Meet the Team

Morgan is a Research Project Coordinator in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Morgan holds a Master of Public Health in Health and Social Behavior from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (MPH-65 program, Class of 2022).

With a strong commitment to community health and health equity, Morgan is passionate about supporting community-based organizations (CBOs) and frontline staff who deliver essential services to their clients and broader communities. Prior to her current role, Morgan worked as a Community Health Worker at Hennepin County, where she connected children and families to preventative medical and dental care. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she contributed to Hennepin County’s emergency response, supporting adults experiencing homelessness as a Site Lead at decentralized shelter sites and later as part of their housing stability team.

Beyond her professional interests, Morgan enjoys catching up with friends and family, spending time outdoors, and participating in local community gardening and planting initiatives.

Emily Newton-Hoe (she/her) is a Population Health Sciences doctoral student in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her research explores the social and structural determinants of reproductive and perinatal health inequities using quantitative and qualitative methods. She is particularly interested in the ways in which public policies engender inequities in the context of gender and health and how implementation science can be leveraged to advance health equity.
Before starting the PhD program, Emily worked at Mathematica conducting social policy research and evaluations in the areas of social determinants of health, reproductive and maternal health, quality measurement, and Medicaid policy. She holds an MPH from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and MPA from Clark University.
Outside of her research, Emily enjoys hiking, camping, swimming, and birding!  

Nihaal Rahman (he/him) is a Population Health Sciences PhD student in the Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences. His research interests include social epidemiology, climate and health, built environments, and the intersections of these fields, particularly within the Asia-Pacific region. At Harvard, Nihaal is a Presidential Scholar and a Doctoral Trainee in Demography and Population Sciences at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies. Nihaal also holds affiliations with the National Center for Child Health and Development in Tokyo, Japan and Fukushima Medical University in Fukushima, Japan. He graduated with an MPH from Columbia University and a BS from Johns Hopkins University. Outside of his research, Nihaal enjoys film photography, snowboarding, scuba diving, and finding new DJ sets to obsess over. 

Jen Cruz, PhD, MPH (she/her) recently graduated with her PhD from the Population Health Sciences program with a focus on Applied Social Epidemiology. Jen is passionate about the intersection of community, public health, and justice. Prior to coming to HSPH, she received her MPH in Global Health Epidemiology from the University of Michigan and her BS in Psychology from Seattle University. She was also a Fulbright-Nehru Student Researcher. Jen is now working at the New York Academy of Medicine as the Associate Director of Non-Communicable Diseases. 

Shinelle O. Kirk is a Senior Research Associate at the Conservation Law Foundation, where she primarily works on the Healthy Neighborhoods Study, a large participatory action research study examining the impact of neighborhood changes on health. With a background in clinical care and research, she brings extensive public health expertise to her work, focusing on implementation science projects that elevate resident expertise in research and decision-making, translating findings into actionable strategies to improve health outcomes and systems.