Center Leadership and Faculty

Meet our leadership and core faculty members who contribute to the important work of the Center.

Core Faculty

These full-time faculty of the Bloomberg School spend a sizable portion of their effort working on injury-related issues, and their disciplinary expertise well represents the diverse disciplines related to injury research, policy, and practice.

Mia Aassar, MPH ’23
Research Associate, Health Policy and Management Aassar uses qualitative methods to implement and evaluate evidence-based programs and policies that reduce the burden of injury. Her research interests include firearm violence prevention, community-based participatory research, health communication and advocacy, and health equity, particularly among LGBTQ+ youth and people of color.

Kamila Alexander, PhD, MSN/MPH, RN
Associate Director, PhD and Postdoctoral Programs and Associate Professor, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. Alexander leads the Center’s Violence Initiative. Her research focuses on prevention of sexual health outcome disparities and the complex roles structural determinants such as intimate partner violence, societal gender expectations, and limited economic opportunities play in the experience of intimate human relationships.

Maria T. Bulzacchelli, PhD ’07
Assistant Research Professor, Health Policy and Management Director, Undergraduate Program in Public Health Studies Bulzacchelli is the Director of the Undergraduate Program in Public Health Studies at the Johns Hopkins University. Her research interests are mainly in the area of injury prevention and control and focus on occupational injuries and safety-related behaviors, especially compliance with safety standards and worker behavior in some of the most hazardous industries in the United States.

Anthony Carlini, MS
Senior Research Associate, Health Policy and Management Director of Informatics and Project Director, Major Extremity Trauma and Rehabilitation Consortium (METRC) Carlini's research interests center on the costs and outcomes of injury, both in a clinical setting and at the system level, as well as the administration, organization and policies of trauma and emergency medical services systems. He currently serves as the director for Informatics and Biostatistics at METRC, a group of more than 80 hospitals conducting clinical trials in orthopedic trauma.

Renan Castillo, PhD ’08, MS ’97, BA ’93 
Professor, Health Policy and Management Director, Major Extremity Trauma and Rehabilitation Consortium (METRC) Castillo’s work in injury prevention focuses on trauma outcomes, pain, orthopedic trauma and health disparities. He is the director of the METRC Coordinating Center.

Cassandra Kercher Crifasi, PhD ’14, MPH 
Associate Professor, Health Policy and Management Crifasi is an injury epidemiologist focused on policies, procedures and practices that improve safety and prevent injury. Her research interests include occupational injury epidemiology, violence prevention, firearm policies and evaluation of policy on public safety.

Johnathon Ehsani, PhD, MPH 
Assistant Professor, Health Policy and Management Director of Research Ehsani's research interests include motor vehicle policies, road safety interventions, teenage drivers and technological innovation for injury prevention.

Shannon Frattaroli, PhD ’99, MPH ’94 
Center Director and Professor, Health Policy and Management Frattaroli has over 20 years of experience in the injury prevention and control field with contributions that span many injury prevention challenges. She is an expert in qualitative research methods, and is particularly interested in using research to inform policy and practice interventions, and to assure that interventions are effectively implemented once in place.

Mary Beth Howard, MD Msc
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Renee M. Johnson, PhD, MPH
Director of Training & Education and Professor, Mental Health Johnson has expertise in injury prevention, including firearm injury, unintentional home injury, youth violence, dating violence and suicide. Her research addresses the health of adolescents and emerging adults, with a focus on substance use and violence. She is particularly interested in vulnerable youth, including low-income urban youth, LGBT youth, immigrants and those exposed to trauma and violence.

Vanya Jones, PhD ’06, MPH
Associate Professor, Health, Behavior and Society Jones’ research explores psychosocial and environmental factors related to injury in vulnerable populations including children, adolescents, and older adults. She designs interventions to reduce the burden of injury on high-risk populations.

Tara Taylor Joseph, MPH
Research Associate, Department of Health Policy & Management

Emily A. Kumpf, MPH ’23
Research Associate, Health Policy and Management Kumpf’s work emphasizes community-engaged research (CEnR) methods with a focus on implementation science and dissemination, advocacy and health equity, and increasing community access to resources. Her research background is in suicide prevention, and she brings a lived experience perspective to her work. In addition to suicide prevention, her research interests include injury and violence prevention, specifically for children and adolescents.

Elizabeth J. Letourneau, PhD 
Professor, Mental Health Director, Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse Letourneau’s research interests intersect around the prevention of child sexual abuse victimization and perpetration. These areas include the evaluation of sex offender public policy effects, the development and evaluation of assessment instruments and clinical interventions addressing youth and adult sex offending behaviors, and the development and evaluation of interventions addressing youth sexual risk behaviors.

Alex McCourt, JD, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management McCourt is a public health lawyer who combines legal research with quantitative methods to study instances in which law plays a role in shaping the public’s health. His research interests include violence prevention, firearm policy, opioid policy, and road safety.

Eileen McDonald, MS 
Senior Scientist, Health, Behavior and Society Program Director, Children’s Safety Centers Associate Director for Translation

Jeff Michael, EdD
Distinguished Scholar, Health Policy and Management Dr. Michael is an accomplished national and international leader with demonstrated leadership in analysis, development, and implementation of programs to improve road safety — both in the United States and in other nations.

Elise Omaki, MHS ’11 
Director of Outreach and Senior Research Associate, Health Policy and Management Omaki studies injury and violence prevention using epidemiologic and data science methods. Her research interests include understanding the role of policies and programs in preventing injury, especially among children and other vulnerable populations.

Keshia Pollack Porter, PhD ’06, MPH 
Professor, Health Policy and Management Director, Institute for Health and Social Policy Director, Occupational Injury Training Program Pollack Porter’s research interests include injury epidemiology, health impact assessment, and mixed methods to advance policies that create safe and healthy environments where people live, work, play, and travel. Her focus is on identifying policy solutions to prevent injuries related to work, obesity, sports and recreation, physical activity, transportation, and the built environment, address social determinants of health, reduce disparities, and advance health equity.

Terri Powell, PhD MA
Vice Chair of Inclusion Diversity, Anti-Racism and Equity (IDARE) and Associate Professor, Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health

Leticia Ryan, MD, MPH 
Director of Research, Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine Associate Professor, Pediatrics Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Wendy Shields, PhD, MPH ’96 
Associate Director and Senior Scientist, Health Policy & Management Shields is an expert in home injury prevention and has extensive experience using national data to understand the epidemiology of scald injury, home fires, and falls prevention. She is an active member of the healthy housing community and partners with tribal communities on injury and violence prevention initiatives nationwide.

Barry Solomon, MD MPH
Assistant Dean for Medical Student Affairs and Professor of Pediatrics, John Hopkins School of Medicine

Jon Vernick, JD, MPH ’94 
Professor, Health Policy and Management Co-Director, Center for Law and the Public’s Health Director of Training and Education

Daniel Webster, ScD ’91, MPH
Bloomberg Professor of American Health Professor, Health Policy and Management Webster’s expertise is in firearm policy and the prevention of youth violence and intimate partner violence. Policy evaluation research is an area of special focus for Webster.

Stephen T. Wegener, PhD
Associate Professor, Health Policy and Management Professor, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Wegener’s research focuses on the application of theory to programs that improve function and reduce disability for persons with chronic illness and impairments, especially those caused by trauma.

Holly Wilcox, PhD ’03, MA 
Professor, Mental Health Wilcox is an expert in psychiatric epidemiology whose work concentrates on suicide prevention. Her research focuses on conducting evidence-based and sustainable community-based universal suicide prevention strategies, intervention trials and translational research to disseminate interventions.