HEALTH POLICY RESEARCH SCHOLARS DISSERTATION GRANT AWARDEES
All scholars in Health Policy Research Scholars (HPRS) are eligible to apply for the HPRS Dissertation Grant, a competitive award of up to $10,000 dollars. The one-time grant supports scholar dissertation research activities for projects that have specific health policy implications and advance health equity. Applications are reviewed and awarded quarterly.
Who is Health Policy Research Scholars for?
Doctoral students from a variety of disciplines—such as urban planning, political science, economics, anthropology, education, social work, geography, and sociology—who are committed to using policy change to advance population health and health equity.Applicants must be:
- Full-time doctoral students who are entering the second year of their programs in fall 2022 and do not expect to graduate before spring/summer 2025.
- From historically marginalized backgrounds and/or populations underrepresented in specific doctoral disciplines.
- Pursuing a research-focused discipline that can advance a Culture of Health.
- Interested in health policy and interdisciplinary approaches.
What do scholars receive?
- Annual award funding of up to $30,000 for up to four years or until they complete their doctoral program (whichever is sooner).
- Mentoring and training in health policy and leadership.
- Professional ties to public health and policy leaders and innovators from diverse fields.
- Opportunity to compete for an additional dissertationgrant of up to $10,000.
- Membership in a network of scholars and alumni for research and advocacy collaborations.
- Alex Adia: Impacts of Hospital Market Changes and Consumer Protections on Patient Welfare
- Natalia Coriano-Díaz: Adverse Maternal Outcomes and Obstetric Interventions: Evidence from the U.S. and Puerto Rico
- James Green: Developing a Theory of Ethical Practice Among Queer Social Workers of Color in Spaces of Digital Care
- Hannah Isabel Shai: Exploring the Determinants of Child Beverage Consumption in the Northern Mariana Islands (NMI)
- Nayla Bezares: Assessing Agricultural Self-Reliance and Sustainability in Puerto Rico Using Food Systems Modeling Approaches
- Zeruiah Buchanan: Creating A World Worth Living In: An Exploratory Sequential Mixed Methods Approach to Understanding Black Youth Suicidality Through the Lens of Policy
- Edward Chauca: Exploring Promotora-led Preventive Mental Health Interventions Among Hispanics/Latines in the U.S.: Assessments, Academic Partnership, and Interactions with Social Determinants of Health.
- Ashley Cooper: Socioecological Factors Associated with Weight Status in College Educated Black Women
- Leo Davis: The Role of Fatherhood Interventions in Sustaining Well-being, Mental Health, Child Attachment, and Parenting Relationships for Fathers Impacted by the Criminal Justice System
- Christian Douglas: Designing Systems for Equitable Outcomes: Examining Identity, Attitude, and Behavior to Inform Roadway Interactions and Promote Transportation Equity and Public Health
- Manuel Galvan: Understanding the Distribution of Anti-Black Discrimination: A Study of Hiring, Housing, Judicial Decisions, and Policy Beliefs
- Opal Gay: Examining Intersectional Stigma Among Black Non-binary Adults: A Multi-Level Analysis
- Keiwana Glover: The Role of Iron in Antimicrobial Resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae
- Latesha Harris: Police Violence Exposure and Cardiometabolic Risk in Black Women
- Rehaana Herbert: Wealth, Race, and Gender: Exploring Intersecting Factors in the Financial Well-being of Black Women.
- Melissa Horner: Ongoing U.S. Settler Colonialism and Indigenous Knowledge in Montana Lawmaking
- Bryant Jackson-Green: Regulation by Litigation in Correctional Health Services: A Mixed-Methods Policy Implementation Study
- Sione Lister: America’s Invisible Colonies: Race, Migration, and Settler Colonialism in the U.S. Territories
- Shana McClain: Epistemic Injustice and Silencing of Violence Against Black Women and Girls: Testing Cultural Betrayal Trauma Theory
- Erika Mey: Understanding the Health of Cambodians (in Cambodia and America) and the Overall Refugee Community in America
- Laura Morales: Beyond the Tap: Water, Citizenship, and the Reimagining of American Democracy
- Ariana Mora: Leveraging Disease Misclassification to Estimate the Impact of Pre-Pregnancy Healthcare Access on Maternal Morbidity
- Ian Moura: Examining the Impact of Algorithmic Decision-Making Tools on the Disability Community
- Ashley Ortiz Chico: Mangrove Roots: Kinship Networks as Environmental Justice in Loiza, Puerto Rico
- Katherine A. Pérez-Quiñones: The Right to Stay: local perspectives on the politics of disaster, mitigation planning, and habitat conservation in Espinar, Puerto Rico
- Sarah Peralta: Examining Value-Conflicts Documented in Ethical Pediatric Consultations During End-of-Life Care: A Secondary Qualitative Analysis
- Mary Phan: Mindful Classrooms: Teachers Designing and Implementing Mindfulness Interventions
- Carol Ramos-Garena: Agroecological strategies for Puerto Rico’s land use policy challenges
- Christopher Robertson: Covenanted-Policing: Policing, Spatial Racism, and Health (In)Equity in Minneapolis, MN
- Alexandra Rodriguez: Arts and mental health policy: Cross-sectoral advocacy for sustainable practices in the United States
- Alexis Rowland: A History of Broken Toilets: A Genealogy of Jails, Juries, and Carceral Thought in California (1851-2022)
- Muna Saleh: Health After Resettlement: Multilevel Drivers of Health Status Among Somali Refugees with Chronic Conditions
- Carlo Sariego: Transsexualizing Reproduction: Speculating Transgender Reproductive Politics, Desire, and Time in the United States
- Sevly Snguon: Guaranteed income as an economic intervention to mitigate the impact of structural racism on health
- Brianna Suslovic: Social Welfare Policy-to-Practice Translation in Jail Reform Litigation
- Resha Swanson: “The South Got Something to Say”: Understanding How Race, Labor, and Politics Shape Preemption in the U.S. South
- Motunrayo Tosin-Oni: “Place, Race, Racism, and Place-based Policies: Essays on Structural Racism and Community-Level Health Inequities”.
