HBS Doctoral Students — Last Names A-M
Learn about our doctoral students' interests, research, and more. Last names A-M.
Fernanda Alonso
About

Pronouns: She/her/hers
Year entered: 2018
Previous degrees: Master of Laws in Global Health Law (Georgetown University); Bachelor of Laws (Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico)
Research and Scholarship
Research and practice interests: Drug policy; harm reduction; tobacco control; food policy; law and public health; regulation of NCD risk factors
Dissertation proposal title: The role of Structural Stigma in the Regulation and Implementation of Medication for Opioid Use Disorder in Maryland
Selected publications:
Courses taught:
- Policy Interventions for Human Behavior Change
- Public Health Perspectives on U.S. Drug Policy
- Children, Media, and Health
- Using Software in Qualitative Research and Analysis
Contact
Email: falonso1@jhmi.edu
Advisor: Joanna Cohen, PhD
Zachary Catanzarite
About

Pronouns: He/him/his; they/them/theirs
Year entered: 2016
Previous degrees: Master of Arts in Psychology (New York University); Master of Arts in Sociology (University of Florida); Bachelor of Science (University of Florida)
Research and Scholarship
Research and practice interests: Interests incorporate psychology, sociology, economics and public health; global health, health disparities, injury and violence prevention, and public mental health; intersection of socioeconomic inequality, social support, and mental health; how race, gender, men and masculinities, and political economy shape suicide, violence, and oppression; advanced methods and analyses
Dissertation proposal title: Suicide ideation in a community sample of Blacks in Baltimore, MD
Selected publications:
- Correlates of Patterns of Health Values of African Americans Living With HIV/AIDS: Implications for Advance Care Planning and HIV Palliative Care
- Support Network Factors Associated With Naming a Health Care Decision-Maker and Talking About Advance Care Planning Among People Living With HIV
- Quality of Life Among Caregivers of a Vulnerable Population Living with HIV: Caregiving and Relationship Factors
- Gendered Paths to Asset Accumulation? Markets, Savings, and Credit in Developing Countries
- Do men and women estimate property values differently?
Courses taught:
- Health and Homelessness
- Psychosocial Factors in Health and Illness
Contact
Email: zcatanz1@jhu.edu
Advisor: Carl Latkin, PhD
Catherine Clair
About

Pronouns: She/her/hers
Year entered: 2020
Previous degrees: Master of Health Science (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health); Bachelor of Arts in Medical Anthropology and Music Performance (Case Western Reserve University)
Research and Scholarship
Research and practice interests: How the integration between the networks of informal and formal care impacts the health and wellbeing of older adults
Selected publications:
- Refining a Taxonomy of Goals for Older Adults With Functional Limitations and Their Caregivers to Inform Care Planning
- Standardised approach to measuring goal-based outcomes among older disabled adults: results from a multisite pilot
- Mitigating End-of-Life Burden: Parallel Perspectives of Physician-Patients & Family Caregivers
Contact
Email: cclair1@jhu.edu
Advisor: Amy Knowlton, ScD; Karin Tobin, PhD
Carmen Cronin
About

Pronouns: She/her/hers
Year entered: 2018
Previous degrees: Master of Public Health (Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health)
Research and Scholarship
Research and practice interests: Health communication; global health; program evaluation; evaluation research; participatory research; social norms; gender; violence; maternal and child health; adolescent health
Selected publications:
- Measurement and conceptualisation of attitudes and social norms related to discrimination against children with disabilities: A systematic review
- ACT: An evidence-based macro framework to examine how communication approaches can change social norms around female genital mutilation
- How does a social and behavioral change communication intervention predict menstrual health and hygiene management: A cross-sectional study
Courses taught:
- Contemporary Social Movements in Public Health
- Sociological Perspectives on Health
- Contemporary Issues in Health Communication
- Introduction to Persuasive Communications: Theories and Practice
- Health Communication Programs 1: Planning and Strategic Design
- Health Communication Programs II: Implementation and Evaluation
Contact
Email: ccroni10@jhmi.edu
Advisors: Stella Babalola, PhD; Douglas Storey, PhD
Carolyn Ellison
About

