Center for Healthy Communities

Who We Are

CENTER FACULTY

EXPERTS IN EDUCATION
AND RESEARCH

DR. SHREELA SHARMA

MEET THE DIRECTOR

Center for Healthy Communities Team

Lisa Ward
Sr. Administrative Coordinator
Center for Healthy Communities
[email protected]

Kateria Crichlow
Sr. Program Manager
Center for Healthy Communities
[email protected]

Edith Davila
Community Health Worker II
Center for Healthy Communities
[email protected]

Wesley Gibson
Sr. Program Manager
Center for Healthy Communities
[email protected]

Rosalia Guerrero, MBA, CHWI
Sr. Project Manager
Center for Healthy Communities
[email protected]

Gillean Wade
Administrative Coordinator
Center for Healthy Communities
[email protected]

Naomi Tice, MPH
Sr. Project Manager
Center for Healthy Communities
[email protected]

Brandon Kelley
Sr. Grants and Contracts Specialist
Center for Healthy Communities
[email protected]

Kiana Bess, PhD
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Center for Healthy Communities
[email protected]

Lorena Macias-Navarro, MSc
Graduate Research Assistant
Center for Healthy Communities
[email protected]

Jenny Rowlands, MPH
Graduate Research Assistant
Center for Healthy Communities
[email protected]

Adriana Cardenas
Community Health Worker II
Center for Healthy Communities
[email protected]

Farrah Adegbite
Sr. Grants and Contracts Specialist
Center for Healthy Communities
[email protected]

Maha Almohamad, PhD
Research Scientist
Center for Healthy Communities
[email protected]

Heidi Hagen McPherson, MPH
Sr. Project Manager & Co-Lead
Coalition for Connected Care [email protected]

Jana Satterwhite
Sr. Communications Specialist
Center for Healthy Communities [email protected]

Anne Marie Thompson, MPH
Sr. Program Manager
Center for Healthy Communities [email protected]

Wang Mengxi, PhD
Biostatistican
Center for Healthy Communities [email protected]

Michael Gonzalez
Database Manager
Center for Healthy Communities
[email protected]

Mallika Mathur, PhD
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Center for Healthy Communities
[email protected]

MacKenzie Senn, MPH
Graduate Research Assistant
Center for Healthy Communities
[email protected]

Center for Healthy Communities Affiliated Faculty and Partners

Who We Are

CENTER FACULTY

EXPERTS IN EDUCATIONAND RESEARCH

DR. SHREELA SHARMA

MEET THE DIRECTOR

Center for Healthy Communities Team

Center for Healthy Communities Affiliated Faculty and Partners

Dissertation Defense by Soo Kyung Park, MPH: Statistical Methods for a Longitudinal Cohort Study of Chronic Pancreatitis

National Public Health Week: Conversation with Eric Boerwinkle, PhD

Thesis Presentation by Christian Mark Palma, BS: Transitions In Tobacco Usage Among Youth in PATH Study (Waves 1-7.5)

National Public Health Week: Ready. Set. Yoga!

Dissertation Defense by Bohong Guo, MPH: Efficient multi-trait genetic association studies for high-dimensional brain imaging data

Dissertation Defense: Obesity Severity, Discrimination, and Sleep Health in United States Adults

Thesis Presentation by Ben Black, BS: Frailty as a measure of physiologic reserve at tuberculosis diagnosis

National Public Health Week: Practice Day

Dissertation Defense by Gretchen Rodriguez: Occupational Data Quality in Public Health Surveillance

Dissertation Proposal Defense by Nadia J. Siddiqui, MPH: Legacy of Historic Redlining & Present-Day Food Insecurity in Urban Areas

Dissertation Defense by Yesmel King, MA: Understanding Protective Health Behaviors Among Latino Day Laborers During COVID-19

Dissertation Defense by Nompumelelo Mzizi, MSPH:Economic Evaluation of Tuberculosis Algorithms for Screening and Diagnosis

Thesis Presentation by Kevin Dang, BS: Occupational Risk Factors and Their Associations with Mental Health Outcomes in Firefighter

Thesis Presentation by Miranda Kapfhammer, BS: Assessing physical function trajectories in CAR-T Therapy

