Dr. Mary Baldridge is a Professor of Spanish at Carson-Newman University in Jefferson City, Tennessee. She teaches all levels of Spanish language, literature, and culture and also regularly volunteers as a medical translator and interpreter. Her research is primarily focused on medieval Spanish women and society. However, her teaching is more broadly focused and most Read more…
Dr. Panthagani is a physician-scientist and science communicator. She ventured into the world of science communication as a senior PhD student in March 2020, just as the pandemic was hitting the US in full force. Watching family and friends struggle to make sense of the quickly changing landscape of the pandemic, she founded You Can Read more…
Dr. Megan Madsen is a primary care physician practicing in Philadelphia, PA. She received her medical training from Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and completed her residency in Family Medicine and fellowship in Geriatric Medicine at Abington-Jefferson Hospital. Her education as a D.O. allowed her to obtain excellent medical training that focused on treating the Read more…
Dr. Chana Davis is a scientist and communicator who loves helping people use science to make healthy choices. Chana completed her PhD in genetics at Stanford before spending a decade in biomedical research at the Canary Foundation, Genentech / Roche and Genome British Columbia. From 2018 to 2025, she shared science with the public through Read more…
Dr. Clark-Cutaia is an Assistant Professor of Nursing at the New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing and Grossman School of Medicine. She received a BS in Nursing (2003), and MS in Nursing (2006) from the University of Pennsylvania, and her PhD in Nursing (2012) from the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Clark-Cutaia continues to 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…
Dr. Rachael Piltch-Loeb is an expert in public health emergency preparedness and response and risk communication, currently focused on issues related to COVID-19. She holds an appointment at both the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health as a Preparedness Fellow and the NYU School of Global Public Health as an associate research scientist. Along 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…
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…
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. Christine B. Whelan is a clinical professor in the School of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. She is the author of five books, most recently The Big Picture: A Guide to Finding Your Purpose in Life (Templeton Press, 2016). At the University of Wisconsin – Madison Dr. Whelan teaches classes Read more…
Emily Nethsingha is a Sociology MSc student at the University of Oxford. During her undergraduate degree, she enjoyed focusing on Demographic Systems, Social Policy, and Feminist Theory. She aspires to work as a researcher for an organization with a positive social impact and is thrilled to be part of the Dear Pandemic team
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.
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…
Mahima Bhattar is an undergraduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studying Sociology and Economics. She has focused much of her undergraduate career on public health research through studying women’s health in Varanasi, India while studying abroad and interning in Monitoring & Evaluations at the Ugandan NGO, Health Access Connect. She plans to continue into Read more…
Daisey Velazquez is an undergraduate student at University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is studying Spanish Education and is currently student teaching at Hamilton Middle School. After graduating, she plans to teach Spanish in Wisconsin before returning to graduate school. She loves to cook and bake.
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…
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…
Dr. Amanda M. Simanek received her MPH in International Health Epidemiology and PhD in Epidemiologic Science from University of Michigan School of Public Health. A social epidemiologist by training, she studies the pathways by which social inequities in health develop across the lifecourse and are perpetuated across generations. She is an Associate Professor in the Read more…