- Jabarey Wells: Exploring the Role of Placemaking in Community Response to Carceral Systems
- Wes Wislar: Doing Disabled Gender and Sexuality: An Examination of Experiences in the Medical Establishment, the Family, and Schools
- Adrian Williams: A Multisurface Interpersonal Circumplex Assessment of Measures of Discrimination and Microaggressions
- Cheryl Aguilar: What about the Parents? Exploring the Impact of Immigration Separation and Reunification on the Wellbeing and Sense of Self of Central American Parents
- Khadijah Ameen: Moving towards community power in academic health – community research partnerships involving Black communities
- Emmanuella Asabor: Segregation and the Infectious Disease Illness Experience: The cases of HIV and COVID-19 in South Africa and the United States
- Brianna Baker: A Mother’s Message: A Family Systems Investigation of Black Women and Girls’ Mental Well-Being, Hope, and Healing
- Denae Bradley: Intimate Spaces in Carceral Places: An Examination of Black Doula Care with Incarcerated Pregnant People
- Sarah El-Azab: A Critical Analysis of Organizational Practices Underlying Interoperability of Race and Ethnicity Data
- Jamilah George: Psychedelic Just(US): The Role of Racial Trauma, Pain Interference, Stigma, and the Justice System on Psychedelic Acceptability among Black Americans
- José Manuel González Vera: Cultural Adaptation of the ACT Guide for Undocumented Community Members
- Alec Hall: The Muunganiko Curriculum: A Piloted Tier 2 Intervention that Integrates Restorative Justice and Youth Participatory Action Research
- Ciara Horne: Methods for Quantifying Inequitable Social Impacts of Dam Failures on Marginalized Communities
- Natasha Lee-Johnson: Black Maternal Resilience: A Mixed Method Study on Perceived Risk of Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes and Decision-Making
- Jessica Levasseur: Exploring the Utility of Silicone Wristbands for Monitoring Exposure to Environmental Phenols With a Focus on Parabens
- Cashell Lewis: Unmasking the Social Determinants of Health: Criminal Legal System Involvement and Suicidal Behavior Among Black Men Among Black Men
- David Mai: Harnessing Regnase-1 and Roquin-1 activity to modulate T cell function
- Adrian Manriquez: The Exploration of Latino BIP Participants’ Experiences of Oppression and Expressions of Critical Consciousness
- Aliyah Middleton: Legal Child Traffickers: Local Businesses and Organizations in Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking
- Lupita Quintana: Developing and evaluating a surveillance system model to facilitate the prevention of pesticide related illness in the State of Illinois
- Sally Ryman: Health Care Experiences of Trans Students Attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities
- Pyar Seth: The Spectral Defect: Rethinking the Drug War through Medicine
- Jenna Sung: Reaching the families Single Session Interventions are best positioned to help: Empowering Economically Insecure Parents to Manage Child Anxiety
- Shannon Whittaker: Gentrification, displacement and health equity: Moving from risks to solutions
- Gabriel Lorenzo Aguilar: The Case for Humanitarian Technical Communication: Theory, Method, and Praxis
- Gabriella Alvarez: Neuroinflammatory Mechanisms Linking Chronic Stress to Motivational Deficits: A Neuropharmacological Approach
- Sofia Cárdenas: Fathers’ Sleep Quality, White Matter Microstructure, and Neural Activation During the Transition to Parenthood
- Christopher Chiu: Sexual Racism and Health among Asian American Sexual Minority Men
- Hayden Dawes: Liberating Ourselves with #RadicalPermission: A Mixed-Methods Intervention Study of People in Digital Community
- Monica De La Cruz: Beyond Sticks and Stones: Exploring Discourses of Poverty
- Daniel Do: COVID-19, Racism, and Mental Health Services
- Morgan Farnworth: Governing the Overdose Crisis: A Multilevel Analysis of Problems, Policy, and Public Capacity
- Jordyn Gunville: Maternal Health Outcomes and Access to Prenatal Care Among American Indians: A Mixed Methods Dissertation
- Alein Haro-Ramos: Immigration and Racial Hierarchies: Structural sources of mental health disparities and digital innovations for mental health among U.S. Latinxs
