Segen Zeray is a Project Manager on the Refugee Health Unit Team. She graduated with her B.A. (with a minor in Human Developmental Sciences) and M.A. in Global Health from UC San Diego. Much of the research and experience she has garnered within her academic and professional career has involved creating/designing programs, and projects, and conducting scholarly research/written work that has centered around the clinical and mental health outcomes of some of the most vulnerable displaced refugee youth populations, specifically from East Africa. Segen is a first-generation Eritrean-American who sought asylum in the States with her family as war refugees. She deeply connects with the endeavors and efforts within the non-profit global health field and the RHU, on both a personal and professional level. She is passionate about highlighting social determinants of health, and the ways in which receiving safe, trauma-informed support can buffer and mitigate negative clinical and mental health outcomes of refugee populations. Segen is dedicated to promoting health equity, health education, community engagement, community-based participatory research, and holistic support through a lens of cultural humility and sensitivity.

She has had diverse opportunities of working with much younger age groups in the classroom, through the non-profit organization Social Advocates for Youth San Diego (S.A.Y. San Diego) managing elementary and middle school students through trauma-informed care while leading and organizing various enrichment activities, providing academic support, and food distribution. She was responsible for much of the same tasks within her own East-African Immigrant community, via the SD Refugee Tutoring Program, and the City Heights Community Development Corp – Metro Villas Community Center, in addition to organizing a Food Drive in support of fellow refugee and immigrant families receiving services. As a former Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Global Health Department at UC San Diego, she has had the opportunity to work closely with both small classroom sections, and large lecture halls managing up to 200+ college students from diverse backgrounds. She has assisted Global and Public Health Professors and Researchers in supporting student learning and participation, acting as a liaison, coordinating, and leading meetings, and worked on global and public health-based curriculum development.

Segen joined the Center for Community Health in 2024.