CHER Staff

Blen Biru, M.Sc.

Research Project Manager

Blen Biru is a Research Program Manager at the UNC Center for Health Equity Research (CHER). She earned her bachelor’s degree from Mount Holyoke College, where she studied biology and French and her Master’s of Science from the Duke Global Health Institute where she conducted research on the ideal characteristics of caregivers for orphaned and separated children. Prior to joining CHER, Biru worked on breast cancer clinical trials, evaluation research projects and COVID-19 vaccine distribution in the U.S. and globally. She’s passionate about equitable healthcare access for all.

Amelia R DeFosset, MPH

Research Program Manager

Amelia DeFosset earned a Master of Public Health from the University of California Los Angeles in 2014, and a Bachelor of Arts from UNC Chapel Hill in 2008, with a focus in anthropology. Her previous professional experience includes using cross-sector, person-centered and applied inquiry to explore up-stream influences on chronic disease outcomes. DeFosset’s research is focused on re-imagining systems, services and supports so that historically marginalized communities have what they need to be holistically well.

Alex Haire, M.S.

Communications and Marketing Assistant

Alex Haire (he/him/his) is a Communications and Marketing Assistant for the UNC Center for Health Equity Research. Haire graduated from Appalachian State University in 2021 with a bachelor’s degree in Public Relations and a minor in English. He earned his master’s degree in Communications from NC State University (2023).

Haire previously worked as a Social Media and Advocacy Intern for AARP’s North Carolina branch. In addition to his time with AARP NC, he also served as a Public Relations Intern for the Addiction Professionals of North Carolina. Haire prioritizes accessibility and incorporates mindfulness into all the work he does.

Rhea M. Hebert, M.A., MSLS

Communications Manager

Rhea Hebert is a communicator and designer with expertise in higher education settings. She’s a fully qualified librarian and has teaching experience in English Composition and American Literature.

Hebert brings a wide range of interests to her work, including graphic, web and instructional design, website management, communications and marketing, research interests in early modern England and the history of books/reading/information, data management, data visualization, and technical writing (documentation, editing, etc.).

Hebert grew up in central Florida and earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Central Florida in Orlando. She earned her master’s in English at the University of Rochester (NY) and her MSLS from UNC Chapel Hill.

Hebert’s pronouns are she/her and she’s committed to providing accessible content as part of her support of creating diverse, equitable and inclusive environments and experiences for communities.

In addition to her work in higher ed, Hebert volunteers with the American Marketing Association’s Triangle chapter and supports Retraction Watch, a project of the Center for Scientific Integrity.

Elle Howle

Executive Assistant

Elle Howle is an Executive Assistant at the UNC Center for Health Equity Research.  She graduated from UNC Chapel Hill in 2013 where she received her Bachelor of Science in Psychology as well as her Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology, with a focus in Native American Studies.  Her studies took her to Natchez, Mississippi where she participated in an archaeological excavation and field research.

Melissa Marcus

Science Communications Writer

Melissa Marcus is the Science Communications Writer for the UNC Center for Health Equity Research. The rest of the day, she’s a senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she’s studying Anthropology with minors in Classical Humanities and Data Science. Her interests vary across disciplines and mediums, including painting, digital and web design.

Rachel Quinto

Assistant Director of Operations

Rachel Quinto serves as the Assistant Director of Operations for the UNC Center for Health Equity Research. Her experience at the UNC School of Medicine includes coordination of the medical school LCME accreditation, as well as four years of recruitment, pre-health advising and pipeline programming through the Office of Special Programs. She is a producer for the “A Different Kind of Leader” podcast hosted by Giselle Corbie which captures insights from diverse leaders so organizations are in a stronger position to grow, innovate and meet the challenges of the day. Quinto earned her B.A. in Sociology in 2010 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Carissa Whitehurst

Executive Assistant

Carissa Whitehurst is an Executive Assistant at the UNC Center for Health Equity Research. A North Carolina native, she graduated from Guilford Technical Community College in 2013 where she earned her Associates of Arts in General Education. She  brings years of administrative experience from her previous role as a administrative assistant where she worked with faculty, staff and students.

Mary Wolfe, Ph.D.

