T32 Training Program Trainees and Faculty

Dr. Umoh holds a bachelor's degree in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science and a Doctor of Medicine and a Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience from Emory University. She completed her Internal Medicine residency training at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Internal Medicine Residency Program. She recently completed the Johns Hopkins University clinical fellowship in Geriatric Medicine. She is board certified in Internal Medicine. Her research aims to improve health outcomes for older adults with cognitive decline. She is interested in improving our understanding of the overlap between delirium and dementia in older adults and the social, demographic, and biological factors that influence this relationship. Additionally, she is interested in social connections in older adults and identification of risk and protective factors for social isolation in older adults to decrease this detrimental condition that has been closely linked to dementia. As a part of her T32 training, she plans to combine her prior clinical and research training to use patient biomarker data and survey data available from large national cohorts to better understand the effect of delirium on cognitive decline, and the influence of social and demographic factors on these trajectories. As a fellow she was awarded the John R. Burton Scholarship, an award designed to encourage interdisciplinary and interprofessional scholarly activities dedicated to improving the care of older adults.  She is an active member of the American Geriatric society and the American Delirium society.

Emerald Jenkins, PhD, DNP, AGPCNP-BC, MSN, RN is a postdoctoral fellow appointed to the T32 training program in the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing (JHUSON). Dr. Jenkins holds a bachelor's degree in biology with minors in sociology, genetics, health/medicine and human values from North Carolina State University, a master's degrees in medical science and nursing from Hampton University and JHUSON respectively, and dual doctoral degrees as a PhD and DNP-Advanced Practice from JHUSON. Jenkins’ varied roles in healthcare include candy striper, Certified Nursing Assistant, medical assistant, psychiatric nurse, a primary care nurse practitioner and caregiver for her grandmother with dementia. Jenkins’ short-term goals are to evaluate: (1) the process of pain evaluation in dyads (older adults and their care partners) and clinicians in different settings of care, (2) the relationships of outcomes impacting pain, and (3) the effects of congruence of pain evaluation amongst dyads and clinicians. She considers it her long-term career goals and professional motivation to: (1) improve physical and mental health outcomes related to cognitive impairment in persons with risk factors for dementia, and (2) develop community-engaged data-driven interventions impacting physical and mental health outcomes in older adults with pain and dementia.

Chae is a postdoctoral research fellow jointly in the Health Services and Outcomes Research in Aging Populations T32 program and the General Internal Medicine Fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. She received her bachelor’s degree at the University of Virginia and subsequently pursued a Doctorate of Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School. She completed her Internal Medicine residency training at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and a clinical fellowship in Obesity Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She is a board-certified Internal Medicine Physician. Her research interest focuses on improving health outcomes in older adults with obesity and developing feasible, safe, and effective lifestyle interventions to increase quality of life and prevent frailty in older adults with obesity. As a part of her T32 training, she is pursuing a Masters in Health Science through the Graduate Training Program in Clinical Investigation (GTPCI) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Through her research, she hopes to fill the gaps in knowledge in the care of older adults with obesity and impact clinical practice habits.

Zhang Zhang, Ph.D., MSc, is a post-doctoral fellow appointed jointly in the Health Services and Outcomes Research in Aging Populations T32 program and the Hopkins Business of Health Initiative (HBHI). Her current research focuses on technology innovation (e.g. digital health and health information systems) and policies to improve health service delivery and outcome for complex health conditions. She is also interested in life-course aging, long-term care and integrated care for older adults. Her expertise concentrates on causal inference methods in quantitative modeling, and applied economics approaches for randomized (RCT) and non-randomized (quasi-experimental) designs in the evaluation of policy and clinical interventions. She received her Ph.D. in Health Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was predoctoral trainee at Carolina Population Center.  She earned her MSc in Health policy, Planning, and Financing from the London School of Economics (LSE) & London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). Her research and work experience includes designing interventions, policies, and strategies for long-term care systems and service delivery at the World Bank Group and the World Health Organization. 

Sarah Jabour, MD holds a B.A. in Public Health and International Studies with a minor in Social Policy from Johns Hopkins University and an M.D. from the University of Michigan. She joined as a postdoctoral fellow on the Health Services and Outcomes Research in Aging Populations T32 Training Program after completing her second year of general surgery residency at Johns Hopkins. During her academic development time, she will pursue a PhD in Clinical Investigation through the Graduate Training Program in Clinical Investigation (GTPCI) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is passionate about integrating frailty assessments and interventions into surgical care with a particular emphasis on quality of life outcomes and the role of the social determinants of health. She is also looking forward to learning about implementation science at the health systems level to address the surgical needs and peri-operative risks of aging and frail patients. 

Alexa Bragg is a doctoral student in Health Services Research and Policy in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Alexa’s research interests include the organizational behavior of nonprofit and for-profit long-term care institutions, as well as the evolving role of alternative care delivery models in home health. Alexa received her MPH and MBA from Boston University in 2023. Prior to pursuing her doctoral degree, Alexa served as an Associate Health Transformation Analyst for MITRE’s VA Enterprise & Healthcare Operations Transformation Department. In addition, Alexa supported ongoing socio-behavioral and health service research projects at Boston Medical Center for the Department of Family Medicine.

Davoodi is a second-year Health Services Research and Policy doctoral student in the Department of Health Policy and Management. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Physiology and Neuroscience from the University of California, San Diego, and a Master of Public Health from the Brown University School of Public Health. Prior to coming to Hopkins, she was a Senior Data Analyst at the Center for Gerontology and Healthcare Research within the Brown University School of Public Health leveraging claims data to assess policy questions specific to End-stage renal disease. She also worked as an Emergency Medical Technician throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Davoodi’s research interests include examining policies and programs pertaining to the health care older adults in the United States, specifically in the areas of financing, delivery, spending, organization, and health outcomes.

Jopson is a fifth-year Health Services Research and Policy doctoral student in the Department of Health Policy and Management. His research interests focus on understanding how Medicaid-funded long-term services and supports influence the care experiences of older adults with disabilities and their caregivers. He is also interested in policies and programs that support direct care workers caring for people with disabilities. Jopson received his bachelor’s degree at the University of California, Berkeley and his MPH at the University of Washington (UW) School of Public Health. Prior to coming to Hopkins, he was a Research Scientist in the Department of Family Medicine at UW where he worked on HRSA-funded projects related to the health workforce including, rural primary care provider training and health care apprenticeships for allied health workers.