Throughout her career, Dr. Ramaswamy has worked with people on the margins-poor teen moms, HIV-positive methadone patients, and adjudicated adolescents. While working on her Ph.D. in sociology, one of her graduate advisors offered her an opportunity to undertake public health research in jails, which allowed her to continue pursuing a longstanding personal and intellectual interest in the impact that marginalization due to racism, gender, and class discrimination has on health and social well-being.

Dr. Ramaswamy's current research focuses on the social and structural context affecting the health of incarcerated women. Women with criminal justice histories have four to five times the rates of cervical cancer compared with women without these histories. This disparity highlights the complex social determinants of cancer risk and morbidity-such as behavioral risk, prevention, and health care access-affecting the most vulnerable members of society. Because so few researchers work in jails and prisons, the opportunity to address the health needs of about 9 million people entering the criminal justice system each year is often overlooked. Dr. Ramaswamy is continuing a decade's worth of work with people leaving jails and returning to resource-poor communities with her current R01, "Sexual Health Empowerment for Cervical Health Literacy and Cancer Prevention," which allows her to address cervical cancer risk in a group of underserved women with significant additional health needs.