Senior Research Scientist

Mary Wolfe, Ph.D., is a Senior Research Scientist in the UNC Center for Health Equity Research. She earned her Ph.D. in City & Regional Planning from UNC-Chapel Hill, where she investigated transportation access to health care as well as innovative solutions to transportation barriers to care.

Before coming to UNC-Chapel Hill, Wolfe was a Fulbright scholar at the Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research. Her research focuses on connections between the built environment and health to understand disparities in health care access and health outcomes.

Naomi Baumann-Carbrey, MPH

Project Coordinator

Naomi Baumann-Carbrey (she/her) serves as a Project Coordinator at the UNC Center for Health Equity Research on the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics-Underserved Populations (RADx-UP) grant. Naomi earned her B.A. in Global Studies at UNC Chapel Hill in 2015 and her Master of Public Health (MPH) from UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health’s Health Equity concentration in 2021. Baumann-Carbrey comes from a background in labor and community organizing and has been a part of various movements for workers’ rights and racial justice in North Carolina. She is passionate about advancing health equity through systems thinking and community-based methods.

Jennifer Detwiler

Project Coordinator

Jenni Detwiler earned her B.S. from East Carolina University. She began her research career at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center, where she worked on several state-wide early education evaluation studies. She has been actively engaged with stakeholders across all phases of social research. She contributes to the RADx-UP program as a Project Coordinator working with the Community Engagement Core supporting Working Groups and the Engagement Resource Center. She has a longtime interest in family health and support systems.

Maura Drewry, MPH

Project Coordinator

Maura Drewry (she/her/hers) serves as a Project Coordinator in the UNC Center for Health Equity Research. She earned her MPH in Health Behavior from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health in 2020, and she earned her B.S. in Health Sciences from Furman University in 2017. Her prior work experience includes a variety of community-engaged efforts focused on chronic disease prevention, mental health, anti-racism and Adverse Childhood Experiences. Her research interests include racial equity, social determinants of health, systems-level public health solutions, holistic health promotion and community-based participatory methods.

Greys M. Florez Torres, B.A., B.S.

Project Coordinator

Greys M. Florez Torres (she/her/hers) serves as a Project Coordinator for the Community Engagement Core on the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics-Underserved Populations (RADx-UP) program at the UNC Center for Health Equity Research. She is an MLA candidate in the field of Development Practice at Harvard Extension School. Greys earned a Micromaster Credential in Data, Economics, and Development Policy from MIT, and graduated with a double major, B.A. in Economics, and B.S. in Mathematics, from UNC-Chapel Hill. Her experience includes the development and management of grants-founded educational programs that promote equity and inclusion of under-served populations. Her research interests focus on data-driven sustainable development.

Laura Florick, MPS

Project Coordinator

Laura Florick (she/her) is a Project Coordinator supporting the RADx-UP (Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics – Underserved Populations) program at the UNC Center for Health Equity Research. She earned her B.A. from the University of Kansas in Sociocultural Anthropology, earned a graduate certificate in Technical Writing and Public Rhetorics from the University of Arkansas, and earned a Master of Public Service degree with a focus on food policy from the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service.

Before coming to UNC, she worked in community leadership, research and project management positions all over the world including archaeological and ethnographic field work, international education, arts field trip program evaluation and research on local food economies during COVID-19, while supporting museums, K12 schools, higher ed institutions, community grassroots initiatives and nonprofits. Her research interests include community-based participatory research, program evaluation, community food sovereignty and equitable food systems.

Shikira Flounory, MSPH

Research Program Manager

Shikira Thomas is a Research Program Manager in the Center for Health Equity Research for the New IDEAS study, under the supervision of Peggye Dilworth-Anderson, Ph.D.

Thomas is a recent MSPH graduate of Health Behavior from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and earned a B.S. in Biology from Xavier University of Louisiana. Her research interests are in colorism, racism and discrimination as upstream determinants of chronic disease in African Americans. Thomas’ master’s thesis focused on the association between skin color and hypertension for college-educated African Americans.

Recently, Thomas has served as a Project Manager for a HRSA-funded Health Workforce Research Center at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, as well as a Project Coordinator for a NIDA-funded study investigating the role of neighborhoods, daily stress, stress hormones and substance use among young adult Black males in Durham county (North Carolina).