Pronouns: She/her/hers
Year entered: 2019
Previous degrees: Master of Public Policy (University of Maryland, College Park); Bachelor of Arts in Economics (University of Maryland, College Park)
Research and Scholarship
Research and practice interests: Role of interpersonal interactions in public assistance enrollment trends, enrollment experiences, and health outcomes of public assistance recipients; impact of welfare stigma, discrimination, workload/caseload management, program prioritization, and policy changes
Contact
Email: celliso5@jh.edu
Advisor: Katherine Clegg Smith, PhD
Evan Eschliman
About

Pronouns: He/him/his
Year entered: 2020
Previous degrees: Master of Science (Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health); Bachelor of Arts (University of Chicago)
Research and Scholarship
Research and practice interests: Culturally and structurally responsive stigma interventions; social policy and development; dissemination and implementation science; global mental health; health, power, and status disparities; mixed methods research; aging and health of older adults
Selected publications:
- The Immigrant Mental Health Advantage in the US among Ethnic Minority and other Groups: Findings and Potential Mechanisms
- Police Transparency is a Public Health Issue, Too
Contact
Email: eeschli1@jh.edu
Advisor: Michelle Kaufman, PhD
Shannon Fuller
About

Pronouns: She/her/hers
Year entered: 2021
Previous degrees: Master of Science in Global Health (University of California, San Francisco); Bachelor of Science in Biology (Rhodes College)
Research and Scholarship
Research and practice interests: Multi-level interventions; implementation science and evaluation research; peer support; community health; access to and engagement in care; patient-provider communication; stigma reduction; law and policy; local and global health
Selected publications:
- A peer intervention reduces loneliness and improves social well-being in low-income older adults: A mixed-methods study
- Medical-legal partnerships to support continuity of care for immigrants impacted by HIV: Lessons learned from California
- Documenting best practices for maintaining access to HIV prevention, care and treatment in an era of shifting immigration policy and discourse
- Patient and provider experiences from HIV clinics in the United States that integrated primary care
- Attitudes about community pharmacy access to HIV prevention medications in California
Contact
Email: sfulle14@jhu.edu
Advisor: Jill Owczarzak, PhD
Darriel Harris
About
Year entered: 2015
Contact
Email: dharr119@jhu.edu
Amelia Jamison
About

Pronouns: She/her/hers
Year entered: 2020
Previous degrees: Master of Public Health in Epidemiology (University of Maryland); Master of Applied Anthropology (University of Maryland); Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and History (Pennsylvania State University)
Research and Scholarship
Research and practice interests: Health misinformation; vaccine acceptance; health equity
Selected publications:
- Not Just Conspiracy theories: How Vaccine Opponents and Proponents add to the ‘Infodemic’ Surrounding COVID-19 on Twitter
- 'I’m a little more trusting': Components of Trustworthiness in the Decision to Participate in Genomics Research for African Americans
- The COVID-19 Social Media Infodemic Reflects Uncertainty and State-Sponsored Propaganda
- Using Classification and Regression Tree Analysis to Explore Parental Influenza Vaccine Decisions
- Vaccine-Related Advertising in the Facebook Ad Archive
Contact
Email: ajamiso5@jhmi.edu
Advisor: Rajiv Rimal, PhD
Bee-Ah Kang
About

Pronouns: She/her/hers
Year entered: 2021
Previous degrees: Master of Science in Public Health (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health), Master of Arts in Communication (Seoul National University), Bachelor of Arts in Communication (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Research and Scholarship
Research and practice interests: Social determinants of health; health communication; global health; social norms; gender; program evaluation; mHealth/eHealth intervention; maternal and child health; mixed methods; multilevel approaches to health behavior change
Selected publications:
- Perceived sources of occupational burn-out and embitterment among front-line health workers for COVID-19 control in Gyeonggi province, South Korea: a qualitative study
- Knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) toward COVID-19: a cross-sectional study in South Korea
- Microenterprise intervention to reduce sexual risk behaviors and increase employment and HIV preventive practices among economically‑vulnerable African‑American young adults (EMERGE): a feasibility randomized clinical trial
- A moderated mediation model of the relationship between media, social capital, and cancer knowledge
Courses Taught
- Qualitative Data Analysis Qualitative Research Theory and Methods
Contact
Email: beeah.kang@jhu.edu
Advisor: Rajiv Rimal, PhD
Edwina Kisanga
About

