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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 candidate
  • Health Equity and Social Justice
  • Research Interest: Evaluate and improve representation in patient recruitment in clinical trials

Breanna Calhoun, MS

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

Rashida Callender, MPH

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

Mia Campbell, MHS

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  • PhD candidate
  • Department of Mental Health
  • Research Interest: Evaluate health equity in adolescent mental health and prevention

Aja Clarke, MPH

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  • PhD candidate
  • 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

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  • DrPH candidate
  • Health Equity and Social Justice
  • Research Interest: Evaluate how health equity intersects with Black birth equity and maternal mental health and disparities

Sierra Grey-Coker

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

Indya Hairston, MPH

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  • DrPH candidate 
  • Health Equity and Social Justice
  • Research Interest: Use community-based research to understand the intersection of health equity with Black women's sexual and reproductive health as well as maternal health

Oscar Lopez, MPH

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  • PhD candidate
  • Department of Environmental Health and Engineering
  • Research Interest: Environmental justice, built environmental factors, mental health, and contaminant exposures among disadvantaged populations

Kenneth Massey, MS, MPH, MLS

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  • DrPH candidate
  • 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

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

Maria Moncayo, MPH

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  • DrPH candidate
  • 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

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  • PhD candidate
  • 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 candidate
  • Health Equity and Social Justice
  • Resesarch Interest: Child health, nutrition, and infection diseases

Paulo Pontemayor, MPH

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  • DrPH candidate
  • Department of Health Policy and Management
  • Research Interest: Evaluate at health care financing and federal health policy

Michael Ramirez, MPH

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  • PhD candidate
  • 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

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  • DrPH candidate
  • Health Equity and Social Justice
  • Research Interest: Evaluate community health and partnerships, the decolonization of public health, the impact of social determinants of health, and maternal, newborn, and child health