Angelique Jennings, MPH, CHES

Assistant Project Coordinator

Angelique Jennings (she/her/hers) serves as an assistant project coordinator on the RADx-UP (Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics in Underserved Populations). Jennings earned a B.A. in Anthropology and a B.A. in Spanish from Georgia Southern University. She recently earned her Master in Public Health degree from Georgia Southern University, with a concentration in Community Health.

She has experience working with diverse communities through research and service. She has worked in rural communities in coastal Georgia that lack resources to address their healthcare needs.

Jennings has research interests in the mental health of families of children/adolescents with disabilities, as well as this community’s abilities to access these mental health resources. She is invested in learning and growing in the field of health equity and cultural competency to best assist every community she serves.

Lia Kaz, MSW

Project Coordinator

Lia Kaz (she/her) serves as a Project Coordinator with RADx-UP (Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics Underserved Populations) in the UNC Center for Health Equity Research. She earned her Masters in Social Work (MSW) from UNC Chapel Hill with a concentration in Community, Management, and Policy Practice in 2019, and her Bachelors in Social Work from Warren Wilson College in 2015. Her previous professional experience includes conflict transformation and restorative justice, post incarceration case management, rural civic engagement, antiracist education and community mental health. Kaz’s research interests are eclectic, though all centrally related to the question, “How can we build systems of well-being together?”

Courtney Kelly, MPA, MA

Project Coordinator

Courtney Kelly (she/her) serves as a Project Coordinator on the Engagement Impact Teams (EITs) for the RADx-UP program in the UNC Center for Health Equity Research. She earned her BS in Nutrition from NC State University in 2013 and her MA in Human Services Counseling with a concentration in Health and Wellness from Liberty University in 2016. She is a recent Master of Public Administration graduate from North Carolina Central University. Her fellowship studies focused on health policy research and providing support to NC Medicaid health equity projects. Courtney is a Durham, NC native and has experience working in the public sector, serving in non-profit and government roles. Her interests include civic engagement, women’s rights, and achieving equity in marginalized communities. 

Hailey Leiva, MSW

Project Coordinator

Hailey Leiva (She, Her) serves as a Project Coordinator with the UNC Center for health Equity Research on RADx-UP (Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics Underserved Populations). Her experience includes sexual violence prevention, community engagement, and program evaluation. She earned her MSW at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Social Work and BS in Psychology at the University of Florida. Hailey’s research interests include community-based approaches to healthy equity, queer and trans-inclusive sexual health interventions, and social determinants of health.

Judithe Louis, MSW

Assistant Project Coordinator-EIT

Hannah Potter, MPH

Program Leader

Hannah Potter serves as the Associate Project Leader for Community and Health Systems Engagement with Radx-UP (Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics Underserved Populations). She comes to CHER with varied experiences at the intersection of health equity and community centered work through various roles as a doula and in organizing around health access. She received her MPH in 2019 from the Department of Maternal and Child Health at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at UNC. While in her MPH at UNC, she received a FLAS award for the study of Arabic from the UNC Center for Middle East Studies and served as a GRA with the Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute. Her research interests are health equity, reproductive justice and community-based participatory methods.

Breanna Williams, B.S.

Project Coordinator

Breanna Williams (she/her) is a Project Coordinator with the Co-LEARN Project in the UNC Center for Health Equity Research. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Iowa. Williams’ particular areas of interest include: health equity research in vulnerable populations, rural community access to healthcare, program evaluation, program implementation and family systems.

Before joining UNC, Williams worked in research and project management positions related to the treatment and prevention of childhood trauma through a community mental health care center. Her previous professional experience includes: research, evaluation and project management; prevention and treatment of childhood trauma; community mental health; evidence-based practices; perinatal depression and anxiety; maternal mental health and well-being; and virtual reality systems in research.

Brianah Williams, MPH

Project Coordinator

Brianah serves as a Project Coordinator for UNC Center for Health Equity Research on the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics for Underserved Populations (RADx-UP) initiative. The RADx-UP program supports research that aims to better understand COVID-19 testing patterns among underserved and vulnerable populations; strengthen the data on disparities in infection rates, disease progression, and outcomes; and develop strategies to reduce the disparities in COVID-19 testing. Brianah aides in providing coordination across the CDCC for community engaged research activities and ensure seamless integration of teams for rapid, focused, and informed decision-making in a timely manner.

