Emerging Leaders in Health and Medicine Scholars

Dr. Rima Arnaout is Associate Professor of Medicine, a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub investigator, and faculty in the Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute, the Biological and Medical Informatics program, and the Center for Intelligent Imaging at the UCSF. She is investigating whether machine learning can be used to detect standard and novel patterns in biomedical imaging in a scalable fashion, with the goals of decreasing diagnostic error in medical imaging and uncovering new phenotypes for precision medicine research. Dr. Arnaout completed her undergraduate degree at MIT, her MD at Harvard Medical School, residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, and cardiology fellowship at UCSF.

Ami Bhatt is a physician-scientist with a strong interest in microbial genomics and metagenomics. She received her MD and PhD from the University of California, San Francisco. She then carried out her residency and fellowship training at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and served as Chief Medical Resident from 2010-2011. She joined the faculty of the Departments of Medicine (Divisions of Hematology and Blood & Marrow Transplantation) and Genetics at Stanford University in 2014 after completing a post-doctoral fellowship focused on genomics at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. Prof. Bhatt has received multiple awards for her academic scholarship including the Chen Award of Excellence from the Human Genome Organisation (HUGO).

Her team’s research program seeks to illuminate the interplay between the microbial environment and host/clinical factors in human diseases. Her translational laboratory develops and applies novel molecular and computational tools to study strain level dynamics of the microbiome, to understand how microbial genomes change over time and predict the functional output of microbiomes. These innovations facilitate much improved (1) measurement of the types and functions of microbes in patients with non-communicable diseases, (2) understanding how microbes communicate with one another and with human cells using small proteins, and (3) testing of the impact of microbially targeted interventions in clinical trials.

In addition to carrying out research at Stanford University, Prof. Bhatt has active collaborations worldwide including in Nigeria and South Africa. She is committed to ensuring that advances in research touch the lives of individuals in all income settings–and thus, in her spare time, enjoys volunteering for the nonprofit she co-founded, Global Oncology and serves as the Director for Global Oncology for Stanford’sCenter for Innovation in Global Health.

Alejandra Casillas MD, MSHS is an assistant professor of medicine in residence, in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research at the David Geffen School of

Medicine at UCLA. She practices primary care at UCLA, and also teaches medical students and internal medicine residents while caring for patients at the Venice Family Free Clinic. As the daughter of Mexican immigrants, Dr. Casillas witnessed the health disparities lived by her family, and the struggle for a better life in her diverse Los Angeles community. Today, as a primary care physician for the underserved, a mentor to trainees from disadvantaged backgrounds, and a health disparities researcher, she addresses these inequities.

The first in her family to attend college, Dr. Casillas completed her undergraduate studies at Harvard College and medical training at Harvard Medical School, where she received the Dean’s Community Service Award and was a Paul and Daisy Soros Scholar for New Americans. She finished her internal medicine and primary care residency at the University of California San Francisco, also serving as Chief Medical Resident at UCSF Medical Center. Dr. Casillas returned to Los Angeles as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at UCLA– where she completed a health services research and leadership fellowship, and received a masters’ degree at the Fielding School of Public Health. After completing her training, Dr. Casillas worked at the academic medical centers in Geneva and Lausanne, with funding from the Swiss Office of Public Health, to address immigrant health disparities in the French-speaking region of Switzerland.

Dr. Casillas’ health services research focuses on the low-income communities served by the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, the second largest municipal safety net in the US, developing digital health interventions tailored to socially complex, Limited English Proficient patients. Her published scholarship also includes research and programming initiatives addressing equity and diversity inclusion in academia and health, connecting to her UCLA roles as director of the CTSI Health Disparities Student Research Program, and founder of the First Generation Program at the School of Medicine.

Paul Cohen is the Albert Resnick, MD Associate Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Molecular Metabolism at the Rockefeller University. He is also a cardiologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He is a graduate of the Tri-Institutional MD-PhD Program, where he completed his PhD research with Dr. Jeffrey Friedman studying the unique metabolic effects of the hormone, leptin. He then pursued clinical training in Internal Medicine at Columbia and in Cardiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He completed postdoctoral research training with Dr. Bruce Spiegelman at Dana Farber Cancer Institute studying transcriptional determinants of adipocyte identity. Dr. Cohen’s lab focus on understanding the molecular links between obesity and associated diseases with a particular focus on diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.

