, I worked with a local doula nonprofit, serving as a prenatal and postpartum doula for new mothers.
• Food Finders Food Bank, Within an applied anthropology course, my team designed and executed a qualitative research study about the lived experience of hunger in the Purdue area, centered around the local food bank grocery store, and presented this research to the food bank's board.

Anthropology: Dr. Amanda Veile's LABOR LAB

• Global Birth Stories I headed web design and collected birth stories in the Central African Republic
• 2023 School Year: I assisted Dr. Veile with research analysis on Infant feeding Ideals and Realities of Quechua women in Peru. Poster presentation at the Human Biological Association Conference March 2024

Public Health: Dr. Kathryn LaRoche's PARC Lab

• I am a spearheading a qualitative project about Transformed Birth Services, a local doula nonprofit in the Purdue area

History

• I assisted Dr. Wendy Kline on researching the history of the pelvic exam.