Christina Carilli

Social/Clinical Research Assistant

Christina Carilli is as a Social/Clinical Research Assistant with the Implementation of EMR-Integrated Referrals to Link Clinical and Community Services to Reduce Health Inequity initiative at the UNC Center for Health Equity Research. She earned her B.S. in Psychology from High Point University in 2021.

Maura Drewry, MPH

Project Coordinator

Maura Drewry (she/her/hers) serves as a Project Coordinator in the UNC Center for Health Equity Research. She earned her MPH in Health Behavior from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health in 2020, and she earned her B.S. in Health Sciences from Furman University in 2017. Her prior work experience includes a variety of community-engaged efforts focused on chronic disease prevention, mental health, anti-racism and Adverse Childhood Experiences. Her research interests include racial equity, social determinants of health, systems-level public health solutions, holistic health promotion and community-based participatory methods.

Greg Guest, Ph.D., M.A.

Research Scientist

Greg Guest is a Research Scientist in the Center for Health Equity Research at UNC. He is a medical anthropologist with 15+ years of public health research and evaluation experience. He has designed and led health studies among vulnerable and under-served populations in the United States, sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, with funding support from USAID, NIH and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.

Guest has a longstanding interest in developing and testing novel field research and evaluation methods, particularly in the context of mixed methods designs and multi-sector evaluation.

Ames J. Lynch

Associate Project Specialist

Ames Lynch (they/she) is an Associate Project Specialist with RADx-UP (Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics Underserved Populations) in the UNC Center for Health Equity Research. They earned their degree in Political Science at NC State with a concentration in International Politics which involved open source intelligence, peacekeeping and policy making. Their previous experience includes IT, education and data management. Lynch’s interests include community-driven and holistic approaches to health equity (particularly initiatives that include people that are trans, GNC [gender nonconforming] and those that live outside of the gender binary). They also have an interest in ethics, language and communication in research.

Andrea Mendoza, MPH

Community Engagement Specialist

Andrea Mendoza (she/her) is a Community Engagement Specialist for the New IDEAS study in the Center for Health Equity Research. She graduated with her MPH in global health from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health in 2021 and with a B.A. in psychology from Duke University in 2015. Mendoza has a background in community health, health outreach and health education. Her interests include advancing health equity work, especially mental health in the Latinx population, as well as community-centered participatory and qualitative methods.

Dzidzai Muyengwa, MPH

Research Program Manager

Dzidzai Muyengwa is a Research Program Manager at the UNC Center for Health Equity Research (CHER) where she provides research support and analysis. Her upbringing in Zimbabwe fueled her passion to help vulnerable populations everywhere live healthier lives. She is passionate about health equity, maternal and child health, implementation science, and combining research with action. Before coming to CHER, Muyengwa was supporting and contributing to research, collaboration and data collection efforts for the Duke Global Health Innovation Center‘s Launch and Scale Speedometer project, supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She earned her Master of Public Health degree at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, with a concentration in Maternal and Child Health. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in Global Health and Environment and a minor in Medical Anthropology from UNC.

Sara O’Brien

Advanced Research Assistant

Sara O’Brien (she/her/hers) is an Undergraduate Research Assistant for the UNC Center for Health Equity Research. She is currently studying to get her BSPH in Biostatistics and B.A. in Hispanic Literatures and Cultures from UNC Chapel Hill. O’Brien has worked with CHER since September 2020, primarily focusing on the CRx-CVD and MAPSCorps projects. Her research interests are at the intersection of data analytics and visualization and health equity, particularly within Latine communities. Post-graduation she intends to pursue an MPH in Epidemiology.

Airianne Posey, MSW

Social/Clinical Research Assistant

Airianne Posey is a Social/Clinical Research Assistant at the UNC Center for Health Equity Research. Posey earned a master’s in Social Work with an American Indian/Alaska Native populations concentration from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis in 2017. She graduated with a B.A. in Sociology in 2014 from UNC-Chapel Hill. Her interests are in community-based participatory research, culturally appropriate research methodology, qualitative methods and health equity.

