Undergraduate Research Ambassadors (URA) is a student organization dedicated to making research more accessible and approachable for students. We aim to aid interested individuals in the research process and connect them with faculty and staff who have similar research interests. Are you curious about how to get involved in research or URA itself? Feel free to contact any leadership team member with questions or inquiries about URA and our initiatives!
URA’s 2023-24 Executive Board
Sarah Lange – President
Sarah is a senior Haslam Scholar at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville passionate about bridging gaps in healthcare equity and breaking medical stigmas on a community, state, and national level. After scribing in rural and urban emergency rooms and seeing the grip that addiction has on communities across Tennessee, she joined the College Scholars program and designed an interdisciplinary program of study titled Addiction and Behavioral Neuroscience. Through this individually tailored program, she studies the neurological basis of addiction and medical best practice of addiction recovery and treatment with a focus in research studying how to prevent the cyclic patterns of addiction in urban and rural communities from a clinical perspective.
Hayley Simpson – Vice President
I am currently an undergraduate research assistant in Dr. Sarah Lamer’s Social Perception and Cognition (SPAC) lab and I completed a fall internship with Beardsley Community Farm. Part-time Employment; Hobbies; Campus Clubs/Activities: Organizations I am involved with on campus include Women’s Coordinating Council, Students Promoting Environmental Action Knoxville (SPEAK), Progressive Student Alliance (PSA), FYS Peer Mentors, Thornton Center Tutors, UTK Psychology Social Media Ambassadors, Honors Leadership Program, Psi Chi, and Phi Beta Kappa. In my free time, I love hiking, practicing yoga, reading, and doing crossword puzzles.
Sarah Lawrence – Secretary Treasurer
Hi, I am a sophomore Reformative Medicine in Geriatric Populations major in the College Scholars Honors Program. My research interests encompass clinical research involving cancer cells and therapeutics, as well as community-based studies on the living conditions of elderly populations in care facilities. Currently, I’m engaged in a research project at the University of Tennessee Medical Center Knoxville (UTMCK). Specifically, we are investigating how inflammation-associated changes impact pancreatic islets, with a keen emphasis on discovering novel drug therapeutics for both type I and type II diabetes within the Department of Surgery.