Makayla Ray

I'm currently a junior at Eckerd College, where I'm pursuing a double major in psychology and political science with two minors in public health and law and justice. I'm always really busy - I participate in undergraduate research under Dr. Sarah Lyle, who is a health psychologist, and we're doing a bunch of different studies all regarding stress, sleep, and anxiety impacts on quality of sleep. In my political science field, I'm working currently for Sarasota County Government Emergency Management, which I really enjoy. Last summer, I did an internship with U.S. Congress in Congresswoman Kathy Castor's district offices in St. Pete and in Tampa, where I learned so much about professional and political behavior and got to work on constituent services. In my current role with Sarasota County, I work on comprehensive emergency management plans for healthcare facilities and a new project with dialysis centers. I really enjoy serving as a translator of policy to practice for medical professionals who wouldn't necessarily be able to fully understand different policy-based and procedural changes. That's something I'm interested in doing long-term once I graduate - being able to inform and do that kind of translation of policy to practice, especially in the healthcare setting and particularly regarding mental health, which is something I'm personally passionate about.