Leland Ackerson
Jaclyn Alexander-Molloy
Kelly Blake
Josephine Crisostomo
Betsy Eichel
Sherrie Flynt Wallington
Jose Jorge
Lisa Lowery
Sara Minsky
Shoba Ramanadhan
Neyha Sehgal
Kalahn Taylor-Clark
Emily Zobel Kontos
DR. LELAND ACKERSON received a doctorate in social epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, writing his dissertation on cancer-related health disparities among women in India. Leland’s current research interests center around macro-level influences on cancer prevention and cardiovascular health including aspects of the policy, media, and physical environments. His previous public health experiences include community organizing in Holyoke, MA while pursuing an MPH degree at the University of Massachusetts, performing outreach work for the Connecticut Children’s Health Project, and working as a community health educator for the United States Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic.
JACLYN ALEXANDER-MOLLOY earned a BA in Communication from the University of New Hampshire and an MS in Health Communication with a concentration in Applied Communication Research from Boston University. While completing her Master’s, Jackie spent a semester at the Brigham & Women’s STRATUS Center as a student researcher focusing on product penetration. Prior to becoming part of the Viswanath Lab team, she was a Data Specialist at Forrester Research where she extracted and analyzed survey data for clients in the healthcare and financial services sectors. Her focus is to aid in the growth of public health education and disease prevention and she looks forward to continually increasing her knowledge of these areas at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
KELLY
BLAKE is
a doctoral student at the Harvard School of Public Health and a research
assistant at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Her research interests
include health policy, risk communication, and media studies, specifically
looking at how information access gaps contribute to health disparities
in underserved populations. She was a science writer and editor in
the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences at the National Cancer
Institute, National Institutes of Health. At NCI, she served as the division’s
lead for press and communication projects, and managed the publication process
for several print and electronic publications. Before joining NCI,
Kelly was a public health educator, conducting screening and disease prevention
programs in rural communities in West Virginia. Before that, she was
a health communication research fellow at the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. She earned a master’s degree in community health education
from West Virginia University and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from
Marshall University.
JOSEPHINE
CRISOSTOMO completed
a BA in Psychology at CUNY - Queens College and an MPH at Boston University
School of Public Health. She most
recently worked as a program coordinator for the Boston Public Health
Commission, where she specialized in coalition building and community
organizing. She has also served as the communications assistant
for the Education Development Center Inc.’s Higher Education
Center, where she worked on press and communications projects, and has
worked with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Cancer Prevention
and Control Program as the social marketing assistant. She actively
volunteers at organizations such as Cradles to Crayons and the American
Cancer Society, and serves the community as a Certified Child Passenger
Safety Technician. Josephine has a passion for health communications
and health promotion, and is specifically interested in translating health
communications research into practice in the field. She continues
to pursue these interests as Project Director for the Center for Community-Based
Research at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
ELIZABETH "BETSY" EICHEL joins the Viswanath Lab from Brandeis University, where she majored in International and Global Studies with a minor in Journalism. She is new to the public health field, but she is interested in learning how the media can address health disparities and reach out to underserved audiences. Her experiences in the field of journalism include an internship with a Sí, Se Puede, a weekly newspaper for immigrants living in Madrid, Spain and a position as a research assistant at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis. She also recently completed an internship at WorldBoston, a small nonprofit organization that brought distinguished international speakers to Boston and hosted exchange programs for emerging leaders. Betsy is thrilled to have the opportunity to a part of such a dedicated, creative group of people who are truly passionate about their work.
DR.
SHERRIE FLYNT WALLINGTON is a postdoctoral
fellow with the Harvard School of Public Health and the Dana Farber
Cancer Institute’s
MassCONECT program. Her research program focuses on three areas of interests,
which targets those at greatest risk for cancer disparities. The first
area focuses on the cancer information needs, information seeking patterns,
and barriers to information seeking. The second area examines the study
of new media technologies in the dissemination of cancer information.
The third area investigates the effects of mass media in the development,
implementation, and evaluation of cancer communication interventions. In April 2006, Dr. Flynt Wallington was awarded the Top Young Scholar
Paper Award by the Kentucky Conference on Health Communication in Louisville,
Kentucky for her dissertation study, “The Internet as an Emerging
Patient Education Tool Among African-American Men with Prostate Cancer:
An Exploratory Study.”
Previously, Dr. Flynt Wallington served as an adjunct professor at
Howard University in the John H. Johnson School of Communications and
the Howard University College of Medicine’s Masters in Public
Health Program. She also has held teaching and administrative positions
at Bowie State University and Winston-Salem State University.
She earned her undergraduate
and master’s degrees from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Dr.
