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PhD Students

PhD Candidates

PhD Students

Recent PhD Graduates

• Phylicia Allen

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• Black women’s health and wellness, Mental and behavioral health, Race, class, and gender

• Autumn Asher BlackDeer

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• Relationship and sexual violence; mental health services; American Indian and Indigenous populations.

• Darejan Dvalishvili

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• Child welfare; Child maltreatment; Poverty eradication; Social protection

• Andrew Foell

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• Neighborhood Effects; Community Building, Development and Organizing; Community Engaged Research Methods

• Eleni Gaveras

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• Serious and Persistent Mental Illness, Social Determinants of Mental Health, Global and Domestic Mental Health Services

• Aytakin Huseynli

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• Social welfare in resource-rich countries; child welfare; global social work and social work education

• Joonmo Kang

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• Environmental justice; environmentally sustainable welfare institutions; urban sustainability; urban community organizing; political ecology; qualitative methods; community based participatory research

• Yuekang Li

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• Aging, aging in place, productive aging, social engagement and wellbeing

• Sara Malone

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• Dissemination & implementation science; pediatric critical care treatment and outcomes

• Maria Morrison

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• Needs of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people; trauma-informed interventions; mass incarceration

• Thabani Nyoni

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• Interventions for migrant health (Sub-Saharan Africa)

• Meagan Pilar

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• Dissemination and implementation research; mental health interventions; racial disparities

• Kyle Pitzer

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• Urban poverty; neighborhood effects; community development

• Sicong Sun

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• Asset building and financial capability, health disparities, poverty

• Christopher Weatherly

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• Dissemination and implementation of evidenced-based mental health treatments into practice; policy and health care procedures to improve outcomes and quality of life for populations with severe and persistent mental illness

• Enoch Azasu

• PhD in Social Work
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• Mental health, suicide prevention

• Dennis W. Boyd Jr.

• PhD in Social Work
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• Black youth and family intervention research with a focus on the Black mother-son relationship, population science

• Kyria Brown

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
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• Reducing birth-related trauma and health disparities for street-involved women through doula use

• Jun-Hong Chen

• PhD in Social Work
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• Poverty prevention and alleviation, impacts of poverty on families

• Jacquelyn Coats

• PhD in Social Work
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• Mental and physical health disparities among African Americans

• Flora Cohen

• PhD in Social Work
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• Global mental health, mental health literacy, and community-based interventions

• Akilah Collins-Anderson

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
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• Mental health, child welfare, dissemination and implementation science

• Merriah Croston

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
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• Health behavior change interventions; Applied health communications and social marketing research

• Fithi Embaye

• PhD in Social Work
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• Global mental health, child welfare, trauma informed care, attachment based interventions

• Emily Evers

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
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• Maternal and child health; health behavior change; health education; peer support; international development

• Cao Fang

• PhD in Social Work
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• Fang

• Tyler Frank

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
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• Mental health, neuroepidemiology, dissemination and implementation science, health disparities

• Maria Gandarilla Ocampo

• PhD in Social Work
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• Child maltreatment epidemiology and use of big data to inform child welfare research, practice, and policy; well-being across the life-span

• Rachel Garg

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
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• Health disparities; health communications; health behavior

• Amanda Gilbert

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
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• Chronic disease prevention, physical activity, and nutrition

• Greg Gross

• PhD in Social Work
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• Health equity, social determinants of health, HIV prevention interventions, and community engaged research

• Mark Hawes

• PhD in Social Work
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• Mental and physical health disparities; mental illness trajectories; intersection of SMI, drug addiction, and incarceration; child welfare and adolescent mental health; D & I Science

• Kate Hoppe

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
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• Reduction of structural and systemic barriers to health and health equity, community resilience to public health threats

• Dominique Horton

• PhD in Social Work
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• African American families, education equity and outcomes, education policy, mental health interventions, racism and poverty

• Tzu-Hsin Huang

• PhD in Social Work
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• Well-being of minority and traumatized youth

• Xuan Huang

• PhD in Social Work
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• Bullying prevention, childhood trauma and resilience

• Ashley Jackson

• PhD in Social Work
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• Community-police relations, reentry, adult/juvenile justice, participatory research

• Dylan Jones

• PhD in Social Work
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• Child welfare, kinship foster care, and administrative data analysis

• Hannah Kinzer

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
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• Research interests: Advancing health equity, communication in disease surveillance

• Joshua Kiyingi

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
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• Global health, maternal and child health

• Samuel Kizito

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
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• Design, implementation and evaluation of interventions to improve outcomes among adolescents living with HIV

• Kakada Kuy

• PhD in Social Work
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• Social policy on aging, intersections of technology and aging, and impacts of Asian family breakdown, labor immigration and past traumatic experiences on well-beings of older adults

• Woodjerry Louis

• PhD in Social Work
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• Youth mental health services, Intervention research, economic evaluation, dissemination and implementation science, and mental health in schools

• Ashley Maier

• PhD in Social Work
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• Prevention of sexual and domestic violence against women

