Current Fellows

2012-13 NCI Pre and Post Doc Fellows

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Harvard School of Public Health

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Name	Degree	Research Focus/Interest
Mariana Arcaya	Predoc SBS	Reducing cancer disparities, the role of the information environment in contributing to health behaviors; informing policy development.
Zinzi Bailey	Predoc SBS	Zinzi Bailey is a third year doctoral student in the Society, Human Development and Health Department at the Harvard School of Public Health. Zinzi’s current research interests focus on cancer and sexual/reproductive health outcomes, especially as they relate to race, socioeconomic class, immigration status, and interpersonal/institutional discrimination. Namely, she is interested in the effects of incarceration on the health of individuals, families, and communities.
Shaniece Criss	Predoc SBS	Shaniece Criss focuses on utilizing health communication to prevent cancer risk factors in adolescents.  Her interests include obesity reduction strategies employing purposive and non-purposive health communication, as well as, examining the impact of media (e.g., television, movies, videos on websites) on the initiation of tobacco use, alcohol use, and unsafe sex practices among adolescents, especially as it relates to race.  She is currently developing a media campaign for a community-level research intervention to reduce childhood obesity in two cities in MA.
Kia Davis	Predoc SBS	Kia Davis is a third year doctoral student in the Department of Society, Human Development and Health. Kia’s current research interests include advocacy, organization and policy change to reduce cancer health inequalities. Kia is particularly interested in how social change related to non-traditional health policies (e.g. education and anti-poverty policies) can reduce structural barriers that lead to disparities in obesity and related cancer risk factors.
Jennifer Erdrich	Postdoc MPH HSB SBS	Dr. Erdrich is a general surgery resident in the research years of training. After completing residency, she wants to practice for the Indian Health Service (IHS). Clinically, she is interested in surgical oncology, and during her time as a researcher at HSPH she has been investigating nutrition and cancer outcomes using data from The Nurses’ Health Study.  Additionally, she is interested in public health interventions designed to narrow cancer disparities, particularly for Native Americans. Currently Dr. Erdrich is studying a colorectal cancer screening intervention that utilizes patient navigators to increase colonoscopy uptake among Native Americans residing in South Dakota.
Rachel Faulkenberry	Predoc SBS	The role of communication in cancer prevention, with a focus on promoting healthy behaviors and increasing screening, as well as understanding the factors that influence treatment decisions and quality of life for patients and survivors.
John Kingsbury	Postdoc	John’s research addresses social and contextual influences on health decision-making and behavior. He is interested in health disparities, and how perceived discrimination influences the health status and behavior of minority populations. In addition, he has an interest in health communications and how they can be tailored to promote healthier decision-making. He thinks that emphasizing the potential social and health consequences of engaging (or not engaging) in different health behaviors is a promising approach to promoting behavior change, and plans to further explore the effects of differently framed messages on cancer prevention behavior.
Rebekah Nagler	Postdoc	Rebekah’s research interests are in health communication and message effects, with a particular focus on cancer communication research. Current projects explore how general and clinical populations use media to acquire health information, how conflicting health messages in the mass media influence cancer prevention and screening behaviors, and how persuasive messaging can be used to address these behaviors. Developing research interests include communication inequalities, health disparities, and differential effects of media exposure on population subgroups.
Shoshana Rosenberg	Postdoc	Shoshana’s research interests focus on survivorship in young adults, including how treatment affects both short and long term quality of life.  Other interests include secondary cancer prevention in survivors of childhood/young adult cancer.
Sara Tamers	Postdoc	Sara’s principal research addresses the impact of the social context and determinants on obesogenic behaviors that influence cancer risk. She is most interested in exploring these relationships within the framework of cross-country comparisons between European nations and the U.S.