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Meet our graduates | Isabelle Rao (PhD '23)

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June 21, 2023. Interviewed by Lindsey Akin. Audio edited for length and clarity.

Impact and Meaning

In this episode of Stanford MS&E: Stories & Voices (Spotify), we chat with Isabelle Rao, a graduate of the PhD program in MS&E. Isabelle shares how her work examining major healthcare issues such as equitable vaccine allocation and the opioid epidemic from an operations research lens has been able to have an impact in decision making and policy development, and how she takes meaning from knowing how many lives can be saved. She also discusses her journey from childhood hours spent in her dads office at a major university to her continuing research career in academia.

Version with captions available here

Student stories & voices