Current Students

Daniel Amante

2011 Admission, Professional Track
Daniel earned a BA from the College of the Holy Cross in Psychology in 2007 and an MPH from Boston University School of Public Health in 2010. His research experience includes working for Boston University School of Medicine in an Experimental Neuropathology Translations Therapeutics Lab for two years collecting, analyzing and reporting data from various behavioral, protein quantifications and histology methods. He completed a summer internship with Dr. Catarina Kiefe in the Department of Quantitative Health Sciences designing and collecting data for a project focused on examining health care price transparency in Massachusetts and how it compares to other states. In addition, he has been working in Dr. Kiefe’s group since September 2010 coordinating, scheduling and planning efforts for the Transitions, Risks and Actions in Coronary Events Center for Outcomes Research and Education (TRACE-CORE) project, contributing to the development of protocols, surveys and medical record abstraction tools plus recruiting, obtaining consent and interviewing patients enrolled in the center. His research interests include exploring the utilization of health information technology.

Camilla Marie Benedicto

2011 Admission, Full Time
Camilla earned an AB from Brown University in Community Health and an MPH in Sociomedical Sciences – Aging and Public Health from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. She most recently worked at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as a public health advisor in the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS). There, she served as the evaluation officer for the Epidemiology and Genetics Research Program; facilitated the sharing of genomic data through the NIH database of Genotypes and Phenotypes (dbGaP); and curated the Cancer Genome-wide Association and Meta Analyses database (GAMAdb), a CDC- and NCI- supported resource that describes genetic associations relevant to cancer risk.
As an NCI-designated Presidential Management Fellow (PMF) from 2008 to 2010, Camilla completed rotations with the DCCPS Office of the Director; the NCI’s Office of Advocacy Relations; the NCI’s Division of Cancer Prevention; and the 65+ Clinical Geriatrics Program at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Prior to her tenure as a PMF, Camilla was a public policy intern at the Long Term Care Community Coalition in New York City and a research assistant for the Columbia University Department of Epidemiology, where she conducted research on injury-related health disparities and injury prevention.
Upon completion of the CPHR PhD program, Camilla would like to work as a clinical researcher at an NCI-designated cancer center and ultimately return to federal government to help advance initiatives and funding opportunities around the specialized health care needs of older adults.

Joshua Chang

2009 Admission, MD/PhD
Joshua is a 2007 BA/MS graduate of MIT in Engineering/Computer Science. He has done work at the Broad Institute developing software for the Genetics Analysis Platform, and his Master’s thesis was with Lincoln Labs in the area of laser radar applications. His interest in medicine stemmed from volunteer work abroad and he is particularly focused on the need for engineering and computer applications in areas of medicine such as imaging, genetics research, and physiological monitoring. He will be conducting thesis work with Dr. David Paydafar on optimal solutions for medical device applications such as deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease.

Han-Yang Chen

2012 Admission, Full Time
Han-Yang earned a BA in Economics from the National Taiwan University, a MS in Information Sciences from the University of Pittsburgh, and a MS in Population Health Sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has worked as a Biostatistician/Assistant Researcher at the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Urban Population Health. His current research areas include cancer screening trends and treatment effects, health-related quality of life, health disparities and maternal-fetal medicine. He has been involved in a variety of research projects including the annual Milwaukee Health Report, the Milwaukee Health Care Partnership Project, the National Health Measurement Study, and Acute Care for Elders Project. He has authored or co-authored seven published manuscripts, and has presented over 20 posters. He is particularly interested in clinical outcome research and evaluation sciences that can help policymakers and practitioners shape the future direction of the health care system in the US.

Carol Curtin

2010 Admission, Professional Track
Carol Curtin earned her BA in Sociology and Psychology at Trinity College in Hartford, CT and her MSW in Casework and Groupwork at the Boston University School of Social Work. She is currently a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at UMass Medical School and is the Associate Director of the LEND and UCEDD programs at the UMMS-E.K. Shriver Center in Waltham. Carol’s research focuses on health promotion for persons with developmental disabilities; she is interested in the biopsychosocial determinants of health and mental health, and in clinical interventions and public health efforts to address health disparities, health care access, health literacy, and improved health outcomes in this population.

