CHER Associates
Jada L. Brooks, Ph.D., MSPH, R.N.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Brooks is affiliated with UNC School of Nursing and her multidisciplinary program of community-based health research focuses on reducing health disparities and improving the health of American Indian children, with a particular focus on understanding the psychosocial factors related to family management of childhood asthma. Other areas of interest include epigenetics and health services research.
Dr. Brooks’ research program advances knowledge of inflammation as a potential biological pathway linking environmental pollutant exposure and psychosocial factors to cardiovascular disease in American Indian women. Her research program is designed to inform low-cost and culturally based psychosocial interventions that seek to reduce American Indian women’s susceptibility to environmental pollutants. The goal of this work is to promote environmental health equity among American Indian women.
Peggye Dilworth-Anderson, Ph.D.
Professor, Health Policy & Management, Gillings School of Global Public Health
Peggye Dilworth-Anderson, PhD, is professor of Health Policy & Management at the Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill. Her research focus is on health disparities and Alzheimer’s disease with an emphasis on building knowledge for the scientific and lay community to inform conducting culturally relevant research and disseminating information about Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders in medically under-served diverse populations.
Dr. Dilworth-Anderson has and does serve in numerous leadership roles, some of which include: President of Gerontological Society of America. Member: Global Council on Brain Health, Committees of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; National Alzheimer’s Association Medical and Scientific Council; Board of Directors of the National Alzheimer’s Association and Eastern North Carolina Chapter; National Research Advisory Council of the Institute on Aging/NIH.
She is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and National Council on Family Relations.
Leah Frerichs, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Leah Frerichs, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Frerichs’ research is focused on the intersection of community-based participatory research and systems science to address health disparities, largely in the area of chronic disease prevention. She has experience working with diverse communities including American Indian, Latino and African Americans to develop, implement and evaluate community-based interventions and policies. Her work has had a major focus on understanding and developing interventions that target social and physical environment influences on youth’s health behaviors in under-served communities.
Frerichs earned her Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research and completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the Center for Health Equity Research at UNC. Prior to her doctoral studies, she managed a cancer prevention and control program for tribal communities in the Northern Plains.
Jeffrey Mathew, MBA, PMP, CIA, UTD Yellow Belt
Associate Director
Jeffrey Mathew has over 15 years of experience in nationally ranked healthcare and academic institutions. He oversees all components of implementation and execution of the RADx-UP program objectives in the UNC Center for Health Equity Research (CHER). Responsibilities include providing strategic oversight with partnering institutions Duke and CCPH, regulatory oversight, and management of personnel responsible for project support across numerous sites and locations in the United States.
Mathew worked in Texas Health Resources, an award-winning system and one of the largest faith-based/non-profit systems in the nation. He led system-wide initiatives through project design, deployment, coordinating stakeholder engagement and completion of action items. His work supported the integration and improvement of operations across the enterprise to reach strategic goals. Mathew worked as the Program Manager of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center (SCCC). He managed multiple projects driven by the center’s strategic goals, operations improvement objectives and regulatory compliance requirements. Mathew oversaw capital expansion projects in the SCCC, including opening two satellite clinics. Mathew graduated from one of the top 50 business schools in the nation. He is certified as a project management professional, internal auditor and a yellow belt.
Anissa I. Vines, Ph.D., M.S.
CHER Associate
Anissa I. Vines, MS, PhD is a research faculty member in the department of epidemiology and co-lead of the Health Equity, Social Justice, and Human Rights MPH degree concentration in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. Dr. Vines serves as the director of the Inclusive Science Program in the NC TraCS Institute. She is also an assistant professor in the department of epidemiology within the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. She is a member of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Dr. Vines’s research focuses on the psychosocial determinants of women’s health disparities and cancer, from prevention to survivorship in African Americans. She prioritizes using both epidemiological and community-engaged research principles and methods to frame her work. She studies an array of stressors, including the racism, and psychosocial resources guided by life course theory and frameworks. Dr. Vines has developed the Telephone-administered Perceived Racism measure for use by phone in epidemiological studies. She is currently examining the stress of racism over the life course and other stressors on the risk of uterine fibroids in African American women.
Dr. Vines has a long track record of community engagement. Her cancer disparities research employs community-engaged principles and the use of peer support. Dr. Vines leads the Outreach Core of the NCCU/UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center Disparities Partnership.
Currently, Dr. Vines currently serves as multiple principal investigator of the NC research team, one of 11 research teams in 11 states that are part of the NIH Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) Against COVID-19 Disparities.