Erika M. Redding, MSPH

Program Leader

Erika Redding serves as a Program Leader in the UNC Center for Health Equity Research on the RADx-UP (Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics Underserved Populations) grant. She earned her MSPH in 2019 from the Department of Health Behavior in the Gillings School of Public Health at UNC; she is currently a doctoral candidate in the same department.

Redding’s research interests include understanding the role of structural barriers in facilitating the health disparities experienced by minoritized populations in the United States as well as the implementation of culturally competent interventions to address these disparities. Her dissertation research considers the role of structural racism on public health outcomes for Black survivors of domestic violence. Redding is a fellow with the UNC Injury Prevention Research Center and previous Summer Fellow with the UNC Center for the Study of the American South.

Veena Reddy, B.S.

Advanced Social/Clinical Research Assistant

Veena Reddy is an advanced social/clinical Research Assistant in the UNC Center for Health Equity Research. She works with the Co-LEARN team to research effective implementation strategies for cardiovascular disease evidence-based practices.

Reddy earned her B.S. in Biology at the University of California, Riverside. She worked as an Undergraduate Research Assistant at the Center for Health Disparities before being promoted to Staff Research Associate. In her role, she performed community-based research to understand COVID-19 vaccine attitudes among Southern California’s uninsured and Medicaid beneficiaries. Reddy’s research interests include promoting clinician trust, reducing vaccine hesitancy and community-based health.

India Rockett

Research Assistant

India Rockett is a Research Assistant at the UNC Center for Health Equity Research (CHER) and is currently assisting with the NC CEAL project. She is pursuing an M.S. (2023 candidate) in Population Health Science and a Global Health certificate at Duke University School of Medicine.

Rockett graduated from California State University Long Beach in 2021 with a B.S. in Health Science with an emphasis on Community Education, and a certificate in Healthcare administration. Her interests in research are areas that focus on racial health disparities, health equity, health services, health administration and community engagement.

Gabrielle Schust, BA

Graduate Research Assistant

Gabrielle Schust is a first-year Master of Public Health Student in the Global Health concentration at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. She received her B.A. in International Studies and Spanish from the Croft Institute for International Studies at the University of Mississippi in May of 2020, where she did her senior thesis on the comparative role of nuns as providers of healthcare and social services across time and place. Her research interests include US health law and policy, sexual and reproductive rights and justice, and healthcare inequities for refugee and recent immigrant populations in the US.

Timothy T. Simmons

Community Engagement Specialist

Timothy Simmons is a Community Engagement Specialist on the New IDEAS team. Simmons is a service-focused community educator who has over 20 years of experience in member engagement and community collaboration. He strongly believes in advocacy and empowerment of those who may not have a voice and empowering the vulnerable population often overlooked in research. Simmons believes in working in cooperation, in collaboration, in partnership, with our communities.

Amanda Ribas Rietti Souto, MPH

Program Lead - RADx-UP Community Engagement Core

Amanda Ribas Rietti Souto, MPH, is a Research Program Manager at the UNC Center for Health Equity Research on the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics-Underserved Populations (RADx-UP) grant. Her research interests in experience are in health disparities research, health equity for racial/ethnic minority groups, community engagement, and participatory and qualitative methods. She earned her master’s in Public Health from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, specializing in health equity, social justice and human rights, and her B.A. in Medical Anthropology from the University of Virginia.

Monica M. Taylor, Ph.D., MPH

Research Scientist

Monica M. Taylor, Ph.D., MPH is a Research Scientist in the UNC Center for Health Equity Research. She earned her Ph.D. in Planning and Public Policy from the Bloustein School at Rutgers University where she investigated disparities in breast cancer mortality from a social justice perspective. Her research focuses on the inequitable distribution of the social determinants of health in vulnerable populations (geographic, economic and racial), using political theory and community-engaged approaches to eliminate health disparities in chronic and infectious diseases.

Jenny Williams, PhD

Research Coordinator

Jenny Williams earned her PhD in anthropology in 2013 from the University of Kentucky.  Her research interests focus on the biological and social causes and consequences of health inequity, particularly for under-served populations.  Jenny has worked in a variety of contexts including sub-saharan Africa, Northern Europe, and the United States.  Her particular areas of interest include: nutritional health disparities, trauma and gender-based violence, and community-led responses to health inequities.