Dustin T. Duncan, ScD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, where he directs Columbia’s Spatial Epidemiology Lab and co-directs the department’s Social and Spatial Epidemiology Unit. Dr. Duncan is a Social and Spatial Epidemiologist. His research broadly seeks to understand how social and contextual factors especially neighborhood characteristics influence population health, with a particular focus on HIV epidemiology and prevention and sleep epidemiology and promotion. Dr. Duncan’s intersectional research focuses on Black gay, bisexual and other sexual minority men and transgender women of color. His work appears in leading public health, epidemiology, medical, geography, criminology, demography, and psychology journals. Working in collaborations with scholars across the world, he has over 200 high-impact articles, book chapters and books, and his research has appeared in major media outlets including U.S. News & World Report, The Washington Post, The New York Times and CNN. Dr. Duncan’s recent work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the HIV Prevention Trials Network, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Verizon Foundation, and the Aetna Foundation. He has received several early career and distinguished scientific contribution awards including from the Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science (IAPHS). In 2020, he received the Mentor of the Year Award from Columbia University Irving Medical Center’s Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research.

Justin is a physician-scientist. He trained in clinical endocrinology and metabolism at Harvard University, USA. He underwent research training in epidemiology at the University of Cambridge, UK. and in clinical \investigation at Boston University, USA. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

His clinical practice focuses on diabetes and obesity. His research is at the intersection of metabolism and cardiovascular diseases, exploring the pathways leading to type 2 diabetes, as well as the related-cardiovascular complications. He uses epidemiological methods and other investigational approaches (biomarkers, imaging, etc.) to understand the natural history and pathogenesis of diabetes and the resultant cardiovascular complications.

With a focus on laying the foundation for molecularly targeted therapies, Anna Greka’s scientific work is centered on understanding membrane proteins and fundamental mechanisms of disrupted cellular homeostasis.

Anna’s early scientific work focused on the role of TRP ion channels in essential cellular functions. Combining her expertise in ion channel biology with the study of kidney podocytes, she uncovered a pathway linking TRPC5 ion channel activity to cytoskeletal dysregulation and cell death. Based on these discoveries, TRPC5 inhibitors are now being tested in the clinic for difficult-to-treat kidney diseases.

Recently, Anna and her team made a key discovery of a general mechanism that monitors the quality of membrane protein cargoes destined for the cell surface by studying a proteinopathy in the kidney, caused by a mutation in MUC1. Specifically, they identified a mechanism for membrane protein quality control that is operative in diverse cell types and tissues, such as kidney epithelial cells and retina photoreceptors. The study of cargo quality control and its implications for several toxic proteinopathies is now a major focus of the laboratory.

Anna is also interested in dissecting the fundamental mechanisms of disrupted cellular homeostasis at the intersection of proteotoxicity and lipotoxicity across the lifespan, with implications for many metabolic and degenerative human diseases.

Anna is the recipient of several honors, including the 2020 Donald W. Seldin Young Investigator Award by the American Society of Nephrology and the American Heart Association, the 2018 Seldin-Smith Award for Pioneering Research from the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI), a 2017 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, a 2014 Top 10 Exceptional Research Award from the Clinical Research Council, and a 2014 Young Physician-Scientist Award from the ASCI. She was also elected to the ASCI Council, and serves on the Harvard-MIT M.D.-Ph.D. Program Leadership Council.

Sidney Hankerson, MD, MBA is Associate Professor and Vice Chair for Community Engagement in the Department of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He is also Director of Mental Health Equity Research in the Institute for Health Equity Research at Mount Sinai.  His research focuses on reducing racial/ethnic disparities in mental health treatment. He is a nationally recognized expert at faith-based mental health services research.

New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio recently appointed Dr. Hankerson as Chair of the Community Services Board of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.  Dr. Hankerson has presented his study results at the White House, United Nations, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Gracie Mansion (NYC Mayor’s Office), and numerous national academic conferences. He was an inaugural member of the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Council of Faith and Community Partnerships and served on the APA Council of Minority Mental Health and Health Disparities.

