Zaia is a second year Human Biology and Society major and African American studies minor at UCLA. She has been a research assistant in Dr. Terence Keel’s BioCritical Studies Lab in the Institute of Society and Genetics since the Winter of 2024. Within the lab, she works under the Coroner Reports Project: Death under the U.S. Medical Examiner/Coroner System. This project  studies interactions between the medical examiner/coroner system and law enforcement, how science and medicine are at play during instances of death in custody and how this in turn reduces accountability for law enforcement. Zaia contributes through data entry, as she reads autopsy reports of individuals who have died in custody of law enforcement and answers survey questions that are coded to a National Protocol. Zaia would like to thank Dr. Keel and Grace Sosa for providing her the opportunity to conduct such important research and work with such an amazing team. She is so grateful to have had their mentorship and this experience this school year. She is looking forward to continuing working with the lab in the future quarters. Lastly, she would like to thank the PEERS and CARE Fellows programs for inspiring her journey in research.