Jimena Romano Silva is a fourth-year Integrative Biology major at UC Berkeley and a Research Assistant in the Environmental Health Sciences Division. Working under Dr. Carly Hyland, she investigates prenatal occupational pesticide exposure among California agricultural workers. Her role includes bilingual data collection through surveys, focus groups, and semi-structured interviews, as well as assisting with biospecimen collection. She also performs Spanish-to-English transcription, conducts policy-oriented literature reviews, and develops accessible materials to communicate biomonitoring results to participants. This work on participant-centered communication informed her co-authorship of a 2026 study in Environmental Research: Health regarding report-back preferences for pregnant agricultural workers.

Outside of the lab, Jimena enjoys photography, soccer, and exploring San Francisco with her sister.