Marc Eberhard

Linda’s research focus is on examining the causes of urban neighborhood decline and the ineffectiveness of national and local revitalization policies. Linda is exploring alternative models and theoretical frameworks for neighborhood change and the creation of physically and mentally healthy African American, urban communities. Resident mobilization, economic stimulation, and strategic partnerships with universities are among the specific strategies Linda is exploring. Other interests include examining the relationship between researchers and the communities under study, as well as the academy’s responsibility to ensure mutually beneficial relationships with “subject” communities.

Bonnie Duran Dr.PH (mixed race Opelousas/Coushatta descendent) is an associate professor in the Schools of Social Work and School of Public Health at the University of Washington, and is the Director of the Center for Indigenous Health Research at the Indigenous Wellness Research Institute (http://health.iwri.org ). She has worked in public health research, evaluation and education among Native Americans and other communities of color for over 35 years.

Dr. Duran is currently the Principal Investigator of 2 NIH funded research projects in “Indian Country”. Working with the American Indian Higher Education Consortium and 25 Tribal Colleges, she is conducting 2 studies; (a) a psychiatric epidemiology prevalence and correlates study (N=3,200, and (b) a TCU-cultural adaptation of Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS). Dr. Duran is also Co-PI of an NIMH funded R25 HIV and mental health research training program. Her past work includes partnering with the Navajo Nation, Indian Health Service and Indigenous Community Based Organizations on frontier rural projects aimed at improving health services, and developing culture-centered health promotion.

The overall aims of Dr. Duran’s research are to work in partnership with communities to design public health treatment and prevention efforts that are empowering, culture-centered, accessible and sustainable and that have maximum public health impact. She has many publications including articles in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters and books.

Dr. Duran is on the editorial board of Health Education & Behavior and the Progress in Community Health Partnerships. She is an Advisory Board Member of RISE for Boys and Men of Color, Foundation Executive Alliance.

Bonnie Duran is also a Buddhist mindfulness practitioner and teacher. She teaches long and short mindfulness retreats at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS dharma.org) in Massachusetts and at Spirit Rock Meditation Center (SRMC Spiritrock.org) in California.

Betty Bekemeier is associate professor at the University of Washington (UW) School of Nursing and Director of the UW School of Public Health’s Northwest Center for Public Health Practice. She is a distinguished public health systems researcher and has worked extensively toward improving the effectiveness of our prevention systems and the related public health workforce.

She has led numerous studies regarding local health department (LHD) services and their impact on population-level health outcomes and health disparities. Dr. Bekemeier is PI of the Public Health Activities and Services Tracking (PHAST) Study, a highly regarded, growing database of uniquely detailed and linked data regarding LHD services. Her PHAST research has supported several important studies, and involves an interdisciplinary team of investigators.

Dr. Bekemeier’s studies on change, variation, and outcomes regarding public health systems have been conducted in partnership with public health practice leaders and have been immediately relevant to addressing current policy issues that relate to population health. Her recent study on relationships between LHD expenditures and local rates of low birth weight was awarded AcademyHealth’s 2014 Public Health System Research Article of the Year.

Dr. Bekemeier is a national public health and nursing leader, having served in significant leadership positions in organizations that include the American Public Health Association and the American Academy of Nursing.

Gregory A. Roth, MD, MPH, is an Assistant Professor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) and the Division of Cardiology at the University of Washington School of Medicine. At IHME, he leads cardiovascular disease modeling for the institute’s landmark Global Burden of Disease Study. IHME was founded in 2007 at the University of Washington to provide better health evidence to improve health globally by guiding health policy and funding.

Dr. Roth’s research focuses on global cardiovascular health surveillance, population health, and quality of care and outcomes for cardiovascular diseases such as heart failure. His research has been funded by the American Heart Association, NIH National Institute on Aging, Medtronic Philanthropy, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He is an Associate Editor of Global Heart, the journal of the World Heart Federation.

