Erza Gashi

Erza Gashi is a 25-year-old, first-generation Albanian-American woman born in Prishtina, Kosova and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. Erza’s parents, both born and raised in Drenas, Kosova, relocated her family to the United States in July of 1999 following the War. She holds concurrent degrees in Biology and Global Health from Arizona State University and is completing her Master of Public Health in Global Health at the Brown University School of Public Health. For her graduate research, Erza worked closely with Action for Mothers and Children to understand the systemic and socio-cultural factors that exist and affect the provision of sexual and reproductive services in public health care clinics throughout Kosova.

Erza is a Senior Research Assistant at the Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island. As part of a larger study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, she developed and was awarded funding for a project to reduce sexual health disparities among trans and gender diverse youth. During her undergraduate studies, Erza served as Program Coordinator of HEAL International’s at-risk youth program wherein she facilitated the learning of concepts related to sexual health and healthy relationships among adolescent girls who were vulnerable to or previously victims of sexual exploitation in Arizona.

Erza is committed to optimizing sexual health around the world by working with target populations to identify disparities and create effective, long-term solutions that are community oriented. She hopes to follow in the footsteps of her parents by pursuing a career in medicine and dedicating her life to the service of others.