Gabrielle Diekmann

Communications Specialist

Gabrielle Diekmann is the Communications Specialist for the Clinical Scholars Program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Gabrielle has over 5 years experience helping small businesses and nonprofits grow through integrated marketing communication strategies. She came to UNC from Southeast Missouri State University, where she served as a Project Coordinator for the Economic and Business Engagement Center’s grant-funded research and programming. She received her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in Marketing with minors in Mass Communications and Professional Selling in 2012 from the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

Melissa Green, MPH

Deputy Director for Communication and Recruitment

Melissa is the Deputy Director for Communication and Recruitment for the Clinical Scholars Program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and is affiliated with CHER. Melissa’s experience includes 15 years managing research intervention studies in community settings using principles of community-based participatory research with and for African American and Latino populations. Her research interests include health disparities across the cancer continuum, peer support interventions, disease prevention, and factors that influence participation in health research. She received her Masters of Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health in Health Behavior and Health Education.

Gaurav Dave, M.D., DrPH, MPH

Director, Abacus

Gaurav Dave is a Research Associate Professor in the School of Medicine and the Associate Director of the Center for Health Equity Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). Dave is an expert in the field of formative and summative evaluation research, specializing in evaluating multi-level, complex initiatives, programs and interventions. He has over 15 years of clinical and public health practice and evaluation experience. His area of research focuses primarily on hypertension and chronic diseases, integrating systems thinking in evaluation research. He is the Director of Evaluation of the NIH-funded North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute (TraCS) at UNC, which aims at to accelerate clinical and translational research from health science to discovery to dissemination to patients and communities. Dave co-directs the Systems Science and Evaluation Lab at UNC to foster the integration systems thinking and evaluation in biomedical, clinical and public health research. He serves as the Evaluation chair for HRSA’s Southeast Regional Genetics Network at Emory University to improve health equity and health outcomes in individuals with genetic conditions, reduce morbidity and mortality caused by genetic conditions.

As the principal evaluator and investigator, Dave has worked on various federally and foundation-funded projects all over the U.S., including the Newborn Screening and Sickle Cell Disease Program, Heart Matters and Community Initiative to Eliminate Stroke. Dave has a medical degree from the University of Pune, India and worked as an emergency room physician in Mumbai, before coming to the U.S. in 2004. He attended UNC Greensboro and completed a Masters and a Doctorate in Public Health in 2006 and 2011 respectively, with a concentration in public health, community-based prevention research and evaluation. Dave’s research interests include evaluation, systems science, and methods research to reduce disparities associated with chronic diseases and hypertension.

Nisha Baral, Ph.D.

Data Modeler, Abacus

Nisha Baral earned her M.S. in modeling and simulation and her Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Central Florida. Her interest is in modeling complex adaptive systems using an agent-based modeling approach and data modeling techniques. She has experience building mis/information diffusion models and analyzing social media datasets from several platforms like GitHub, Reddit, YouTube and Twitter. Baral has experience analyzing several behavioral factors like cognition, social influence, influence disparities, information overload and sentiments. She has studied emotion contagion due to social influence and its effect on users’ information processing capacity. Her goal at Abacus is to apply her simulation and modeling and data science skills  and other experience on behavioral study to community-based research on epidemiology like COVID or any other public health-related issues.

Tara Carr, MPH

Research Program Manager

Tara Carr is a Research Program Manager of the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics, Underserved Populations (RADx-UP) program with the UNC Center for Health Equity Research. She earned her MPH and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Nutrition in the UNC Gillings School of Public Health. She was a Graduate Research Assistant with the Children’s Healthy Weight Research Group at the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, working on evaluation for federally-funded, multi-level intervention studies in the early care and education setting.

