2023-2024 Scholars
Sarah Ascienzo
Sarah Ascienzo, PhD, LCSW (she/her/hers) is an Assistant Professor in the School of
Social Work at North Carolina State University. She has over 15 years of clinical
practice experience, including work as a trauma-focused therapist in community- and
school-based settings, and child forensic interviewer. In her clinical work, Dr. Ascienzo
specialized in the treatment of complex psychological trauma, and worked extensively
with child welfare- and juvenile justice-involved youth and individuals impacted by
chronic sexual and interpersonal violence. In addition to being trained in several
empirically-supported treatments, she frequently employs mind-body and other complementary
and integrative approaches to support clients in their healing process and promote
well-being. Greatly informed by her clinical practice experience, Dr. Ascienzo’s program
of research focuses on efforts to (1) examine the impact of traumatic and stressful
events on well-being and (2) further understand the role of risk and protective factors
across levels of the ecological system in shaping well-being and mental health in
personal and professional realms in order to (3) further identify pathways for prevention
and intervention, all toward the goal of (4) developing, testing, refining, adapting
and/or implementing culturally-responsive, effective, and scalable interventions that
aim to mitigate health disparities and improve health- and wellbeing-related outcomes.
Katherine Carroll Britt
Katherine C. Britt, PhD, MSN, RN is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Biobehavioral
Health at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing in the NewCourtland Center
for Transitions and Health, Assistant Director of Luci Baines Johnson and Ian J. Turpin
Center for Gerontological Nursing at The University of Texas at Austin, a Translational
Research Scientist at BrainCheck, and a Psychology/Mental Health Jonas Scholar 2021-2023.
Dr. Britt’s pre-doctoral dissertation work focused on spiritual and religious practice
associations in older adults with cognitive impairment and dementia with symptoms
of dementia progression. Her postdoctoral work focuses on identifying resilience factors
(i.e., spirituality and religion) for cognitive and brain health in older Black and
White adults. Her clinical experience includes critical care, rheumatology, nephrology,
and gerontology. Trained in spirituality, religion and health research, and precision
health, Dr. Britt has conducted qualitative and quantitative studies. Her research
focuses on identifying psychosocial protective factors to inform culturally inclusive
interventions for persons at greater risk for dementia and cognitive decline and their
caregivers to reduce disparities in cognitive aging and brain health.
Molly Copeland
Dr. Molly Copeland is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Michigan
State University. She received her PhD in Sociology from Duke University. Her research
explores how social networks relate to mental health across the life course. Recent
work examines how peer network structure and content interact to shape adolescent
depression and self-harm, how adolescent networks predict long-term mental health
in adulthood, and how older adults’ networks create risk or resilience during the
early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her work is published in the Journal of Health
and Social Behavior, Social Forces, and Journal of Gerontology: Series B. She is interested
in further understanding the complex interplay between health and networks by examining
social networks, physical health, and mental health across the life course.
Jendayi Dillard
Dr. Jendayi Dillard received her Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Psychology with
a focus on Human Development, Culture, and Learning Sciences with a Master of Education
in Quantitative Methods from The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Dillard's past
scholarly work has explored the nature of racial disparities in education. Currently,
her research explores potential protective factors for racial and ethnic minority
families experiencing pediatric asthma.
Charlotte Farewell
Dr. Charlotte Farewell is an Assistant Professor with the Rocky Mountain Prevention
Research Center and Director of the Population Mental Health and Well-being program
at the Colorado School of Public Health. For over a decade, she has been implementing
interventions rooted in community-based participatory research as well as research
and evaluation projects that utilize a unique combination of mixed methods in national
and international settings. Dr. Farewell is currently Principal Investigator of a
training grant funded by the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities
(Mothers Optimizing Resources Everyday (MORE); 1K01MD016928) where the primary research
objective is to integrate advanced analytical modeling with qualitative data to inform
the timing, duration, content and delivery modalities of a multi-level psychological
capital intervention rooted in mindfulness-based best practices to promote perinatal
well-being among specific low-resourced sub-groups. Her research experience is centered
around three overarching goals: (1) to build expertise related to the analysis of
developmental research questions using quantitative and qualitative methods, with
specific focus on mental health (depression, stress, and anxiety) during sensitive
periods (prenatal, postpartum, early childhood, adolescence and emerging adulthood),
(2) to investigate non-pharmacological methods (e.g. mindfulness and positive psychology
interventions) that can be targeted and/or mobilized to optimize population mental
health and resilience in multi-ethnic and low-resourced communities, and (3) to advance
research in the field of dissemination science to identify core constructs that are
most critical to enhance the uptake of evidence-based behavioral interventions into
community and clinical settings.
