Sitara Weerakoon

2821 Carlisle St. Apt. 341 • Dallas, Texas 75204 • (512) 287-9808 • sitara.m.weerakoon@uth.tmc.edu
EDUCATION
University of Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health Dallas, Texas
Candidate for Master of Public Health, May 2019
• GPA: 3.88
• Richard M Grimes Scholarship in Public Health
• Outstanding New Student Scholarship
• Research Beyond Boundaries Poster Symposium – “Examining the Relationship between Geographic
Location and the Prevalence of Obesity in the United States”
Austin College Sherman, Texas
Bachelor of Arts in Public Health and French, cum laude, May 2017
• GPA: 3.68
• Pi Delta Phi National French Honor Society
• Dean’s List – five semesters
• Model United Nations participant
WORK EXPERIENCE
UTHealth School of Public Health, Dept. of Biostatistics and Dept. of Epidemiology Dallas, Texas
Graduate Teaching Assistant, June 2018 – Present
• Provide academic support to graduate students studying biostatistics, provide STATA statistical software
assistance to UTSW and SPH students on varying individual and group projects including PhD dissertations, help
with ongoing development and design of the curriculum, co-taught Community Medicine Fellowship Program to
medical students studying family medicine at UT Southwestern.
• Assist with the development and creation of an online data science and epidemiology course, using R to code the
course modules
UTHealth School of Public Health, Dept. of Epidemiology Dallas, Texas
Research Volunteer, April 2018 – June 2018
• Project: “mHealth to Increase Service Utilization among Recently Incarcerated Homeless Adults”
• Assisted in the development of the study, screened and interviewed study participants, collected and
managed primary data from homeless adults.
Refugee Services of Texas Dallas, Texas
Cultural Orientation Intern, January 2018 – March 2018
• Taught a class about cultural literacy to refugees recently resettled in Dallas, prepared multi-lingual materials,
communicated with interpreters, Dallas Police and Fire Departments for presentation, data entry and analysis.
Dell Children’s Medical Center – Trauma and Injury Research Center Austin, Texas
Student Research Intern, May 2016 – August 2016
• Contributed to a literature review on child maltreatment, moderated a discussion table about “Elimination of
Heath Disparities” for child maltreatment in Travis County during a community engagement summit, collected
data from the event and analyzed it using Microsoft Excel, created graphs, charts, images for the final report,
wrote outlines and drafts for several sections of the report which was published and distributed to community
stakeholders in 2016, found here: https://goo.gl/jHxtzs.
LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE
UTHealth SPH Dallas Student’s Association (DSA) Dallas, Texas
Secretary, August 2017 – Present
• Elected by the members of the Student’s Association, run organization Twitter account and
email, assist in organizing social events
• Mentor in the Student2Student Initiative, responsible for meeting with new students to help with acclimating
into the program
• Led and participated in the United to Serve volunteer fair run by UTSW Medical School, chaired a booth at a
local elementary school for the purposes of demonstrating the importance of handwashing.
• Co-chair of the DSA Hurricane Harvey Relief Committee - Assisted in organizing a fundraising effort which
went directly to students at the UT School of Public Health in Houston, communicated with the North Texas
Food Bank to schedule volunteer events.
Austin College Student Democrats Sherman, Texas
Vice President, February 2014 – February 2016
• Engaged students through presidential debate watch parties; Organized and hosted a forum to inform students
about 2014 TX Gubernatorial Election candidates; Certified as a deputized registrar in Grayson County,
Texas and organized 3 voter registration drives at Austin College registering over 10% of the student body
each year.