As a 2021 HHS Early Care and Education Scholar, Carr’s dissertation research uses mixed methods to better understand predictors of childcare providers’ feeding styles, beliefs and practices, which have been implicated in the development of childhood obesity. As a doctoral student, she was also a member of the Evaluation Team for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded 100 Million Healthier Lives Campaign – Spreading Community Accelerators through Learning and Evaluation (SCALE) 2.0 initiative. Her research interests include community-based participatory research and evaluation of complex interventions to address health and well-being disparities

Chenguang Du

Statistician

Chenguang Du serves as a Statistician on the Evaluation Team for CHER and Abacus. He earned his Ph.D. degree in Educational Research and Evaluation at Virginia Tech. His academic focus is on the quantitative methodology in social science research. His substantial research interests are psychology and gerontology. 

Jason Gonzalez-Martinez

Administrative Support Associate

Jason Gonzalez-Martinez serves as an Administrative Support Associate for the Abacus Evaluation Team at the UNC Center for Health Equity Research. A Miami native, he graduated from Florida International University in 2016 with a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies. He brings years of administrative experience from his previous role as a Program Coordinator where he worked with faculty, staff and students.

Marlena Kuhn, MPH

Evaluation Research Assistant - Data

Marlena Kuhn is an Evaluation Research Assistant within the UNC Center for Health Equity Research for the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics-Underserved Populations (RADx-UP) program. She earned her MPH from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health in 2021 and her B.S. in Neuroscience from Trinity University in 2019. Her interests revolve around leveraging data analytics techniques to support projects promoting health equity.

Valerie Lucas

Evaluation Research Assistant

Valerie Lucas is an Evaluation Research Assistant at CHER and Abacus where she primarily works on the RADx-UP (Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics, Under-served Populations) program. She is a recent graduate of UNC with a B.S. in Economics and a B.A. in Global Public Health. As an undergraduate, Lucas provided monitoring, evaluation and research support to Carolina for Kibera as a Peacock Fellow. She also successfully defended an anthropological thesis on the impact of economic inequality on social and mental health among community health volunteers on Kibera, an informal settlement on the outskirts of Nairobi. Lucas has volunteered with Community Empowerment Fund as a Community Engagement Coordinator and with Durham Volunteer Doulas as a postpartum doula.

Josephine McKelvy, Ph.D.

Evaluation Research Scientist

Josephine McKelvy joined Abacus Evaluation in January 2022, serving as an Evaluation Research Scientist for various projects, including the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics program to reduce COVID disparities among underserved populations (RADx-UP). Trained in sociology, she translates her technical skills in qualitative data collection, quantitative data analysis and data visualization to improving real-world interventions that impact lives and help communities thrive.

Cheryl C. Noble, MSPH, MSW

Senior Evaluation Consultant

Cheryl Noble, MSW MSPH is an evaluation consultant with expertise in leadership development, health equity and organizational development. She is a Senior Evaluation Consultant with Abacus, an evaluation consultancy group in UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Medicine. She has experience working with programs focused on leadership development, health equity and social service provision in the academic, international non-profit, health care, government and public health sectors.

Noble has provided evaluation services for multiple programs, including the NIH Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics-Underserved Populations (RADx-UP) project, Clinical Scholars Leadership Institute, Food Systems Leadership Institute, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Leadership Institute, and the Maternal and Child Health Public Health Leadership Institute. She regularly collaborates with academic, philanthropic, non-profit and public health partners to develop comprehensive evaluation approaches measuring program outcomes and impacts. After 10 years of experience in evaluation and 15 years of experience in the human service industry, she has expertise in a variety of evaluation methods, focusing on mix-methods approaches, qualitative analysis, social network analysis, and Concept Mapping, among others. She earned her B.S. in International Relations from Bethel University and her MSW and MSPH from UNC-Chapel Hill.

Abisola Osinuga, Ph.D., MPH

Associate Evaluator

Abisola Osinuga is an Associate Evaluator of the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics, Underserved Populations (RADx-UP) program at the UNC Center for Health Equity Research. She earned her Ph.D. in Occupational and Environmental Health from the University of Iowa. Her research is focused on addressing gender inequalities and maternal health disparities by assessing how the physical, social and environmental conditions of unpaid domestic work impacts women’s health. While in graduate school, Osinuga worked at the Iowa Public Policy Center as a research evaluation intern, collaborating with the Health Policy team by evaluating the impact of health policy initiatives on the cost of, access to, and use of, health care services and systems in the state of Iowa. She is experienced at designing, implementing and evaluating research programs, using behavioral theories and psychometric methodologies to develop surveys, coordinating research projects at home and abroad, and applying exposures assessment tools/methods in uncharted work settings.