Dr. Hankerson completed a dual MD/MBA program from Emory University, where he was Medical School Class President for two years. He completed his psychiatry residency at Emory and was named Chief Resident of Psychiatry at Grady Memorial Hospital. He then completed a NIMH T32 post-doctoral research fellowship at Columbia University and was on faculty at Columbia for 12 years before transitioning to his current leadership roles at Mount Sinai. 

Ehsan Hoque is an Asaro-Biggar (’92) Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Rochester, where he co-leads the Rochester Human-Computer Interaction (ROC HCI) Group. From 2018-2019, he was the Interim Director of the Georgen Institute for Data Science.

Dr. Hoque uses Artificial Intelligence and Human-centered computing to amplify human ability. He models and captures the dynamics of human behavior using machine learning and network sciences; and design interactive systems to promote equality and access in health care. He has identified opportunities in developing technologies that can improve the lives of disadvantaged, ill, disabled, and other individuals who struggle with socio-emotional communication, such as those with autism, severe anxiety, neurodegenerative disease, and terminal illness.

His ideas and impact have been recognized by NSF CRII, NSF CAREER, and Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (ECASE). MIT Technology Review named him as one of the Top Innovators Under 35 (TR35) Award in 2016, and Science News recognized him as one of ten early-to mid-career scientists to watch in 2017. He is an inaugural member of the Association of Computing Machinery’s Future of Computing Academy (ACM FCA).

He earned his PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2013, working with Prof. Rosalind Picard. His dissertation work of developing an intelligent agent to improve the socio-emotional ability of humans was highlighted by MIT Museum as one of MIT’s most unconventional inventions. He is blessed to be the primary caregiver of his brother, 20, diagnosed with autism and Down Syndrome.

In August 2019, Caprice Knapp became the North Dakota Medicaid Director. She brings to the position more than 17 years’ experience working on Medicaid and CHIP in the private sector, state and federal policymaking, and academics. In the private sector, she was the federal policy director for Molina Healthcare, Inc. In academics, she was an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Outcomes and Policy at the University of Florida (UF) conducting external quality review activities for Texas and Florida Medicaid and CHIP programs and maternal and child health research. In the policymaking arena, she worked in the Governor’s Office of State Planning and Budgeting in Colorado as well as the U.S.House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow.

Knapp’s career has been focused on vulnerable populations, delivery system reform, and global health.Examples of her funded research topics include an assessment of Florida’s Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Grant; an evaluation of fertility-preservation decision making for adolescent girls with cancer; outcomes of concurrent models of pediatric palliative care; and an assessment of the quality, patient experiences, and costs of health and dental plans for children in Florida. Her global health projects also focus on maternal and child health and have been conducted in Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America. At the University of Florida, Knapp earned a PhD in economics and completed postdoctoral training in health services research. She has authored more than 80 peer-reviewed publications, 60 government reports, and two books.

Miguel Marino, PhD is an Associate Professor of Biostatistics in the Department of Family Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University, with a secondary appointment in the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health. He received his undergraduate degree in Mathematics from UCLA and his PhD from Harvard University. Before joining OHSU, he was a Yerby Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University.

Dr. Marino maintains a broad statistical research program that focuses on the intersection of primary care and public health studies. His research utilizes novel statistical methodology to address complexities associated with the use of electronic health records (EHRs) for critical community and primary care research questions in health policy, health disparities, preventive service utilization, health insurance monitoring, among others. Dr. Marino currently studies how to validate EHRs as a reliable source for pragmatic trials and observational cohort studies. He is currently funded by several agencies including the NIH, AHRQ, CDC and has over 125 peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals such as JAMA, JGIM, Health Affairs, and AJPH.

Since 2013, Dr. Marino has been the Statistical Editor for the Annals of Family Medicine. He also has served on NIH, PCORI and AHA study sections. He has formerly served as the President of the American Statistical Association’s Oregon Chapter. Currently, he serves as the Publications Officer for the Health Policy Statistics section of the American Statistical Association. His contributions to this field were recognized in 2017 when he received the New Investigator Research Award by the North American Primary Care Research Group.