Thesis Defense by Yuze Liu: Automated Identification of ICD Symptom Codes Using Machine Learning

Dissertation Proposal Defense by Kyung Serk Cho, MA: Multiscale statistical and machine learning methods for modeling TLS

Dissertation Defense by Jacob Siahaan, MS: Incorporating AI Adoption in ED-CDSS: Policy, Initiatives, and Leadership

National Public Health Week: Community Networking Hour

Big City Blues: The effects of eviction moratorium and the threat of evictions on health outcomes of Harris County, TX residents

Dissertation Defense by Qi Miao, BS: Mass Cytometry Data Compensation and Panel Integration

Dissertation Defense by Mackenzie Senn: Relationship Between Food Insecurity, Diet Quality, Eating Behavior, and BMI

34th Annual Steele Lecture featuring William E. Secor, PhD

Dissertation Defense by Tia Thomas: Rank-based Information Borrowing from Subgroups and Surrogate Outcomes in Survival Analysis

Dissertation Defense by Feng Wang, MS: Manifold Embedding of Undirected Networks using Intrinsic Dimensional Latent Space Model

Dissertation Proposal Defense by Joseph Baar Topinka, JD, An Analysis of Success Factors for Veterans Treatment Courts in Texas

Thesis Presentation by Matthew Sze, BS: Prevalence and Risk Factors of Depression Among TB Patients in the Mexican–Texas Border

Dissertation Defense by Lama Bakhamis, BA, MS: Evaluating the Feasibility of a Culturally Adapted Patient Priorities Care

Dissertation Defense by Brooklyn Adams Baker, MPH: Underlying Influences of Birth Weight Status

National Public Health Week: SPH Day of Service

Dissertation Defense by Valerie Valenzuela, MBA, : Assessment: Role of Employment in the Relationship Between Violence And Wellbei

15th Annual SIC Crawfish Boil 2026

Spring 2026 Fleming Center Healthcare Management Case Competition

Thesis Presentation by Maihemuti Maihediya, MS:Identifying Laboratroy Tests Associated With Physical Disability of AYA Using ML

Dissertation Proposal Defense by Kaitlin Brand, MPH, RD: Understanding Severe Maternal Morbidity in Texas

Thesis defense by Allyson Flippo: RSV Wastewater Genomic Trends and Clinical Implications

Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) Region 6/5S Info Session

Dissertation proposal defense by Brooke Sherry, MPH: Parental Support for Diet and Physical Activity Among Texas Adolescents

Dissertation Proposal Defense by Qidi Xu, MS: Human Cognition Inspired Multi-Agent Large Language Model Frameworks

Dissertation Proposal Defense by Stacie Hill Anderson, MPH: Evaluation of emergency department patient navigation intervention

Dallas County Health and Human Services Info Session

Dissertation Proposal Defense by Xiaoyang Li, MS: Dynamic Prediction for High-Dimensional Longitudinal Biomarkers

Dissertation Defense by Jennifer Thompson, MPH: Mental Health and Willingness to Utilize Peer Support Among University Police

Dissertation Proposal Defense by Joshua Strauss, MPH: Telomere Biology and Genomic Instability in Pediatric CNS Malignancies

Dissertation Defense by Jennifer Thompson, MPH: Mental Health and Willingness to Utilize Peer Support Among University Police

Pro-e-cigarette social media engagement and e-cigarette use among Mexican American college students

Reuel A. Stallones Memorial Endowed Lecture & Building Commemoration

Dissertation Proposal Defense by Hossaena Ayele, MSc

Carmel Dyer, MD Lecture Series - Improving Advance Care Planning for Patients with Serious Illness

Dissertation Proposal Defense by Eboni Pettus, MBA: Education, Neighborhood Deprivation, and Preventable Cancer Mortality in Texas

University-Community Partnerships for Advancing Active Living in Texas: Co-Learning about Needs, Assets & Opportunities with Under-Resourced Communities

Linking Human Mobility, Transmission Intensity, and Clinical Severity in Seasonal Influenza

Dissertation Proposal Defense by Manqi Li: Scalable Methodologies for Drug Repurposing

EXPERTS IN EDUCATION
AND RESEARCH