Suleyma Vergara-Tapia

Suleyma Vergara-Tapia is a doctoral candidate in the Sociology department at the CUNY Graduate Center. She received her BA in Economics and Political Science and her Master’s in Public Policy at the University of California, Riverside. Her current research explores how gender, race, language, and place influence health outcomes for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Using Medicare and Medicaid claims data, she examines disparities in dialysis survival, transplant access, and treatment interventions across different regions and patient groups. Her work highlights how inequality persists even within universal programs and seeks to identify policy levers that improve survival and quality of care for marginalized patients.