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Abdinasir Ali, PhD, MPH
Yerby Fellow, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences
aali@hsph.harvard.edu
Mentor(s): Rita Hamad
Yerby Fellow: 2024 –
Research Interests: Dr. Abdinasir Ali received a PhD in health services and policy, with a concentration in health economics, from the University of Iowa. Ali’s main research focuses on examining the impact of housing, social and economic support policies on health, and health status of adults and children. Ali uses quasi-experimental designs and econometric methods to examine the health outcomes of low-income populations, particularly renting households. Ali’s most recent work focused on the impact of social and economic support policies including the housing eviction moratoriums, the temporary rental assistance program, the child tax credit, the earned income tax credit, and other support measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic on health status of low-income households. As Yerby fellow, Ali is working on investigating the impacts of income support policies on children’s health and development.
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Henri M. Garrison-Desany, PhD, MSPH
Yerby Fellow, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences
hgarrisondesany@hsph.harvard.edu
Mentor(s): Christy Denckla and Karestan Koenen
Yerby Fellow: 2022 –
Research Interests: Dr. Henri Garrison-Desany received a PhD in genetic epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and holds an MSPH in international health. Garrison-Desany’s dissertation examined the epigenomic effects of substance use during pregnancy, and the impacts during gestation on child neurodevelopment. Garrison-Desany is passionate about combining social and genetic epidemiological methods to further mental and behavioral health among historically marginalized groups in the United States and globally. As a Yerby Fellow, Garrison-Desany’s research focuses on understanding the relationship between genetic liability and socioenvironmental factors on neuropsychiatric disorders, primarily among African-ancestry and multiethnic communities, through collaborations with the Broad Institute and Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, and the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) consortium.
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Landon D. Hughes, PhD
Yerby Fellow, Department of Epidemiology
lhughes@hsph.harvard.edu
Mentor(s): Brittany Charlton and Sereno Reisner
Yerby Fellow: 2023 –
Research Interests: Dr. Landon Hughes received a PhD in health behavior and health education from the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Hughes’ dissertation examined the effects of stigma on the health and access to health services of transgender people in the United States. Using qualitative and quantitative methods, Hughes combines demographic, epidemiological, and health services methods to examine the health and healthcare utilization of LGBT+ individuals across the US. As a Yerby Fellow, Hughes’ research focuses on the aging and healthcare utilization of same-sex couples and their children through collaborations with the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute and Harvard Medical School.
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Khristopher M. Nicholas, PhD
Yerby Fellow, Department of Nutrition
knicholas@hsph.harvard.edu
Mentor(s): Christopher Golden
Yerby Fellow: 2022 –
Research Interests: Dr. Khristopher Nicholas holds a PhD in nutrition from UNC Chapel Hill. There, Nicholas employed mixed methodology to examine diet outcomes of food environments in the Galápagos Islands of Ecuador. With a background in food systems research and doctoral training in nutrition science, Nicholas’ research goals are to (a) characterize how ‘where’ shapes ‘what’ we eat and (b) understand the role of human behavior throughout this process. Born in Trinidad and Tobago and raised in South Florida, Nicholas is passionate about food system advocacy both locally and globally, ranging from small island settings in the Galápagos islands and Jamaica to historically excluded settings within the United States such as Black communities in rural North Carolina. As a Yerby Fellow, Nicholas works with Dr. Christopher Golden to explore food system implications in the context of rapidly changing socioecological ecosystems.
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Domonique M. Reed, PhD, MPH
Yerby Fellow, Department of Epidemiology
dreed@hsph.harvard.edu
Mentor(s): Jeffrey Imai-Eaton
Yerby Fellow: 2024 –
Research Interests: Dr. Domonique Reed received a PhD in epidemiology from Columbia University. Reed’s research primarily focuses on understanding the impact of interpersonal relationships on risk behaviors and engagement in HIV prevention services for adolescent girls and young women. Reed’s dissertation research, titled “Moving Beyond the Individual: A Data-driven Approach to Assessing the Multi-level Determinants of HIV among Adolescent Girls and Young Women in Sub-Saharan Africa” was a multi-pronged study that applies novel data science methods to better understand the multi-level drivers of HIV risk in this vulnerable population. As a Yerby Fellow, Reed will expand on work in data integration to characterize gaps in sub-Saharan African populations that are missing from HIV programming that go beyond standard demographic stratification, such as age and sex. In Reed’s free time, she enjoys long distance running, traveling, and spending time with family.
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Cameron R. Wiley, PhD
Yerby Fellow, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences
cwiley@hsph.harvard.edu
Mentor(s): Laura Kubzansky and Eric Rimm
Yerby Fellow: 2024 –
Research Interests: Dr. Cameron Wiley received a PhD in psychological science, with a concentration in health psychology, from the University of California, Irvine. With an academic background that encompasses multiple fields (e.g., psychology, biomedicine, epidemiology), Wiley’s work examines: 1) how the regulation of emotion and stress influences cardiovascular functioning and health, 2) the physiological mechanisms (e.g., autonomic, immune) that facilitate this connection, 3) how these psychophysiological interactions differ across racial/ethnic groups to contribute to disparities in cardiovascular disease risk, and 4) the roles of emotional and social well-being factors in mitigating (or perpetuating) those disparities. As a Yerby fellow, Wiley aims to explore if and how behavioral and environmental factors differentially predict cardiovascular morbidity and mortality outcomes based on racial/ethnic background. Wiley also plans to begin developing a psychometric tool to better assess positive psychological functioning in African Americans.
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Sarah S. Zahakos, PhD, MPH
Yerby Fellow, Department of Health Policy and Management
szahakos@hsph.harvard.edu
Mentor(s): Jose Figueroa and Anuj Dalal
Yerby Fellow: 2022 –
Research Interests: Dr. Sarah Zahakos earned a PhD in health services research from Boston University School of Public Health. Previously, Zahakos was an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality T32 pre-doctoral fellow and a research fellow at the Institute for Health System Innovation and Policy at Boston University. Zahakos’ research interests focus on the political and legal determinants of health, specifically, those that surround equitable access to quality care. Zahakos’s work draws on a variety of approaches, including legal, qualitative, quantitative, and geo-spatial analyses. Zahakos has published on various health care topics in Boston University’s Online Law Journal. Zahakos’ dissertation examined the forces influencing the financial sustainability and survival of needed urban hospitals. Before pursuing a PhD, Zahakos worked as a health budget analyst at the New York State Assembly Ways and Means Committee. As a Yerby fellow, Zahakos seeks to investigate the disparities that exist in accessing care.
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