Recently named the undergraduate poster winner at the Harvard Global Health Institute’s (HGHI) 2026 Student Global Health Research Showcase, and a soon-to-be Fulbright Scholar heading to Germany this fall, Anika Christensen ’26 is poised to tackle some of the world’s most pressing health crises. But when she first arrived at Harvard, Christensen had never considered global health as a field of study or a possible career path.
The pivot from pre-med to public impact
Like many ambitious high school students with an affinity for science, Anika arrived at Harvard on a traditional pre-med track. Coming from a rural town in upstate New York, she understood the standard blueprint for a career in science: go to college, go to medical school and become a doctor.
However, after shadowing physicians a handful of times, she realized that the hospital environment wasn’t her true calling. Instead, she found herself deeply energized by the laboratory. Working in Harvard’s Human Evolutionary Biology (HEB) department, she discovered a passion for the meticulous and fascinating world of scientific research.
This realization prompted a profound guiding question that would shape her career trajectory.
“I don’t want people to die of preventable diseases,” she recalls thinking. “How can I do that as a scientist as opposed to a physician?”
Discovering global health
Anika’s search for answers led her to explore the intersections of biology, history and climate. She began researching the archaeology of the plague in Justinian France with the Science of the Human Past Initiative. Around the same time, an eye-opening general education class on climate change, “Life and Death in the Anthropocene” with Dr. Naomi Oreskes, completely reframed her worldview. She realized her ultimate academic niche: the dangerous intersection of climate change and infectious disease.
Her faculty dean, accomplished epidemiologist Dr. Mercedes Becerra helped connect these dots — introducing Anika to colleagues working on the plague in Madagascar. Through these experiences, global health emerged not just as a concept, but as a tangible career path.
This newfound direction led Anika to the Harvard Global Health Institute. In the summer of 2025, she participated in HGHI’s Summer Internship Program, an experience she credits with solidifying her future in the field.
Through HGHI, Anika was given the space and funding to conduct independent research for the first time. She focused on Madagascar, one of the few places in the world where the plague remains a persistent threat. By examining the country’s unique vulnerabilities — rising tropical temperatures that prevent flea die-offs, a heavily agricultural society and fluctuating political systems that impact hospital funding — she began to map the complex web of global disease.
Beyond hard data, the HGHI internship provided Anika with a vital philosophical foundation.
“I came into it not being a ‘global health person’ yet,” she explains. “Maybe the first week of the internship, we had this big lecture and conversation session on decolonizing global health. It gave me a much clearer perspective on the biggest issues in this field right now and what my responsibilities are as a researcher.”
HGHI offered a cohort of like-minded peers and intellectual spaces to discuss the ethical dimensions of the field. This immersive summer laid the groundwork for her senior thesis, ultimately leading to her award-winning presentation at the 2026 HGHI Student Global Health Research Showcase.
A philosophy without borders
Today, Anika approaches global health with a fiercely interdisciplinary mindset. She strongly advocates that STEM students step outside their silos. “Biologists and pre-med people should be taking ethical philosophy, and most of them are not,” she says.
For Anika, global health is fundamentally about equity and erasing imaginary boundaries.
“What makes it global health as opposed to just public health is that you’re taking away the issue of borders,” she notes. “A disease doesn’t need a visa to get across the border. I care about and value people and their health regardless of their nationality.”
She views global health not merely as a scientific endeavor, but as an exercise in international relations, ethics and historical responsibility.
Looking ahead
From growing up in rural upstate New York where she saw firsthand the impacts of tick-borne illnesses and agricultural runoff, to presenting award-winning research at Harvard, Anika’s trajectory proves that the best path into global health isn’t always the traditional one. By weaving together her passions for evolutionary biology and ethical philosophy, Anika Christensen is preparing to make an impact on the world.
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