Suzanne Czerniak

2009 Admission, MD/PHD
Suzanne holds a 2007 BA in Biochemistry from Middlebury College. At Middlebury she was a research assistant for several faculty and received a Vermont Genetics Network-Idea Networks of Biomedical Research senior thesis award to study the effects of caffeine on embryo development in felines. She was a TA for Developmental Biology and has an interest in reproductive biology. She was also a Research Assistant in the Renal Division at Brigham and Women’s Hospital post –graduation where she performed genotyping of mouse strains and was involved with mouse colony management. She is planning to conduct thesis research with Dr. Jean King around a neuroimaging project.

Natasha Dolgin

2011 Admission, MD/PhD
Natasha earned her BA in International Studies from Case Western Reserve University with a minor in Medical Anthropology in 2008. She graduated cum laude with departmental honors based on her honors thesis work on HIV and Public Health in Russia. Since graduating, she worked as a coordinator and assistant on various projects in clinical translational research in the Department of Bioethics at the Cleveland Clinic. She is joining CPHR as an MD/PhD student with an interest in health informatics, translational research and emerging technologies, and quality improvement and outcomes measurement.

Daniel Frendl

2008 Admission, MD/PHD
Dan holds a BA in Biology and Chemistry from Duke University (2008) and an MS in Physiology from Georgetown University (2009). While at Duke he worked on studies at the Duke Center of Cerebrovascular Disease, the Duke Clinical Research Institute Outcomes Research Assessment Group, and the Duke Health Inequalities Program. He is first author of a paper in Stroke about paramedic training and use of CPSS, and has two other first authored papers in process. His work with the Duke Clinical Research Institute focused on cost-effectiveness of implementing systems for transmitting ECGs prehospital to improve ST-elevation acute MI time to treatment. He is entering his first year of doctoral research this summer and will be working with Dr. John Ware where he will be adapting standardized patient outcomes measures to specific disease entities

Hassan Fouayzi

2009 Admission, Professional Track
Hassan received his Engineering degree in Agricultural Economics from the ENAM Agricultural School, Morocco. He completed his M.S. in Resource Economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He has been working since 2004 as a data analyst and technical liaison for multi-site collaborations of the HMO Cancer Research Network at Meyers Primary Care Institute at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester. He has co-authored multiple papers and is interested in cancer research, social disparities in health outcomes, access and utilization of heath care, and health economics.

Barbara Gandek

2010 Admission, Full Time
Barbara earned a BA in Economics from Swarthmore College and an MS in Health Policy and Management from Harvard School of Public Health. Since earning her MS, she spent two decades at The Health Institute at NEMC, Health Assessment Lab, and QualityMetric Incorporated. She is currently an Instructor at Tufts University School of Medicine. Barbara’s research focuses on patient-reported outcomes measurement, and she has co-authored eight manuals and 40 articles about the SF-36 Health Survey and other PRO instruments. She has participated in the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) initiative and other projects that use computerized adaptive tests to measure health outcomes. Barbara is interested in the development of new techniques to interpret PRO measures and international PRO research.

Gillian Griffith

2011 Admission, MD/PhD
Gillian received her B.S. In Animal Sciences from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 2010. An an undergraduate, her research focused on a mouse model which contained a conditional knock-out of the gene Yin Yang 1 (YY1) in the developing oocyte. She helped to describe the phenotype and propose a molecular mechanism in this mouse, the results of which were recently published in Biology of Reproduction. However, Gillian has always had a strong interest in health systems and policy, and since coming to medical school, has redefined her research plans to focus on these areas. She looks forward to learning more about the techniques and skills necessary for this work.