Dr. Roth earned his bachelor’s degree and MD from Brown University and his MPH from the University of Washington. He then trained in internal medicine and cardiovascular diseases at the UW and served as an attending physician in the emergency department at Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, and as a consultant physician at Whakatane Hospital, New Zealand. He received additional training as a postdoctoral fellow with the Veterans Administration Health Services Research and Development branch. He is an attending cardiologist and echocardiographer at Harborview Medical Center, Seattle.

Paul Drain, MD, MPH, is Assistant Professor in the Departments of Global Health, Medicine (Infectious Diseases), and Epidemiology at the University of Washington. He completed his infectious disease training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

His research focuses on use of diagnostic testing and clinic-based screening, including novel point-of-care technologies, to improve clinical care and patient-centered outcomes in resource-limited settings, and has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, Harvard Global Health Institute, Harvard University, Infectious Disease Society of America, Harvard’s Center for AIDS Research, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

He has authored several global health books and received awards from the Global Health Education Consortium, the Infectious Disease Society of America, and a Faculty Teaching Award from Harvard Medical School, where he still co-teaches “Introduction to Social Medicine and Global Health” to first-year medical students.

Dr. Paula Nurius studies processes and effects of stress and trauma focusing on vulnerable and socially disadvantaged populations, early/preventive intervention and fostering resilience. Her research on life course stress integrates structural, psychosocial and biobehavioral mechanisms, distinguishing direct, cumulative and interactive effects of early and later life stress exposures alongside protective factors. One strand of this work assesses relationships of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) to later stress proliferation and erosion of health protective resources.

A mental health specialist, she is increasingly focusing on comorbid physical, mental, and behavioral health outcomes as well as incorporating effects of the physical environment—such as air pollution and neighborhood characteristics—in multi-level models to explain stress responding and disparities in population health and functioning outcomes. She maintains multiple affiliations on campus including the Center for Studies of Demography and Ecology wherein her research relates to the population health themes of: 1) Children, Adolescents and the Transition to Adulthood and 2) Social and Biological Contexts of Population Health.

Wadiya Udell, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Community Psychology in the Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences program at the University of Washington Bothell. Dr. Udell received her doctorate in developmental psychology from Columbia University, and received postdoctoral training in HIV prevention research at the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University.

Dr. Udell’s research focuses on understanding the role of culture and context in promoting sexual health, and in preventing sexual risk behaviors among urban adolescents of color and marginalized youth. Her work has focused on the factors that place adolescents at risk for a lifetime of health disparities. Specifically, she has examined the role of various individual and structural factors (e.g., mental health, parenting, religion, neighborhoods) on the HIV risk of urban African American youth, and youth in the juvenile justice system.

Fuller is Professor Emeritus, Biomedical and Health Informatics, School of Medicine and Information School. As Co-Director, Center for Public Health Informatics Fuller has led the development of innovative computing and information systems projects to improve population health practice nationally and internationally with a particular focus on open source decision support tools and knowledge management systems and was a contributor to the development of EpiVue, an open source data visualization tool.

Fuller has conducted research, lectured, led training programs and consulted throughout the world on the development of interoperable health information systems for low resource environments and on the creation of education and research programs in biomedical and health informatics in sub-Saharan Africa (Namibia, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa), South America (Peru) and Southeast Asia (Thailand and Vietnam). She has contributed to World Health Organization (WHO) programs supporting the development of interoperable health information systems and technologies in resource-constrained countries and participated as an invited expert in a number of WHO-convened conferences including India, Kenya and Rwanda.

Fuller is a lead UW faculty member on the informatics component of a Fogarty-funded grant to the University of Nairobi and University of Washington focusing on the development of ICT and informatics capacity for population health research. Fuller is currently a technical advisor to ITECH (UW) on a new project with the Department of Health, South Africa to support the development of a knowledge-based system for human resource development throughout the Department. She was the UW PI of a Fogarty training grant with Cayetano-Heredia University, Lima Peru – QUIPU: Andean Global Health Informatics Research and Training Center and continues to teach in that program. In 2012 Fuller was designated by the Fulbright Scholars Program as a Specialist in Health Informatics. Activities have included co-teaching a graduate course titled: Teaching, Learning and Communication in Biomedical Informatics to QUIPU fellows from across the Andean Region.

