Shariwa is a researcher and artist from the sunny state of Arizona who is passionate about improving health behaviors through the power of communication. She graduated in 2017 with a dual degree in Physiology and Nutrition from the University of Arizona, with minors in Spanish, Art, and Biochemistry. She then earned her Masters of Science in Biomedical Visualization from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2019. Shariwa took her love for science and art to the University of Chicago, where she had appointments in the departments of Public Health Sciences, and Organismal Biology & Anatomy. Now, she is a graduate student at in the Division of Nutritional Science at Cornell University.

Shariwa’s current work focuses on nutrition and physical activity behaviors in preschoolers, from communication and human development lenses. She is excited about advancing digital intervention design and implementation, and focusing on communication strategies that could make these interventions more effective.

She loves working with organizations in her community on public health projects. Her work has been exhibited at the International Museum of Surgical Science, featured on the cover of the American Journal of Bioethics, and featured in University of Chicago’s Medicine magazine. Shariwa currently lives in Ithaca, NY, where she spends her free time cooking foods from various cuisines, dancing in dance studios and her living room, and going on nature adventures.