Alexandra Hajduk

2010 Admission, Full Time
Alexandra earned a BS in Health Sciences from Northeastern University and a MPH in Applied Health Practice from the University of Connecticut. Her professional experience includes working as a prevention program manager for the Brain Injury Association of Massachusetts and as a laboratory technologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. While obtaining her master's at UConn, Alexandra gained valuable quantitative and qualitative research experience through her work with research teams studying varied topics such as HIV prevention in India and biomarker identification for cancer survival. She has one manuscript in progress resulting from her thesis research on the relationships between inflammatory biomarkers, obesity measures, and colorectal cancer mortality. Alexandra's interests include epidemological methods and clinical trials; she hopes to use her skills as a researcher to advance the field of public health genomics in regard to obesity and neurodegenerative disorders.

Wei "Tiffany"Huang

2009 Admission, Professional Track
Tiffany graduated from Shanghai University College of Engineering with a degree in Computer Science, and holds an MS in Computer Science from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. She has been working at the UMMS Center for Outcomes Research (COR) in the Department of Surgery since 1995 and currently serves as the Assistant Director of COR. She has been involved in every aspect of research project design and management, and has numerous publications and presentations. She is interested in narrowing the gap between clinical trial evidence and real-world medical practice to improve health outcomes for a wide variety of diseases. In addition, she is interested in applying information technology to improve patient care.

Rebecca Kinney

2011 Admission, Professional Track
Rebecca holds a BA and MPH from UMass Amherst. She was a Research Associate for the Massachusetts Workforce Development Project, a study funded by the Massachusetts Medicaid program for 5 years, and currently is a Research Coordinator for the Division of Health Information Technology in the Department of Quantitative Health Sciences at UMMS. She is interested in preventive health interventions and chronic disease. She is a part-time Professional Track student.

Aimee Kroll-Desroisiers

2012 Admission, Professioanl Track
Aimee earned a BA in Anthropology from Mount Holyoke College and a MS in Epidemiology from UMass Amherst. She is currently a Biostatistician in the QHS Department at UMass Medical School, where she works with large datasets, including Medicare files and hospital trauma records, she conducts analyses for abstracts, manuscripts, reports and posters, and she works with numerous university faculty to plan research studies. Her research experience also includes several internships that included participating in a dietary intervention study in preschool children, and working on the design phase of a study examining the effect of weight loss on the change in mammorgraphic breast density in postmenopausal women. Her current research interests include women’s health, specifically reproductive and maternal health. She is also interested in examining the effect health disparities have on access to care and treatment.

Lisa Lines

2010 Admission, Full Time
Lisa holds a BS in Technical Communications (Biomedical Sciences Concentration) from Northeastern University and an MPH from UMass Amherst. She has over 12 years of healthcare and consulting experience, most recently at RTI International, where she works on Medicare payment reform research in the post-acute care setting. Prior to RTI, she was at Boston Health Economics, where she managed health economic and outcomes research studies, including designing decision-analytic models, conducting large-scale database analyses, developing utility instruments, and performing systematic literature reviews. She has co-authored six peer-reviewed journal articles with another in review and has presented abstracts at many national and international conferences. Her main research interests lie in health services and outcomes research, particularly predictive modeling.

Tariana Little

2012 Admission, Pathway to Graduate Studies Program
Tariana earned a A.A. in Social Science at the Roxbury Community College, and graduated in June 2012 with a BA in Psychology from UMass Boston. She is a Research Fellow for the Robert E. McNair Program, in which she participates in a national research program for underserved undergraduate students. She has been involved in the Child and Family Development Study, which explores the impact of high-level stress and anxiety on child and family development among low-income families in Boston. During the summer of 2011 she was a trainee for the Minority Health and Health Disparities International Research Training Program. With her faculty trainer, she worked on a study that analyzed the expressed depressive symptomatoglogy among Mexican indigenous women whose relative excessively drink alcohol. She also was a research assistant for the Gaston Institute and worked under Dr. Maria Idali Torres on a study called Para un Futuro Mejor (For a Better Future): Testing the feasibility of Photovoice as a dual method for collecting data and implementing a parent sexual health education pilot project. Her research interests include promoting health in disadvantaged populations, translating academic research into public information, and to publish work on health and illness.