Angela Groves
Dr. Angela Groves is an Assistant Professor of Nursing in the Bronson School of Nursing
at Western Michigan University. She earned a PhD in Nursing from Hampton University.
Dr. Groves primary research interest is in the area of health disparities among midlife,
and older African American women with hypertension. Dr. Groves has published articles
related to low-sodium dietary perceptions among African American women with hypertension.
Dr. Groves was selected as a 2020-2021National Institutes of Health, National Heart,
Lung, and Blood Institute, Programs to Increase Diversity among Individuals Engaged
in Health-Related Research (PRIDE) scholar. Her current research focuses on a peer
(dyadic) support intervention to improve diet adherence and reduce systolic blood
pressure among African American women with hypertension. Dr. Groves current research
is funded by the Daisy Foundation Grant and an internal grant.
Cal Halvorsen
Cal J. Halvorsen, PhD, MSW, is an assistant professor at the Boston College School
of Social Work, a project lead and investigator at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of
Public Health Center for Work, Health, and Well-being, and a senior fellow at CoGenerate.
His work examines aging societies and the need and desire for people past midlife
to work in paid and unpaid roles past traditional retirement age, with particular
emphasis on self-employment, entrepreneurship, encore careers, and volunteering. His
research has been funded by the U.S. Social Security Administration, the National
Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, AmeriCorps Seniors, CoGenerate, and
more. Cal’s op-eds on later-life entrepreneurship and ageism have been published in
Fast Company, Next Avenue, and Forbes. His work on older workers has also been featured
in The New York Times, The Washington Post, BBC, AARP, MarketWatch, and more. He is
a graduate of both the MSW and Ph.D. programs at the Brown School at Washington University
in St. Louis and earned his BA from the University of Iowa in his hometown of Iowa
City.
Yanping Jiang
Yanping Jiang, PhD, is an instructor in the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy
and Aging Research and Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at Rutgers
University. She received her Ph.D. in Health Promotion, Education and Behavior from
the University of South Carolina and completed a 2-year postdoctoral training in Health
Psychology at Wayne State University. Her research interests are stress and physical
health, health disparities, and resilience. Specifically, she is interested in identifying
biopsychosocial processes linking neighborhood and psychosocial stressors to poor
physical health, particularly cardiometabolic health. She is also interested in investigating
resilience factors at the neighborhood, family, and individual levels that can alleviate
the negative impact of stress on health.
Guadalupe Marquez-Velarde
Dr. Guadalupe Marquez-Velarde is a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Sociology at
Utah State University. She earned a Ph.D. in sociology from Texas A&M University in
2018, where she specialized in demography and population health. Her research examines
how the lived experience of belonging to more than one socially disadvantaged or marginalized
population is associated with adverse physical and mental health outcomes, with a
current emphasis on sexual and gender minorities of color. In 2021, Dr. Marquez-Velarde
was awarded a Career Enhancement Fellowship by the Institute for Citizens and Scholars
(formerly the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation). Dr. Marquez-Velarde
recently received research support from the Programs to Increase Diversity among Individuals
Engaged in Health-Related Research, under an NIH/NHLBI R25 grant, to evaluate the
association between experiences of discrimination and sleep, cardiovascular, and respiratory
outcomes among sexual and gender minorities of color using primary survey data.
Andrea Nederveld
Anne Nederveld, MD, MPH, is an Internal Medicine/Pediatrics trained physician who
has lived and worked in Grand Junction, Colorado for almost two decades. She has practiced
primary care medicine in both private practice and safety net settings, and currently
works at a Federally Qualified Health Center. In 2017, she completed a primary care
research fellowship through the University of Colorado. She is an assistant professor
in the Department of Family Medicine at CU and is the director of a Western Slope
Practice-based Research Network (Partners Engaged in Achieving Change in Health Network,
or PEACHnet) as well as leading and participating in other community engaged research
projects in Western Colorado. Her primary research interests are in obesity and diabetes
treatment and prevention as well as exploring the effects of social determinants of
health on practice strategies and health outcomes.