• Lara Markovitz

• PhD in Social Work
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• Social and family policy; fatherhood initiatives; program evaluation

• Kelley McCall

• PhD in Social Work
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• Culturally appropriate and successful preventions and interventions with American Indian/Alaska Native populations addressing substance use disorders, suicidal behaviors, historical trauma

• F. Hunter McGuire

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
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• Health equity for LGBTQ people with a focus on mental health, eating disorders, and body image issues

• Molly McLay

• PhD in Social Work
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• Creative writing interventions for gender-based violence

• Selina Miller Forsyth

• PhD in Social Work
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• Financial stability and asset building among vulnerable populations

• Josephine Nabayinda

• PhD in Social Work
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• Addressing the social, familial and cultural barriers that hinder women’s economic mobility and independence in low-resource households

• Jennifer Nattabi

• PhD in Social Work
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• Asset building policy, international child welfare, child poverty, and social mobility among adolescent girls

• Deidi Olaya Rodriguez

• PhD in Social Work
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• Institutional responses to sexual assault

• Soobin Park

• PhD in Social Work
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• Use of environments and policy to improve the lives of older adults living with cognitive decline

• JaNiene Peoples

• PhD in Social Work
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• African American Emerging Adults, Wellbeing, Health Behavior Change, Health Disparities, Mental and Physical Health

• Nancy Pérez-Flores

• PhD in Social Work
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• Physical and mental health disparities among racial and ethnic groups, Latinx focus

• Eugen Resendiz Bontrud

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
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• Urban health, urban policy, physical activity

• Mustafa Rfat

• PhD in Social Work
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• Disability, refugee issues, mental health, international social Work, and policy development

• Helen Robinson

• PhD in Social Work
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• Multi-systemic impacts of community-based intervention research, collective efficacy in communities of color, youth development in urban settings

• Emani Sargent

• PhD in Social Work
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• LGBTQ communities of color, health equity, sexual wellness, social determinants of health

• Katie Shires

• PhD in Social Work
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• Intergenerational trauma, trauma-informed interventions, child maltreatment, child/adolescent mental health

• Stephanie Skees

• PhD in Social Work
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• Financial capability, financial literacy and financial exploitation among older adults

• Nicole Strombom

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
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• Health care disparities, health equity, women’s health, and maternal health issues

• Peter Sun

• PhD in Social Work
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• Productive engagement in later life, aging in place, minority aging

• Yadira Tejeda

• PhD in Social Work
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• Latinx family structures and parenting roles

• Daniela Tuda

• PhD in Social Work
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• Community mental health and the adaptation of evidenced-based practices for marginalized communities

• Luissa Vahedi

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
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• Sexual, reproductive health and rights in humanitarian settings

• Mia Vogel

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
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• chronic disease prevention, systems science, dissemination and implementation, translational health sciences

• Najjuwah Walden

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
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• Reproductive tract infection pathophysiology, Mathematical epidemiology, Clinical decision making, Intervention implementation, Economic evaluation

• Callie Walsh-Bailey

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
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• Dissemination and implementation science, chronic disease prevention, social determinants of health

• Jordyn Wartts

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
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• Health priorities and communications in Black populations

• Olivia Weng

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
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• Health communication and health education on chronic disease prevention, healthy behavior changes, data visualization, mixed-method research

• Wynette Whitegoat

• PhD in Social Work
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• Education and development across the lifespan in Indigenous communities; mental health advocacy within and for American Indian/Alaska Native communities

• Yuanyuan Yang

• PhD in Social Work
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• Poverty policy; Asset-building; Evidenced-based mental health interventions

• Yingying Zeng

• PhD in Social Work
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• Poverty, asset building policy and community development

• Haotian Zheng

• PhD in Social Work
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• The effect of assets across the lifespan, particularly among children and youth and older adults

• Sara Beeler-Stinn

• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated 2021

• William Byansi

• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated

• Shih-Ying Cheng

• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated 2021

• Christina Drymon

• Research Scientist (Public Health) of NORC at the University of Chicago
• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated 2020

• Jacob Eaton

• Senior Associate, Iris Group
• PhD in Public Health Sciences
• Graduated 2020

• LaShawnda Fields

• Assistant Professor, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville
• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated 2020

• Karishma Furtado

• Research and Data Analyst, Forward Through Ferguson
• PhD in Public Health Sciences
• Graduated 2020

• Carlos Andres Gallegos

• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated

• Michael Galvin

• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated 2021

• Alexandra Morshed

• Research Project Manager, Prevention Research Center in St. Louis
• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated 2020

• Robert Motley

• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated 2021

• Natalicio Serrano

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
• Graduated 2021

• Erin Stringfellow

• Substance Abuse Research Scientist, Missouri Institute of Mental Health
• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated 2019

• Xiaoyan Wang

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
• Graduated

• Maya Williams

• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated 2021

• Roger Wong

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
• Graduated 2020

• Yiqi Zhu

• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated

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