Charmaine Lo

2009 Admission, Full Time
Charmaine has a BS in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics from Michigan State University and an MPH from the University of Alabama Birmingham. At UAB She worked as a Research Assistant on several studies, including the Rapid Cycle Education Improvement Study, the Impact of Patient Education in HIV Screening Study, the VA Nicotine Dependence Program and a project reviewing the policy of complementary and alternative medicine into Comprehensive Cancer Control Plans. She is interested in health care disparities.

Qualifying Paper

A Systematic Review of Methods to Assess Health Behaviors Associated with Risk of Chronic Disease in Adolescents with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Richard H. McManus

2008 Admission, Professional Track
Rick McManus received his BA in Social Work from Bradley University and his Master of Social Work and Master of Public Policy degrees from the University of Michigan. He currently works at UMass Medical School's Department of Quantitative Health Sciences and was previously employed at its Center for Health Policy and Research where he investigated issues related to the provision of publicly-supported long-term care issues in Massachusetts and Maine. Through his work he has developed knowledge in evaluation methods, policy analysis, and issues related to aging and health. His research interests include the effect of health promotion and prevention interventions on the course of disease for elders, as well as studying the compression of morbidity hypothesis.

Qualifying Paper

Recent Trends in Mortality and Re-Hospitalization in Patients Hospitalized for Heart Failure: A Systematic Review

Christine Motzkus-Feagans

2012 Admission, MD/PhD
Christine graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2008 with a major in biology, and subsequently completed an MPH degree, also from VCU. She has had wide ranging research and clinical experience, including designing and implementing a survey for the Virginia Department of Health on the effectiveness of the beach monitoring program; conducting bench research in pharmacology and toxicology on genes associated with alcohol tolerance; and was a Patient Safety Assistant for the VCU Health system for which she was assigned to monitor high risk trauma and psychiatry patients on inpatient units. She has a poster accepted at the International Society of Pharmacoepidemiology on “Statin use and the risk of clostridium difficile in academic health centers.” Most recently she has been a Research Assistant for the Chair of the Department of Epidemiology at VCU where she contributes to several projects such as innovative ways to educate low-literacy older adults on their health, evaluating how to maximize physician education in using e-prescribing, and investigating physician prescribing of medications for Alzheimer’s patients. She is interested in epidemiological research to improve care for older adults, and practicing in primary care.  

Lisa Nobel

2010 Admission, MD/PhD 
Lisa completed a BA in Anatomy and Cell Biology in 2008, and then an MS in Epidemiology at McGill University in2010. She was a Research Assistant on an RCT about exercise and fatigue for cancer patients during her undergraduate years. She received a grant from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Center for her Masters thesis . This research was on developing risk profiles for stroke that would help patients modified their health behaviors. She is interested in neurology and clinical epidemiology. She will be entering the doctoral program in summer 2013 after completing her MS3 clinical rotations and will be working on issues in cardiovascular epidemiology with Dr. Robert Goldberg as her mentor.

Gioia Persuitte

2012 Admission, Full Time
Gioia earned a BA in Sociology from Clark University, and a Masters of Public Administration, also from Clark. She is currently a Research Coordinator in the Department of Preventive and Behavior Medicine at UMass Medical School, and works on the Nutrition Core and Center for Applied Nutrition. Here she assists several doctors in writing, researching, and editing grants for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, prostate cancer, macular degeneration, pregnancy and weight, nutrition and obesity, and the nutrition environment. She was also an intern with the town of Barnstable, where she managed public health and environmental projects. While at Clark, she collaborated with a five-person research team on a four-year long NIEHS research project that examined the environmental health conditions in the Main South and Piedmont areas of Worcester. She has been on three publications and has had several presentations. Her research interests include preventative/behavioral health interventions and underserved/vulnerable groups.

