College of Medicine graduate student selected as UF Health Cancer Institute Public Service Fellow
Niela Kleinsmith will work in Rep. Darren Soto’s office, helping inform important healthcare decisions, policies
Sept. 9, 2026 — Patient advocacy takes many forms. Sometimes, it’s the simple act of sitting bedside, holding a gentle hand. Other times, it’s offering a few compassionate words or lending your voice to amplify a patient’s needs. And for one University of Florida graduate student a year, it means directly shaping healthcare policy at the federal level.
Kleinsmith outside the U.S. Capitol building.
Camille Delay
Niela Kleinsmith, a UF College of Medicine graduate student in the online Medical Physiology and Aging Master’s program, was selected as the 2026 UF Health Cancer Institute Public Service Fellow. Working in Rep. Darren Soto’s office, she researches complex legislative and scientific topics, helping inform important healthcare decisions and policies for the nation.
“Being awarded the UF Health Cancer Institute Public Service Fellowship is realizing a dream,” she said. “I am deeply grateful, and I’m really looking forward to learning the law-making process and to helping shape future healthcare policies.”
Kleinsmith’s role is primarily focused on issues related to cancer prevention and treatment. She also holds a deep passion for women’s health and geriatric medicine, two focuses of her graduate research in the College of Medicine.
“This fellowship fits in so well with my master’s program,” she said. “The average age of a cancer diagnosis is 66 years, but it’s something that’s preventable 20 years earlier. I’m very much hoping to be able to have an impact on some of these patients.”
Kleinsmith outside Rep. Soto's office.
Andrea Valdes
Before becoming a Gator, Kleinsmith spent decades traveling the world with her family. She studied healthcare business, learning how different countries’ care systems worked, and served as an advocate for elderly and palliative care patients in the Netherlands, France and the U.S. She also has a background in mechanical engineering, having worked in research and tech policy prior to shifting careers.
“I’m a nontraditional master’s student, so I’ve had one, or rather several, careers prior to doing this,” she said. “But my interest in medicine was really piqued when I started working as a care manager and patient advocate … I saw a lot of things that needed changing. I wanted to become a doctor or a policymaker for patients to receive the most effective, most beneficial and lowest-cost healthcare possible.”
Kleinsmith applied for and was accepted into a medical school program but wasn’t able to attend. Instead, she found the UF medical physiology and aging master’s program. It was reputable and easily accessible online. It focused on physiology and elderly populations, which she knew and loved. And when she called to get more information, someone actually answered the phone.
“I was really glad to find a program that offered all of that,” she said. “It blended everything I was looking for. It felt like a perfect fit for me.”
The coursework and research were so engaging, she considered applying to a Ph.D. track. But then she discovered the public service fellowship, and all the pieces came together.
Xiao inside his UF research laboratory.
“Niela is the first student from our program to do this fellowship,” said Rui Xiao, Ph.D., an associate professor in the UF Department of Physiology and Aging and one of Kleinsmith’s mentors. “It’s very unique. Her experience will be more about the public relationship to promote science, to promote communication between UF Health cancer research and policymakers. I think it’s wonderful.”
Xiao first met Kleinsmith in fall 2025, when she took his graduate course, Research Methods in Gerontology. She asked a lot of questions, trying to understand the research from multiple perspectives. By the end of the semester, she’d earned the title of unofficial class tutor from her peers.
“Niela is a wonderful student and researcher,” Xiao said. “She enjoys digging deeply into research questions and going down more rabbit holes than is expected or asked.”
In May, he agreed to serve as her reference for the public service fellowship application. When she emailed him again a month later to share the good news, he replied in less than 60 seconds: “Excellent Niela! I feel so happy for you!”
The Xiao lab at UF.
“I was so thrilled,” Xiao said. “I hope she can be a good bridge between biomedical research and our policymakers in Congress. Many policymakers don’t have a medical background, so it’s so important to give them the relevant information about what’s going on in medical schools and why it’s important, especially with cancer research.”
After her time in D.C., Kleinsmith will continue her studies, aiming to graduate in 2027. Assistant professor Alex Yoon, Ph.D., M.P.H., will serve as her UF Health Cancer Institute mentor during the fellowship.
