Rikley Costa Paixao

Rikley is a community research coordinator for the Urban Health Lab in the Center for Health Justice.  

Prior to joining Penn, Rikley was a full-time crisis worker at Montgomery County Mobile Crisis, where he provided crisis intervention to adults and children and gained clinical experience that aligned with his interest in psychology. Rikley has also volunteered for folks in the Brazilian community who require translation assistance.   

Rikley obtained his BA from Bucknell University and his associate’s degree in health care studies from the Community College of Philadelphia (CCP). Through the CHOP Research Institute Summer Scholars Program, he worked on research on the impact of traumatic brain injury and its relation to neurogenesis. 

Social justice is not only a passion of his but an intricate part of Rikley’s identity. He hopes to obtain his master’s in a related field and is currently browsing through his options while taking classes in the MPH department.