Daniel Peterson

2012 Admission, Professional Track
Dan earned a BS in Resource Economics from UMass Amherst and a MS in Resource Economics, also from UMass Amherst. He is currently a Research Analyst & Programmer at Meyers Primary Care Institute in Worcester. He collects and cleans data from a variety of sources, investigates data problems, applies analytic methods. He works on studies involving dementia, rheumatoid arthritis, gout, colorectal cancer, cervical cancer, and medical expenditures in the elderly. Other research experience includes working as a Research Assistant for the Dept. of Resource Economics at UMass Amherst. His ultimate goal is to become a PI in the Clinical and Population Health Research. His research interests include health outcomes research and medication compliance/outcomes.

Tan Pham

2012 Admission, Full Time
Tan earned a BA in Sociology and Human Sexuality Study (Individualized) from the University of Connecticut and a MPH with a focus on Epidemiology, also from the University of Connecticut. He is currently a Research Associate with the VA Connecticut Healthcare System, in the Dept. of Internal Medicine. In this role he collects and analyzes quantitative data, and maintains large datasets. He is a project coordinator for the preparation of new grant applications, and collaborates with investigators to draft papers and manuscripts. He also worked as an Assistant Director of Clinical and Health Services Research Core at Yale University at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS. He interned at the CT Dept. of Public Health as well as the US Dept of Health and Human Services, both with a focus on epidemiology. He has been a coauthor on four publications and presented multiple times. His current research interests focus on HIV and women’s health, along with chronic disease management.

Lauren Powell

2012 Admission, Pathway to Graduate Studies Program
Lauren earned her BA in Biochemistry from Xavier University where she participated in a McNair Summer Research Program at the Center for Advanced Murostrustures and Devices. Subsequent to graduation she has had several positions in clinical research including at the Department of Medicine-Nephrology at Indiana University Hospital where she oversaw QI investigations for dialysis patients; at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Women’s Health Research Programs and Drug Investigation, Violence and Environmental Studies lab where she handled IRB applications, recruited and enrolled patients, and conducted field work in epidemiology and ethnography; at Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Center for Nursing and Patient Care, where she recruited and consented patients and managed follow-up visits; and most recently has been a Clinical Research Coordinator at the National Cancer Institute where she screens and triages patients, organizes patient visits to NIH for trial participation, and maintains patient tracking data bases for several Phase I and II clinical cancer trials. She is interested in health disparities research.

Alan Rathbun

2010 Admission, Full Time
Alan graduated from Rider University with a BS (Magna Cum Laude) in Biology, and earned a MPH in Epidemiology from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) School of Public Health. At Rider he was awarded acceptance into the Rider University Freshmen Fellowship program, and worked as a Research Intern within the Biology Department. In the subsequent years while completing his undergraduate degree Alan worked as a Field and Laboratory Technician at Certified Testing Laboratories, Interned at Capital Health Systems Hospitals in Trenton, NJ, and volunteered at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital of Hamilton and St. Francis Medical Center during his spare time. While attending graduate school he began working part time for the Violence Institute of New Jersey at the New Jersey Department of Health & Senior Services Center for Health Statistics (NJDHSS CHS) with their New Jersey Violent Death Reporting System (NJVDRS) research group. He completed his graduate thesis, “Potential Predictive Factors of Suicide: An Analysis of the Determinants Between Varying Mechanisms of Suicide Incidence in NJ,” in partnership with the NJDHSS CHS using NJVDRS data. Additionally, he participated in several other UMDNJ sponsored fieldwork and research endeavors including the Health Systems & Policy Department’s Dominican Republic Outreach Project. After completing his MPH, Alan worked in other part time research positions, including being a Lead Intern for a consultant to CRI Worldwide Clinical Trials Research, and most recently an Evaluation Intern to the Program Developer & Evaluator of the Cardiovascular Disease Control & Prevention Initiative at the Bureau of Chronic Disease Control within the New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene. Alan’s research interests include non-infectious diseases, injury prevention, pharmacoepidemiology, and statistical methods in population health research.

