Alison Gemmill is in her first year of the 2-year program and graduated from UCLA in 2004 with a degree in Geography.  During her studies at UCLA, Alison worked with the UCLA School of Public Health as a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Assistant, contributing to an epidemiological study of environmental toxins in Central California. After a short stint in the corporate world, Alison moved to New York City to work as a Research Assistant with the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit organization focused on sexual and reproductive health. Over the past three years, Alison has contributed to a large number of projects at the Institute, including work on worldwide incidence of unsafe abortion, unmet need for contraception in developing countries and adolescent sexual and reproductive health in Central America. Alison is glad to be back in her native California and hopes to continue working in public health research, focusing on both domestic and international issues.