Cydney McGuire is a PhD candidate in Health Services Research, Policy, and Administration, with a focus  on Policy. She received her BS in Human Performance specializing in sports medicine from Howard  University and holds an MPH in Community Health and Prevention from Drexel University. She was  previously an NIH T32 pre-doctoral fellow in the Minnesota Obesity Prevention Training Program in the  Division of Epidemiology. She was awarded the 2021-2022 University of Minnesota Doctoral Dissertation  Fellowship to fund her dissertation work. Cydney’s research focuses on the intersection between inequity  in health and inequities in political power and voice. She is interested in how individuals and communities  engage with the political process and evaluating the contextual factors that produce disparities in health  and political power, precluding the achievement of population health equity. She investigates inequities in  chronic health conditions, political participation, and social needs, such as food security.