Rossana Roberts, MSW-MPH

Evaluation Research Assistant

Rossana Roberts (she/her) is an Evaluation Research Assistant at Abacus where she primarily works on the RADx-UP (Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics, Under-served Populations) program. She graduated from UNC’s dual degree program in 2020 with an MPH concentrating in maternal, child and family health from the Gillings School of Global Public Health, and an MSW with a concentration in Community, Management, and Policy Practice. Roberts’ prior work experience includes project coordination and program evaluation on a variety of projects ranging from inclusive health education for adolescents, rural health and maternal health promotion. 

Roberts’ research interests include addressing health disparities among underserved populations, specifically promoting positive health outcomes among mothers and their babies.

Michelle Song, MSPH

Data Analytics Team Lead

Michelle Song leads the Data Analytics team in Abacus Evaluation and is a Data Manager with the UNC Center for Health Equity Research (CHER). Before coming to UNC-Chapel Hill, Song was a Technical Advisor with the Data Science, Impact, and Learning team at Jhpiego, an affiliate of Johns Hopkins University and a leading global health organization. She has over 10 years of experience in data systems and use across domestic and international health systems and public health programs to improve health outcomes. She has designed and implemented economic and program evaluations for health systems, advocacy strategies and improvement of internal operations. Song earned her MSPH from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and executive education Certificates in Business Communication and Management Development from the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. Her health and non-health sector experience create a unique perspective from which to understand complex systems, how to make data work for the people who collect and manage it, and how to communicate clear messages data can contain. Her current work focuses on bringing data analytics and visualization to research and evaluation that is furthering the goal of improving health outcomes and equity.

Miranda Rain Wenhold, MSEd

Evaluation Project Coordinator

Miranda Rain Wenhold is an Evaluation Project Coordinator with the Abacus Evaluation team in UNC’s Center for Health Equity Research. Wenhold also leads program development for the University of Pennsylvania’s Project for Mental Health and Optimal Development.

Wenhold earned her M.S.Ed. in School and Mental Health Counseling from the University of Pennsylvania and is a certified Pennsylvania School Counselor (K-12) and Mental Health Counselor. She has also served as Research Project Manager for various grant-funded initiatives at UNC and the University of Pennsylvania.

Wenhold’s foremost areas of interest are development psychology, public policy, mental health, education and criminal justice reform.

Mary Wolfe, Ph.D.

Senior Research Scientist

Mary Wolfe, Ph.D., is a Senior Research Scientist in the UNC Center for Health Equity Research. She earned her Ph.D. in City & Regional Planning from UNC-Chapel Hill, where she investigated transportation access to health care as well as innovative solutions to transportation barriers to care.

Before coming to UNC-Chapel Hill, Wolfe was a Fulbright scholar at the Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research. Her research focuses on connections between the built environment and health to understand disparities in health care access and health outcomes.

Bola Bilikis Yusuf, MBBS, MPH

Evaluation Research Assistant

Bola Bilikis Yusuf is an Evaluation Research Assistant with the Abacus Evaluation team at the UNC Center for Health Equity Research. She earned a medical degree from Nigeria and a Master of Public Health from the University of South Florida. As a graduate student, she worked with the Florida Prevention Research Center where she supported the implementation of a CDC-funded colorectal cancer prevention project. Yusuf also supported the state-wide evaluation of the Florida Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program using mixed methods research. She is interested in program evaluation, health equity, children’s health and in reducing maternal morbidity and mortality.

Jaimee Zeyzus, M.A.

Evaluation Project Coordinator

Jaimee Zeyzus serves as an Evaluation Project Coordinator for the Abacus Evaluation Team at the UNC Center for Health Equity Research. She transitioned to the School of Social Medicine from the School of Nursing, where she operated as a Project Manager. She earned her M.A. in Forensic Psychology from the University of Denver and worked as a clinician specializing in the treatment and evaluation of forensic populations.  She also has 12 years of experience working in law enforcement, most recently as a Special Agent with the NCSBI conducting criminal investigations.