Pronouns: They/them/theirs
Year entered: 2021
Previous degrees: Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry (Yale University)
Research and Scholarship
Research and practice interests: Structural determinants of health, intersectionality, transgender healthcare, reproductive justice, qualitative methods
Contact
Email: ekisang1@jhmi.edu
Advisors: Katherine Clegg Smith, PhD
Laura Kroart
About

Pronouns: She/her/hers
Year entered: 2017
Previous degrees: Master of Health Science (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health); Bachelor of Arts in American Studies and Community Health (Tufts University)
Research and Scholarship
Research and practice interests: Substance use, opioids, policy interventions, youth culture, new media, social media
Courses taught:
- Contemporary Social Movements in Public Health
Contact
Email: lkroart1@jhu.edu
Advisors: Katherine Clegg Smith, PhD; Danielle German, PhD
Chenery Lowe
About

Pronouns: She/her/hers
Year entered: 2019
Previous degrees: Master of Science in Genetic Counseling (Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health), Bachelor of Arts (Kenyon College)
Research and Scholarship
Research and practice interests: Patient-provider communication, genetic counseling, genomics, educational interventions, clinical training, implicit bias, healthcare equity, health literacy
Dissertation proposal title: A Remote Web-Based Approach to Assessing and Developing Genetic Counseling Students' Patient-Centered Communication Skills
Selected publications:
- Individuation and implicit racial bias in genetic counseling communication
- Genetic counselor implicit bias and its effects on cognitive and affective exchanges in racially discordant simulations
Courses taught:
- Health Literacy: Challenges and Strategies for Effective Communication
- Interpersonal Influence in Medical Care
Contact
Email: clowe7@jhu.edu
Advisors: Debra Roter, DrPH; Sara Benjamin Neelon, PhD
Kristy Marynak
About

Pronouns: She/her/hers
Year entered: 2019
Previous degrees: Master of Public Policy (Duke University); Bachelor of Arts in Political Science (Davidson College)
Research and Scholarship
Research and practice interests: Youth tobacco prevention and tobacco industry monitoring
Selected publications:
- State and Territorial Laws Prohibiting Sales of Tobacco Products to Persons Aged <21 Years — United States
- Use and reasons for use of electronic vapour products shaped like USB flash drives among a national sample of adults
- E-cigarette advertising expenditures in the United States, 2014-2018
- Self-reported exposure to, perceptions about, and attitudes about public marijuana smoking among US adults, 2018
- Age of tobacco use initiation and association with current use and nicotine dependence among US middle and high school students, 2014-2016
Contact
Email: kmaryna1@jhu.edu
Advisor: Meghan Bridgid Moran, PhD
Kiara Mayhand
About

Pronouns: She/her/hers
Year entered: 2021
Previous degrees: Master of Public Health in Epidemiology and Health Analytics (The College of New Jersey), Bachelor of Science (The College of New Jersey)
Research and Scholarship
Research and practice interests: Racial health disparities, structural and environmental inequities, maternal and child health
Selected publications:
Contact
Email: kmayhan1@jhu.edu
Advisors: Lisa Cooper, MD; Janice Bowie, PhD
Obie McNair
About

Pronouns: He/him/his
Year entered: 2019
Previous degrees: Master of Public Health (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill); Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communications, emphasis in Public Relations (Tougaloo College)
Research and Scholarship
Research and practice interests: Black men's health and health disparities; HIV/STIs among members of the LGBTQ+ community
Courses taught:
- Critcal Issues in Health Disparities
Contact
Email: omcnair1@jh.edu
Advisor: Roland J. Thorpe Jr., PhD