Candidus Nwakasi
Dr. Candi Nwakasi is an Assistant Professor of Health Sciences, at Providence College,
Rhode Island. Candi is also an incoming tenure-track faculty in the Department of
Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Connecticut. He was a postdoctoral
fellow at the University of Southern Indiana School of Nursing and Health Professions,
where he worked on dementia workforce improvement. With a Ph.D. in Social Gerontology
and MS in Public Health, Candi’s research is broadly focused on understanding and
examining several factors that influence the health and well-being of disadvantaged
people as they age. His interests include cancer survivorship in disadvantaged populations,
cognitive decline and caregiving, and health care and support access. He is currently
concluding a study evaluating cancer survivorship experiences of Black and Latinx
cancer survivors in Rhode Island that is through the NIH-funded Rhode Island IDeA
Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (RI-INBRE).
Millicent Robinson
Millicent N. Robinson, PhD, MSW, MPH is an interdisciplinary scholar, consultant,
and certified practitioner of Reiki Therapy, which is an evidence-based practice used
to reduce stress and promote healing and well-being. Dr. Robinson is currently a Postdoctoral
Research Fellow in the UNC School of Social Work through the Carolina Postdoctoral
Program for Faculty Diversity, where her research centers the stress, coping, healing,
and health experiences of Black women. Dr. Robinson’s program of research investigates
the life course biopsychosocial mechanisms that shape the mind-body connection and
related mental and physical health outcomes among Black women. Her research agenda
integrates theories and perspectives from Social Work, Public Health, African, African
American, and Diaspora Studies, and Medical Sociology to address four key issues among
Black women: (1) interconnections between mental and physical health, (2) culturally-relevant
forms of coping, (3) ethnic heterogeneity, and (4) complementary and integrative medicine.
Dr. Robinson’s research has been published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior,
Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, and the International Journal of
Environmental Research and Public Health. Dr. Robinson earned her PhD in Community
Health Sciences from the Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health at UCLA,
where she minored in Sociology. She is also a “Triple Tar Heel”, having earned her
B.A. in Psychology from UNC-Chapel Hill, her MSW from the UNC School of Social Work,
and MPH from the Gillings School of Global Public Health.
Kathy Trang
Kathy Trang (she/her), PhD, is a research fellow at Harvard School of Public Health.
She additionally serves as the Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Advisor to USAID.
Her research has focused on elucidating how post-traumatic stress impacts mental health
and developmental outcomes within and across generations and how we can best intervene
in cross-cultural settings to improve wellbeing among high-risk populations in the
United States, Vietnam, Peru, and Bangladesh. She is additionally interested in strengthening
mental health research capacity in Southeast Asia and is one of the co-founders of
the Southeast Asian Mental Heath Initiative, which brings together researchers, clinicians,
and community leaders working in the field of mental health and psychosocial support.
Her work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the PHRMA Foundation,
and the Foundation for Psychocultural Research, among others. She completed her PhD
in Biological Anthropology from Emory University
Damali Wilson
Dr. Damali Wilson is a social scientist with a focus on the physical and mental health
and well-being of children, from the perinatal period through adolescence. Her interests
include research, programming, and policy that center vulnerable, marginalized populations
with a particular emphasizes on prevention, and early identification and mitigation
of risk. In addition to being a researcher, Dr. Wilson has a background as a pediatric
nurse practitioner. Damali completed her undergraduate studies in nursing at Hampton
University, holds a Master of Science in Nursing from the University of Pennsylvania,
and received a PhD from the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing.
Patty Wilson
Dr. Patty Wilson is an Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing
(JHSON). In her faculty role, teaches in the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner
(PMHNP) post master’s certificate program. For her faculty practice, Dr. Wilson is
the site coordinator for doctoral nursing students working as community health nurses
at the House of Ruth Maryland, a shelter for families escaping intimate partner violence.
She is the principal investigator of the Passport to Freedom program which provides
psycho-educational sessions for women to promote self-awareness of the link between
trauma and health and offers strategies to cope with symptoms of trauma/stress. The
Passport to Freedom program has provided sessions for formerly incarcerated women
residing in homeless shelters and women who were formerly homeless and now have permanent
housing. Dr. Wilson completed a SAMHSA MFP Post-Doctoral fellowship at JHSON and Ph.D.
and PMHNP post masters’ certificate at the University of Virginia School of Nursing.
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