My Oregon Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (Sylff) Graduate Fellowship for International Research Award for the 2026–2027 academic year
by Sammy Plezia
July 22, 2026
With my Sylff award and in collaboration with Sangath, I am designing a single session, school-based intervention to reduce eating disorder incidence among adolescent girls aged 13-17 years in Goa, India. Sangath is a prominent, non-governmental, not-for-profit organization headquartered in Goa, India. Founded in 1996, it is dedicated to improving mental health and public health across all age groups, particularly by providing community-based, affordable, and evidence-based care in low-resource settings.
My past research (funded by the Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship, UO's CSWS grant, and UO's Center for Global Health) provided evidence that body image concerns (a well-established risk factor for eating disorders and depression) are a large concern among adolescent girls in Goa, India, but there are very limited interventions for body image across all of India and very few mental health specialists in body image/eating disorders in Goa.
By offering a school-based prevention intervention that is delivered by trained lay counselors (adults without a formal mental health degree who will complete a robust curriculum in body image and eating disorders as a part of my study), I am aiming to be able to reach even more adolescents before their symptoms pass any clinical threshold.
In short, my work aims to use accessible, scalable methods to help adolescent girls' mental health and self-esteem during a critical developmental stage before any symptoms become more severe/difficult to treat.
Sammy Plezia (she/her) previously attended Brown University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in public health and Hispanic studies and worked as a research assistant at Brown’s Center for Health Promotion and Health Equity. Prior to beginning graduate school, Sammy worked as a Fulbright-Nehru research fellow at Sangath’s Addictions and related-Research Group in Goa, India. Broadly, her research aims to develop culturally relevant interventions that address eating- and body image-related concerns among individuals from minoritized backgrounds, particularly in resource-limited global settings. Outside of research, you can find Sammy trying every vegan dish in Eugene, going to indoor cycling classes, and managing to bring up her dog, Finn, in every conversation.