Ziad Obermeyer is an Associate Professor (Acting) at UC Berkeley, where he does research at the intersection of machine learning, medicine, and health policy. Previously, he was an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. He has received numerous awards including the Early Independence Award, the National Institutes of Health’s most prestigious award for exceptional junior scientists, and the Young Investigator Award from the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine. His work has been published in Science, The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, The BMJ, and Health Affairs. He is a graduate of Harvard College (magna cum laude) and Harvard Medical School (magna cum laude) and earned an M.Phil. from Cambridge in the history and philosophy of science. Prior to his career in medicine, he worked as a consultant to pharmaceutical and global health clients at McKinsey & Co. in New Jersey, Geneva, and Tokyo. He continues to practice emergency medicine in underserved communities.

Cynthia Rogers, M.D. is Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Washington University in St. Louis and Co-Director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Dr. Rogers graduated with a B.A. in psychology from Harvard University and completed her M.D., psychiatry residency, and child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at Washington University. She is an academic child psychiatrist whose program of research focuses on improving the psychiatric outcomes of infants through understanding the underlying neural mechanisms of social-emotional development and psychopathology and the impact of social determinants of health on these mechanisms. Dr. Rogers co-directs the Washington University Neonatal Development Research (WUNDER) group, a multidisciplinary lab which uses multimodal MRI to understand how poverty, racism, prematurity, and prenatal substance exposure affect the brain at birth, alter brain development across childhood, and relate to child psychiatric disorders. Dr. Rogers serves as prinicipal investigator of multiple NIMH and NIDA funded longtidinal research studies and serves as Associate Director of the Healthy Brain and Child Development national consortium study. Dr. Rogers clinical work centers on addressing the impact of social determnants of health to reduce development of psychiatric disorders in perinatal and child populations. She co-directs the Washington University Perinatal Behavioral Health Service which serves perinatal women with psychiatric and substance use disorders and she leads a teaching consultation clinic for formerly preterm children with early developmental and social-emotional delays. She serves on the editorial board of Biological Psychiatry and a Deputy Editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and is a member of several professional societies, including the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the FLUX Society, and the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.

Dr. Traverso, a gastroenterologist and biomedical engineer, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering,  Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. His current research program is focused on developing the next generation of drug delivery systems to enable safe and efficient delivery of therapeutics through the gastrointestinal tract as well developing novel ingestible electronic devices for sensing a broad array of physiologic and pathophysiologic parameters.

Jing Wang, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN is Dean and Professor of the Florida State University College of Nursing, and Adjunct Professor in Biomedical Informatics and Public Health at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. She serves as the Board of Trustee at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and HCA Florida Capitol Hospital. Her research uses mobile and connected health technologies to optimize multiple-behavior lifestyle interventions and improve patient-centered outcomes among the chronically ill and aging populations with multiple chronic conditions, especially among the rural, underserved, and minority populations. Recently, she led interdisciplinary research that uses artificial intelligence to develop health care data analytics methods to characterize the dynamic pathways to the emergence of common multiple chronic conditions in Latinx populations and optimize multiple-behavior intervention through smart and adaptive clinical trials. In addition to her research focus on health disparity populations, she’s also devoted to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity in academic and clinical nursing settings as President of the Asian American/Pacific Islander Nurses Association, Board of Directors at National Coalition of Ethnic Minority Nurses Association, the National Institute of Nursing Research Council Working Group on Diversity, and AARP/RWJF Future of Nursing Campaign for Action’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Steering Committee. She’s an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, 2013 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholar, 2015 TEDMED Scholar, 2016 Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation Macy Faculty Scholar, and Harvard Macy Scholar where she continues to teach in the “Leading Innovations in Health Care & Education” program in the Harvard Macy Institute. She is also the editorial board member of The Science of Diabetes Self-Management and Care. She was a member of the Steering Committee that updated the American Nurses Association (ANA) Connected Health Principles from the 1998 ANA Core Principles on Telehealth to guide nursing practice on telehealth and connected health. As a Health and Aging Policy Fellow and American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow, she was a Senior Scientific Advisor to Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and works with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) as a senior policy advisor. Wang received MSN and PhD from the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing, MPH from its Graduate School of Public Health, and Graduate Certificate in Clinical and Translational Science from its School of Medicine.