Rebecca Doyle is a second-year graduate student in the Masters of Public Health program at the University of Pennsylvania. She serves as a graduate assistant to Dear Pandemic and helps conduct both qualitative and quantitative research in areas such as vaccine hesitancy and childhood literacy. Rebecca earned her Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience and Economics Read more…
Joanna Dreifus supports the Dear Pandemic team by engaging with community members on social media platforms. She earned her MPH at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, focusing on health promotion and disease prevention. By day she is a special needs education consultant, and by night she’s a performing stand-up comedian in NYC (this Read more…
Dr. Stephanie Edmonds is a Nurse Scientist at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and an Associate Adjunct Faculty at the University of Iowa College of Nursing. She is also the co-host of the Woman Centered Health Podcast. Dr. Edmonds has completed a Quality Improvement fellowship at the Iowa City VA Medical Center, obtained Read more…
Tita Smyth Escobedo, a native Spanish speaker, a Clinical Psychologist with 10+ years of experience in Project Management, and 5+ years of experience in Web Development and Social Media, she understands the psychology behind the clients’ needs. Tita owns her own business, where she is in charge of coordinating work with developers, designers, and consultants, Read more…
Ilana Gerjuoy, MPH (she/they) lives and works in Western Massachusetts and Southern Vermont. After over 15 years working as a counselor for survivors of trauma and abuse, and providing education on related issues, Ilana shifted to a career in public health in 2016. Ilana currently works for a community coalition that focuses on youth health Read more…
Dr. Chloe Gibbs is an expert on education policy and the economics of education, and her research focuses on measuring the effects, both intended and unintended, of policies and programs targeted at disadvantaged children and families. Her research on early childhood investments has been cited by TIME, U.S. News, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Read more…
Sarah Clifford Glapa, MS, MPH (she/her) is the Associate Director of Marketing & Health Communications for University Health Services at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After receiving dual masters degrees in Public Health and Life Sciences Communication, Sarah started working for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services as the Communicable Diseases Heath Educator. There, she led Read more…
MK started their work in community wellness in the 1980s in West Hollywood and Los Angeles during the beginning of the HIV epidemic. This epidemic impacted their LGBTQ2SIA+ community in West Hollywood in devastating ways, both physically through the infecting virus and psychologically through alienating stigmatization. During these early years, they spent hours per week Read more…
Dr. Lauren Hale is a sleep health researcher and professor in the Program in Public Health at Stony Brook University School of Medicine and serves as Associate Editor and Contributing Writer of Dear Pandemic. She received her MA and PhD from Princeton University in Public Affairs focusing in Population Studies. Hale serves on the Board Read more…
Dr. Alexandra Hall is a senior lecturer of Biology at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. She earned her B.S. in Science Education from New York University, M.D. from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and residency in Family Practice at the University of Vermont. She has worked as both a full-scope family physician and as a college Read more…
Andrea Harmony is a pediatric-focused Family Nurse Practitioner (NP-C). As an undergraduate in Biology, she planned to go into research, but two fabulous Nurse Practitioners inspired her to follow the same path. Travel nursing brought her across the country and a love of language and culture led her to Latin America, which piqued a particular Read more…
Maggie Hayes is a full time student enrolled in her second year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is majoring in both Spanish and Sociology with a certificate in Chicana/o & Latina/o Studies and hopes to use her Spanish skills to work with immigrants along the US-Mexico border after she graduates. After being enrolled in Read more…
Alejandra Silva Hernández is a first-generation student in the accelerated General Public Health Program at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. After graduation, she intends to apply to medical school to continue to advocate for underserved communities. In her free time, she enjoys virtual taekwondo and photography.
MacKenzie (Kenzie) Isaac, MA, CHES®, is an aspiring social epidemiologist and health communications specialist who loves discussing all things health equity. Her specific research passions are the sociology of body image; racial/ethnic minority mental health; the complex relationship between faith, spirituality, and mental health; community organizing for health promotion (particularly youth mobilization and development); built Read more…
Dena Jennings, D.O. is a physician and artist in Central Virginia. She was born in Akron, Ohio during its booming years of ingenuity as the rubber capital of the world. Her father was an executive at Goodyear International; her mother, a banker at a hometown savings and loan. Culturally, she was raised the 5th generation Read more…
Dr. Malia Jones is an interdisciplinary researcher working at the intersection of infectious disease, social epidemiology, demography, and geography. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community & Environmental Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on how the places we spend time affect our health, especially when it comes to Read more…
Clara is a University of Pennsylvania NURS ’22 graduate interested in exploring health communication and the care and wellbeing of older adults. She is currently a registered nurse working in radiation oncology hoping to eventually teach in academia. When she’s not busy being a Nerdy Girl, you can find her reading a good book or Read more…
Michelle Kinder is an immunologist whose research has primarily focused on how to harness the immune system to fight cancer. She received her Ph.D. in Immunology at University of Pennsylvania and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis. She has worked for a number of years in the private sector developing therapies Read more…
Dr. Vijaya Knight graduated from Mysore Medical College, University of Mysore, India, followed by a residency in Neuromicrobiology and Immunology, National Institutes for Mental Health and Neurosciences, India. She then obtained a PhD in Immunology from Melbourne University, Australia, followed by 3 years of postdoctoral work at the University of California, San Francisco, studying immune Read more…
Dr. Gabriella Kountourides completed her PhD at the University of Oxford, where she investigated variations in premenstrual syndrome through both anthropological and immunological approaches. She is currently a Postdoctoral Affiliate at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography at Oxford. In her professional capacity, Dr. Kountourides works at Ofcom as a statistician, focusing on illegal Read more…