My research and scholarship centers on the critical study of social inequality, focusing on the relationship between sexuality, power, and context (including: organizational, institutional, cultural, and global contexts).

In the past my research has included ethnographic research on post-industrial service work jobs including waitressing and sex work; more recently I have applied my research and scholarship to evaluating popular discourses about the “sexualization of girls,” and discourses and policies about sex work and human trafficking.

My current projects include a community-based study of transgender sex workers in the Seattle area (funded by the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies and the Pride Foundation), and an introductory sexuality studies book (“Sexuality: the Basics,” Routledge press). My public scholarship can also be found at The Conversation, Ms. Magazine Blog, Rh Reality Check, Sexuality & Society, & The Feminist Wire.

Through multiple strands of research that mix paradigms, media, and methods, I seek to identify how we, as scholars and community members, can create and support settings that foster health, empowerment, and social justice.

My work focuses on understanding and promoting adolescent health and well-being with particular attention to contextual risk and protective factors, culture, and youth as agents of social change.

My primary substantive focus is on sexual health, broadly defined. I am also interested in the footprint community-based researchers and universities leave in the communities with which they collaborate.

In this line of work, I attend to the process and outcomes of community-based research with youth and adults, university-community partnerships, and student engagement in community-based learning and research.

Dr. McCoy’s scholarship is focused on the factors that influence the management of HIV as a chronic health condition among older adults.

Dr. McCoy recently completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Emory University in Atlanta, GA where she investigated the experience of being an older, HIV-infected African American individual. She has also examined the relationships between HIV-related stigma, health literacy, medication adherence and the clinical health outcomes of HIV-infected older adults.

Her current research uses a mixed-methods design to further investigate HIV self-management among older adults.

My work sits at the intersections of medical anthropology, public health, and politics.

I have been working and conducting research in southern Africa (Lesotho and South Africa, primarily) since 2005. Much of my research explores the impacts of global health initiatives on diverse communities, and the politics of global health governance.

To this end, I am working on a book manuscript that examines how HIV and global health program expansion in Lesotho undermined democratic institutions and altered citizens’ political worlds.

Additionally, I am currently co-editing two books, one on corporations and global health governance, and a second on HIV programming and the politics of global health.

Dr. Ezeonwu’s scholarship extends into the national and global policy arena, and integrates two related pathways:

Global health, with emphasis on maternal health care access issues, and nursing workforce. Her scholarship hinges on the World Health Organization’s Health for All strategy that highlights equity and social justice, and focuses attention on social and economic determinants of health and their unequal impact on the health of populations.

Community-based interventions, using community health education and collaborative partnerships as mechanisms for health promotion. Her community-engaged scholarship is informed by the community-as-partner model which draws from the philosophy of primary health care.

Jody’s research, teaching, and community work have been greatly influenced by Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy and participatory methodologies.

She approaches health from a social science perspective and is drawn to mixed methodologies and community-based participatory research. She applies critical theory to examine socioecological factors (e.g., gender, education, class, culture) that impact health.

Jody has published and presented peer-reviewed research in the areas of: community health, women’s health, new media and health promotion, online learning, and Constructivist pedagogies.

She is currently serving on the editorial advisory board for the journal, Pedagogy in Health Promotion: The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, and also serves as a peer reviewer for the Global Journal of Health Education & Promotion and the Journal of Online Teaching and Learning. She is also co-author of the text, The Process of Community Health Education and Promotion (2nd ed.), and is currently working on a 3rd edition due out in 2015.

As a medical humanist, health lawyer, public health policymaker and bioethicist, Dr. Bustillos has broad scholarship interests, though they mainly revolve around the moral, legal and philosophical issues surrounding medicine and public health.

Through an interdisciplinary approach, Dan investigates issues of justice in health care and the meaning and experience of illness. He also studies the pedagogy of health professions education.

