Our Research Team

Tapan Mehta, Ph.D.

Vice Chair for Research

Research interests: Cardiometabolic conditions, disability, and rehabilitation in primary care settings including evaluating and optimizing interventions and care processes in pragmatic settings with an overall goal of developing sustainable and scalable intervention packages

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Kaylee Crockett, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Clinical Health Psychologist
Clinical Scientist

Research interests: Social and behavioral processes of chronic illnesses, ameliorating psychosocial factors that contribute to poor health outcomes and multimorbidity among populations living with and at risk for HIV.

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Jamie Gajos, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Research interests: Substance misuse and health-risk behaviors in justice-involved and other vulnerable populations; intensive longitudinal data analysis; geospatial analysis; mHealth interventions

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Jessica Jaiswal, Ph.D., MPH

Assistant Professor
Benjamin-Carver Scientist

Research interests: Treatment disparities related to opioid use disorder and along the HIV care and prevention continua

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Catheryn Orihuela, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Benjamin-Carver FIRST Scientist

Research Interests: Health disparities, impact of poverty and poverty-related stressors on physical and mental health, food insecurity in adults living with chronic disease, food program utilization, health coaching in clinical settings, social need screening and program referrals, community-based participatory research

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Drew Sayer, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Research interests: Nutrition, exercise, obesity, and diabetes research spanning from short-term, controlled feeding studies to longer duration, comparative effectiveness trials for weight loss and maintenance

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Taylor Taylor, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Benjamin-Carver Scientist

Research interests: Impact of exercise on neuroinflammation in older adults with fibromyalgia

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Haoyang Yan, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Research interests: Cognitive and social psychology of medical decision making, patient/family-provider communication, decision intervention, decisions ranging from preference-sensitive ones to those with an evidence-based optimal choice

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Salma Aly, M.D., MPH

Data Scientist

Ivan Azarov, Ph.D.

Data Manager

Vasil Bachiasvili, M.D.

Data Scientist

Navneet Baidwan, Ph.D.

Associate Director, Design Analytics Core

Kiu Chui, Ph.D., R.D.

Postdoctoral Assistant

Katie Ellison, Ph.D., RDN, LDN

Postdoctoral Assistant

Aseel El Zein, Ph.D., MS, RDN

Scientist & Program Director, Clinical Research

Research interests: Nutrition, cardiometabolic health (including obesity and type 2 diabetes), health disparities, and telehealth. Aiming to enhance patient outcomes through behavior change and digital health strategies, supported by robust clinical trials with a focus on underserved populations.