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Health Equity Scholars Doctoral Programs

Meet Our Health Equity Scholars

These students are eager to examine and dismantle racist and discriminatory health and wellness structures. Impatient to make a difference in their communities, they are developing equitable public health interventions that will help people thrive both across the United States and around the world.

Vanessa Boadi, MHSA

Headshot of Health Equity Scholar Vanessa Boadi
  • DrPH student
  • Health Equity and Social Justice
  • Research Interest: Evaluate and improve representation in patient recruitment in clinical trials

Breanna Calhoun, MS

Headshot of Breanna Calhoun
  • PhD student
  • Department of Population and Family Reproductive Health
  • Research Interest: Understand and address U.S. disparities in maternal health

Rashida Callender, MPH

Headshot of Rashida Callender
  • PhD student
  • Department of Environmental Health and Engineering
  • Research Interest: Evaluate environmental justice and climate resilience using a health equity lens

Mia Campbell, MHS

Headshot of Mia Campbell
  • PhD student
  • Department of Mental Health
  • Research Interest: Evaluate health equity in adolescent mental health and prevention

Aja Clarke, MPH

Headshot of Aja Clarke
  • PhD student
  • Department of Population and Family Reproductive Health
  • Research Interest: Evaluate adolescent health, sexual and reproductive health, and menstruation using a health equity lens

Ameilia Cobb, MPH

Headshot of Ameilia Cobb
  • DrPH student
  • Health Equity and Social Justice
  • Research Interest: Evaluate how health equity intersects with Black birth equity and maternal mental health and disparities

Indya Hairston, MPH

Headshot of Indya Hairston
  • DrPH student 
  • Health Equity and Social Justice
  • Research Interest: Evaluate and understand the intersection of health equity with Black women's sexual and reproductive health as well as maternal health, using community-based research methods. 

Oscar Lopez, MPH

Headshot of Oscar Lopez
  • PhD student
  • Department of Environmental Health and Engineering
  • Research Interest: Evaluate the built environment, mental health, and contaminant exposures among disadvantaged populations to address environmental justice

Kenneth Massey, MS, MPH, MLS

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  • DrPH student
  • Health Equity and Social Justice
  • Research Interest: Analyze how social determinants of health increase the incidence and prevalence of communicable and non-communicable disease in minority populations

 

Kiara Mayhand, MPH

Headshot of Kiara Mayhand
  • PhD student
  • Department of Health, Behavior and Science
  • Research Interest: Investigate the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in healthcare, particularly for predictive modeling and clinical decision-making

Maria Moncayo, MPH

Headshot of Maria Moncayo
  • DrPH student
  • Health Equity and Social Justice
  • Research Interest: Investigate the social determinants of health and their impact on refugee and other vulnerable populations' health

Kyle Moon

Headshot of Kyle Moon
  • PhD student
  • Department of Mental Health
  • Research Interest: Evaluate overdose prevention and harm reduction as well as social epidemiology

Tahmina Parvin, MSc

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  • DrPH student
  • Health Equity and Social Justice
  • Research Interest: Evaluate factors involved in child health, nutrition, and infection diseases vis-à-vis health equity

Paulo Pontemayor, MPH

Headshot of Paulo Pontemayor
  • DrPH student
  • Department of Health Policy and Management
  • Research Interest: Understand and evaluate health care financing and federal health care policy vis-à-vis health equity initiatives

Michael Ramirez, MPH

Michael Ramirez is a Health Equity Scholar PhD student
  • PhD student
  • Department of Mental Health
  • Research Interest: Evaluate harm reduction, the impacts of trauma, opioid use disorder, dual treatment for comorbidities, and socioeconomics as a risk factor

Barbara Wong, MPH

Headshot of Barbara Wong
  • DrPH student
  • Health Equity and Social Justice
  • Research Interest: Evaluate community health and partnerships, the impact of social determinants of health, and maternal, newborn, and child health

Sierra Grey-Coker

Sierra Grey-Coker
  • PhD candidate
  • Department of Biostatistics
  • Research Interest: Using statistical methods, evaluate positive public health outcomes to reduce health disparities