Currently, Dan is at work on a book manuscript on the landmark 1904 U.S. Supreme Court case of Jacobson vs. Massachusetts, and on how a historical re-contextualization of this case can help us understand current vaccination controversies.

My primary research focus lies within social epidemiology and the social demography of health disparities. I investigate the intersection of race, ethnicity, and nativity, and its implications on population health and well-being.

Much of my research to date has focused on sub-group differences in chronic health outcomes among foreign-born and native born populations. My recent research examines the relationship between adult health outcomes and biopsychosocial processes through the life course.

I am particularly interested in modeling the effects of daily racial hassles from childhood through adulthood and its impact on adult health and social welfare. I use quantitative methods to determine the long term impact of inequality and a biopsychosocial framework for evaluating the effectiveness of program and policy interventions.

Selina’s scholarship centers on social justice and the effects of social determinants of health. She examines the impact of racialized discrimination and other structural disadvantages on health, and uses critical theories to explore how historical, sociocultural, political, and economic contexts contribute to health inequities, particularly for American Indians.

Selina has a background in using qualitative methodologies, and experience with survey and randomized control trial conceptualization, design, and implementation. She also has experience using community-based participatory research to develop strong relationships with communities, and draw on community strengths and resources to create relevant interventions that will best meet their needs.

Thaisa Way is an urban landscape historian teaching and researching history, theory, and design in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the College of Built Environments, University of Washington, Seattle. She currently serves as a member of the Executive Council for the Population Health Initiative, which is developing a 25-year vision to build on the breadth and depth of the UW’s research, teaching, and practice to improve the health of populations around the world. Dr. Way is also the Executive Director of Urban@UW, an initiative of the UW’s Office of Research and CoMotion, a collaborative hub for innovation, to bring urban researchers and teachers together to address the most complex urban challenges.

These two projects build on Dr. Way’s enthusiasm and commitment to strengthening the role of inclusive and innovative research in the efforts to improve the lives of all populations around the world. This work happens when we work collaboratively to address the diverse factors that shape human health and well-being, with a focus on improving the health of individuals and communities, enhancing environmental resiliency, and creating greater social and economic equity.

Dr Way’s scholarship has highlighted the role of designers, planners, and advocates in improving cities as places that foster human and environmental health. Her book, Unbounded Practices: Women, Landscape Architecture, and Early Twentieth Century Design was awarded the J.B. Jackson Book Award. Her book From Modern Space to Urban Ecological Design: the Landscape Architecture of Richard Haag explores the narrative of post-industrial cities and the practice of landscape architecture. She co-edited with Ken Yocom, Ben Spencer, and Jeff Hou a collection of essays Now Urbanism: The Future City is Here. Dr. Way is editor of a new collection River cities/ City rivers forthcoming from Harvard University’s Dumbarton Oaks Garden and Landscape Studies program. 

Dr. Way serves as Chair and Senior Fellow at the Dumbarton Oaks Garden and Landscape Studies and was the 2015-2016 Garden Club of America Fellow in Landscape Architecture at the American Academy in Rome. Dr. Way earned a Bachelor of Science in Conservation and Natural Resources from the University of California, Berkeley, her Master of Architectural History from the University of Virginia, and PhD in the History of Architecture and Urbanism from Cornell University.

I have three main areas of interest in my research pursuits: (1) Fatigue in organizations, focusing on sleep and sleep deprivation, (2) emotional labor, and (3) behavioral ethics.

I am a social demographer with broad interests in race-ethnicity, inequality, fertility, and family. I am currently working on Gates Fdn grant with Sara Curran on universal access to family planning. For more detail, see http://faculty.washington.edu/charles/Hirschman%20NIH%20format%20biosketch%20April%202016.pdf

Dr. Hill has worked at the Social Development Research Group since 1994. He is a social developmental psychologist by training. His work seeks to understand the factors that influence the development of prosocial as well as maladaptive behaviors such as substance use disorder and crime.

He has focused on understanding the mechanisms of continuity and discontinuity in these behaviors across generations, including an examination of genetic and environmental contributions. Once identified, these specific factors can then be targeted through preventive intervention to improve health and well-being and to break intergenerational cycles of problem behavior.