Christine Ulbricht

2011 Admission, Full Time
Christine earned a BA in Psychology and an MPH with a concentration in Epidemiology at the University of Maryland, College Park. Prior to joining the CPHR program, she spent more than four years in the Division of Services and Intervention Research at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). While at NIMH, she served as a liaison to federal agencies involved in psychiatric epidemiology activities, acted as the institute’s ClinicalTrials.gov administrator, and supported the activities of multi-site clinical trials managed by the NIMH Clinical Trials Operations and Biostatistics Unit. Her research interests include psychiatric epidemiology, developing personalized interventions for mental illnesses, comparative effectiveness, and clinical trials methodology.

W.W. Sanouri Ursprung

2010 Admission, Full Time
Sanouri earned her BS in International Studies with a concentration in Biochemistry from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2008. Her professional experience includes working as a Research Coordinator (2002-Pr.) for Dr. Joseph DiFranza at UMMS. She is conducting public health research analyzing the progression of addiction in adolescents and adults, through developing predictive tools, evaluation of the scientific validity of current addiction standards, and creating psychometric diagnostic scales. In addition, since 2008, she has been working with Dr. Chyke Doubeni on research regarding the impact of socio-economic status on access to cancer prevention services and the potential uses of geocoded census data to identify high risk patients and tailor their cure. Sanouri has eight publications (three first author) with several articles in review. Her research interests include addiction research, studying health disparities in general, and more specifically in low socioeconomic strata with a focus on cancer screening services, and public health problems facing disadvantaged populations abroad. 

Mollie Wood

2011 Admission, Full Time
Mollie earned her BA from Miami University in Ohio, where she majored in Zoology and Psychology, and her MPH from Boston University where she concentrated in Epidemiology. Her research and clinical experience includes her current work as a biostatistician at Inflexxion, Inc (specializes in behavioral research) performing statistical analysis of clinical trial, survey, and surveillance data. Her work involves her in every aspect of a research study from inception to eventual publication including analyzing clinical trial data, consulting with investigators on issues of study design, preparing grants or manuscripts and weighing in on ethical issues. She also worked at Beth Israel Deaconess part time performing statistical analysis of epidemiologic and clinical trial data and assisted clinical investigators with data analysis and manuscript preparation. She worked for three years as in the McLean Hospital and Cambridge Health Alliance as a research coordinator, and managed neuroimaging studies of children with mood and psychotic disorders. Mollie also volunteered as a counselor at the North Shore ARC supervising groups of adolescents diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. She has several publications and posters. Mollie’s research interests include early-onset mental illness, perinatal and early childhood epidemiology, epidemiologic methods, and applied Bayesian analytics.

Rui Xiao

2012 Admission, Full Time
Rui earned her Doctor of Medicine (Clinical Medicine) in China, and will earn her MPH in Epidemiology from UMass Amherst in 2012. She is currently a Research Assistant in the IMPACT project at the Department of Public Health and Health Sciences at UMass Amherst. Here she uses Cardiff Teleform software to scan questionnaires, and analyzes the educational impact of adverse health outcomes of smoking on high-school students. . She conducted a Master of Public Health Project at UMass Amherst, and conducted epidemiological data analysis and interpretation, focusing on the relationship between acid-lowering agent use and vitamin B12 deficiency among older Puerto Rican adults, and also worked on the Boston Puerto Rican Health Study. Her current research interests include population-based studies, nutritional epidemiology and the prevention of chronic diseases. She has an interest in diabetes and chronic disease management, specifically in disadvantaged populations.