Flynt Wallington received her doctoral degree in mass communication and
media studies, specializing in health communication from Howard University.
JOSE JORGE comes to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Center for Community-Based Research with vast knowledge and expertise in computer technical assistance and support. In his previous position as End User Support Specialist at Children’s Hospital Boston, Jose specialized in software training and troubleshooting, and managed and maintained the End User Resource Center Computer Lab. He finds great interest in teaching others and helping them understand, and get comfortable with, technology such as new software and equipment. Jose will pursue these interests as User Support Analyst for the Viswanath Lab, working on such projects as Click to Connect and in the new ECHO Lab. Jose spends as much of his free time as possible tending to his children and family. He enjoys skiing and exercising, in addition to working outdoors, and on small to medium projects around the house – Jose is a “do it yourself” kind of guy.
LISA
LOWERY serves as the research team's Administrative Specialist.
Lisa holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Education with a
concentration in Exercise Science. Her interests, among others, include
promoting physical fitness and fundraising for 'The Leukemia and Lymphoma
Society's Team in Training' program. She has completed two marathons
with
'Team in Training's' Boston Marathon Team. Lisa is extremely excited
to be a
part of the ground breaking research work conducted at the Viswanath
Lab. She
hopes that her efforts with 'Team in Training' and her work at the Viswanath
Lab will improve the quality of life of cancer patients and their families.
SARA MINSKY completed a BA in Economics at Emmanuel
College and an MPH at Boston University. She most recently worked as
a project manager for the Social and Behavioral Sciences Department at
the Boston University School of Public Health. Her experience includes
managing randomized controlled trials examining: residual effects of
alcohol on occupational and academic performance, acute effects of transdermal
scopolamine on simulated ship navigation performance, and effectiveness
of condom promotion interventions on STD reduction. She has also
directed a quasi-experimental pilot evaluation researching the impact
of interactive computer-based video on urban and suburban adolescent
alcohol and marijuana use. Sara has additionally worked as an evaluator
for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's STD/HIV Prevention
Training Center for the past six years. Her eclectic research interests
and personal dedication to cancer prevention have led her to become a
Project Director for the Center for Community-Based Research at the Dana
Farber Cancer Institute.
SHOBA RAMANADHAN is a research assistant and a doctoral student in the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. She is conducting research on health communication, cancer disparities, and new media technologies. She holds an MPH in Health Management from the Yale School of Public Health and a BA in Biology from Cornell University. Shoba has work experience in the areas of chronic disease management, telemedicine in rural India, and marketing / strategy consulting.
NEYHA SEHGAL joins the Viswanath Lab from Boston University, where she completed a BA in Health Sciences and an MPH with special focus in International Health. Her diverse background - born in India and raised in Nigeria, Africa; Sydney, Australia; London, United Kingdom (UK), Pennsylvania, United States of America (USA); and finally, Massachusetts, USA - has molded her into a culturally rich and adaptable individual, thus making her a unique addition to the Lab. Previous public health experiences include working in a diabetes research and metabolism unit, as well as interning in at Brookline Department of Public Health (BDPH) and Health Care For All (HCFA). She is particularly interested in understanding the importance of using health communications in community-based approaches to improve health literacy and subsequently, health outcomes of persons with socioeconomic disparities.
DR.
KALAHN TAYLOR-CLARK completed a PhD in Health
Policy and Political Analysis from Harvard University. Her areas of
research include public health communication in politically and socially
marginalized populations, women, gender and health, and the political
factors that influence policy to ameliorate health disparities. She
was recently a lecturer at Tufts University, where she taught "Women
and Health" and "The
Politics of Health Disparities." Before teaching at Tufts, Dr.
Taylor-Clark held a position as a research assistant at Harvard School
of Public Health’s Project on Biological Security and the Public.
Her first-authored publications include, “Confidence in Crisis:
Understanding Trust in Government and Public Attitudes toward Mandatory
State Health Powers,” (2005) and “African Americans’ Views
on Health Policy: Implications for the 2004 Elections,” published
in Health Affairs in 2003. Her current research focuses on communicating
to communities of color during public health crises.
EMILY
ZOBEL KONTOS completed an AB in Biomedical Ethics from Brown
University and an ScM in the Department of Society, Human Development
and Health at Harvard School of Public Health. Emily is interested
in exploring the relationship between communication inequalities and
health disparities. She is also dedicated to translating health communication
research into public health practice. Prior to joining the Viswanath
Lab, Emily was the Communications Coordinator for the Nutrition and
Physical Activity Unit at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
She also served as the Health Literacy Studies Coordinator at the Harvard
School of Public Health. Currently, Emily is a doctoral student at
the HSPH and a research assistant at the
DFCI.
