When her grandfather was battling late-stage cancer, Emylia Terry and her family made sure he had rides to appointments and access to research trials that would extend his life for another decade.
Later, as a programs and partnerships manager for the American Cancer Society, Terry secured a $30,000 grant to fully fund transportation needs for cancer patients in Southern Nevada. She also managed more than 250 volunteers in three states, some of whom would drive 10-hour days ensuring patients made it to their treatments.
“The stark contrast between what I was seeing at work and what I was seeing in my own home quickly made me realize that access to care is life or death for many Nevadans,” she said.
That commitment to ensuring equitable access to healthcare is the throughline of her career and education. This week, she will cross the commencement stage to accept her Ph.D. in public health with a 3.98 GPA.
As an undergraduate at UNLV, Terry achieved a 4.0 GPA while completing a rare triple bachelor's degree, with majors in psychology, history, and gender sexuality studies, along with a minor in sociology. After working closely with volunteers and hospitals at the American Cancer Society to try and disseminate information in a way that was more digestible and easy to understand, she went on to receive her master’s degree in communication from Johns Hopkins’ Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, where she maintained her 4.0 GPA.
Terry has worked to connect low-income and unrepresented clients to volunteer attorneys as a pre-law clerk for the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada and worked behind-the-scenes for various congressional and legislative offices.
After returning to UNLV to complete her Ph.D., Terry was selected for the prestigious Robert E. Lang Memorial Fellowship, which is awarded each year to a Ph.D. student completing a dissertation in metropolitan public policy. In the spring, she presented her dissertation on the public health costs experienced by LGBTQ+ people and how to bolster existing mental health infrastructure for that community.
David Damore, The Lincy Institute and Brookings Mountain West executive director, said Terry's diverse academic training and experience with public policy “jumped off the page.”
After graduating this past summer, Terry has returned to the School of Public Health this fall as a visiting assistant professor, teaching more than 100 students whose shoes she once occupied.
“I’m an instructor now, but I’m very much a student always,” she said. “I learn alongside the students.”
She calls it a full-circle moment for her story at UNLV, where her husband is currently a student and where her parents – both UNLV alumni – first met.
“This is my home, this is my community,” she said. “It’s literally been such a formative thing for my whole family. Thanks to UNLV we’ve had all these opportunities.”
She also is continuing her education as a JD candidate at the UNLV Boyd School of Law, which she hopes to use to continue advocating for the most vulnerable communities in Nevada.