I develop spatial methods for health data, and work on studies for both infectious and non-infectious diseases. I collaborate with the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon with one project looking at modeling cancer incidence and mortality for all countries.

I have worked extensively in small area estimation, with applications both locally (with King County Public Health and the State health department) and internationally. With respect to the latter, I have been modeling under 5 mortality rate (U5MR) in the developing world, with the endpoint being sub national estimates of the U5MR.

I have developed models and analyzed data on hand, foot and mouth disease in China, cholera in Bangladesh. Another relevant area of interest is age-period-cohort modeling.

I am Professor in the Departments of Neurology and Global Health, with Adjunct appointments in the Departments of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and Epidemiology at the University of Washington. My greatest skill is developing and managing international mentored research training fellowships for doctoral students and post-doctoral trainees – directly relevant to the population health opportunity of: “Education and Capacity Building” . I have 20 years experience building international research and research training capacity in Peru and in the past five years have also developed an NIH Fogarty Global Health Fellows consortium of 5 US academic institutions with 12-month research training fellowships in 7 collaborating countries: Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Cameroon, Thailand, India and Peru. I also serve as Co-Director of 1) an NIH Fogarty NCD Lifespan award that aims to increase stroke research and treatment capacity in Peru; 2) an NIH Fogarty Innovations in Global Health Award; and 3) an NIH Fogarty HIV Training Program. I have participated in the medium and long-term training of over 200 U.S. and Peruvian junior investigators. I also have extensive experience in diagnosing and treating viral, retroviral, bacterial and fungal infections of the nervous system.

In addition to multiple departments within the the Schools of Medicine and Public Health, my collaborations within the UW include the College of the Built Environment, School of Nursing, Jackson International School, School of Dentistry, Evans School of Public Policy, School of Social Work, Foster Business School, Department of Bioengineering, Computer Science and Engineering, and School of Pharmacy.

I lead the Financial Resources for Health research team at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Our work centers on measuring where resources for heath are coming from, how they are being transferred, and what and who they are being spent on. This work describes existing financial flows and identifies financing gaps, inefficiencies, and opportunities.

This work has two primary pieces. The first piece is comprehensive tracking government and international resources for health for each country in the world. The goal is to understand and describe government health spending and funding provided from donors as development assistance for health being provided to low- and middle-income countries. The second piece of research focuses on health spending in the United States. The goal of this research is to measure which patient groups (age and sex), which payers (government, private insurance, or out-of-pocket spending) and which causes of illness are leading to the most health care spending.

This research focuses in inpatient settings, ambulatory settings, emergency departments, nursing facilities, and at home and on pharmaceuticals. When combined with risk factor and health burden data, this work can identify where spending in the US has increased the most, why it is has increased in these places, what causes receive relatively little financial spending, and how much spending is attributed to modifiable risk factors such as diet, physical inactivity, environment health concerns, and high blood-pressure.

Amy K. Snover is the Associate Dean for Applied Research in the College of the Environment and Affiliate Associate Professor in the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs at the University of Washington (UW). She is Director of the Climate Impacts Group, an integrated research and stakeholder engagement team working across sectors to develop, deliver and support the application of decision-relevant scientific information on climate impacts, vulnerability and adaptation strategies.

With the Climate Impacts Group, Dr. Snover works with a broad range of public- and private-sector stakeholders to develop science-based climate change planning and adaptation guidance, identify research priorities, and advise on strategies for building climate resilience. She was a convening lead author for the Third US National Climate Assessment and lead author of the groundbreaking guidebook, Preparing for Climate Change: A Guidebook for Local, Regional, and State Governments, with over 3000 copies now in use worldwide. Current areas of focus include defining successful climate change adaptation, exploring the role of cities in adaptation and identifying the time of emergence of management-relevant aspects of climate change.

Dr. Snover was named a White House Climate Education and Literacy Champion of Change in 2015. She earned her Ph.D. in Analytical/Environmental Chemistry from the University of Washington.