- Ariel Hart: Beyond the Obstetric Carceral Sphere?: Examining Midwifery Epistemology and Praxis in a Black-led Birth Center
- James Huỳnh: How Kinship and Coalition Networks Shape Distress, Anxiety, and Well-Being Among People Involved in LGBTQ+ Vietnamese American Issues in Orange County, CA
- Grace Ibitamuno: Investigating the Health and Wellness of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and their Families
- Asia Ivey: Black Educators Matter: An Examination of Equity Leadership and Policy Implications for Critical Professional Development
- Gabriel Johnson: Hegemonic Masculinity in Black men ≠ Black Masculinity: An Attempt to Avert the Dominant Gaze, and Its Effects on the Mental Health of Young BlaQ Men
- Natalie Larez: A Pilot Study: Youth Participatory Engagement and Action in Mental Health
- Deniss Martinez: Knowledge and Power Sharing in Indigenous Natural Resource Collaborations in California
- Destiny Printz: Melanated and Mindful: Feasibility of a Brief Parental Stress Intervention for Black and Hispanic Mothers of Toddlers
- Michael Rosario: [Coming Soon]
- Shlon Smith: Access Defined: Towards a Better Understanding of Black Youth’s Access and Utilization of School Mental Health Services
- Kate Somerville: Exploring the Role of School Policy in Healing, Wellbeing, and Mental Health: Centering Student Perspectives on School-Based Approaches to Trauma
- Mahader Tamene: Assessing the Impact of Structural Racism on the Mental Health of Birthing People
- Mudia Uzzi: Structural Drivers of Violent Crime in Baltimore City: An Investigation of Historical and Contemporary Practices and Patterns of Structural Racism
- Mi’Chael Wright: Not on [ ]’s Internet: Black Girl’s Identity and Their Dichotomous Online Experiences
- Keona Wynne: Probing Psychotraumatology Frameworks and Models: An Investigation into the Explanatory Power of Psychotraumatology for Health Equity
- Andrew Arriaga: It’s the Law?: A Study of Policy, Minority Stress, and Gay Men’s Barriers to Parenthood in the United States
- Matthew Bakko: Disentangling Punishment and Care: Organizing Institutional Change in Municipal Community Safety
- Shanaé Burch: In Pursuit of Healthful Narratives: Black Women and/or Gender-Expansive Citizens Creating and Performing Art and Cultural Work in Service of “Good Health”
- Alberto Cifuentes: A Convergent Mixed Methods Study of the Impact of Stigma on the Sexual Health and Substance Use Outcomes of Internet-based Cisgender Male Sex Workers Who Have Sex with Men
- Katherine Gutierrez: Three Essays on Policy, Equity, and Economics
- Mónica Gutierrez: Does Power Impact an Individual’s Ability to Maintain Place, Space, and Identity? A Community Study
- Ans Irfan: Advancing Culture of Health & Health Systems Strengthening through Climate Adaptive Social Entrepreneurship: Social Impact Case Study for Climate Competent Care
- M. Nicole Kunkel: The Effects of Perinatal PCBs and Sociosexual Stress on the Hypothalamus and Behavior of Female Rats
- TyKera Marrow: Just Be A Man About It: A Sequential Explanatory Examination of Men’s Health and Healthcare Utilization
- Tiana Moore: Residential Mobility and Historical Discriminatory Housing Policy’s Influence on Contemporary Child Health and Cognition
- Ezinne Nwankwo: Matters of Place and Health: Ethnic Enclaves, Immigration Enforcement, and Preterm Births Among Latina Mothers in the U.S.
- Samantha Perez: A Novel Cancer-Specific Plectin Targeting Monoclonal Antibody Promotes an Antitumor Immune Response in PDAC Models
- Jocelyn Poe: On Trauma Imaginaries & Community Health
- Jake Ryann Sumibcay: Examining Structural Racism as a Fundamental Cause of Health Inequities Among the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders in the United States and the Indigenous Māori and Pacific Peoples in Aotearoa New Zealand: An Exploratory Comparative Case Study Analysis
- Hawi Teizazu: Maternal Mortality in the Spotlight: An Analysis of Maternal Health Research, News Media Coverage, and Public Opinion Related to Maternal Mortality and Maternal Health Policies in the United States
- Noah Triplett: Applying Human-Centered Design to Maximize Acceptability, Feasibility, and Usability of Mobile Technology Supervision in Kenya: A Mixed Methods Pilot Study
- Kevin Wiley Jr.: Data Quality and Care Coordination in Type 2 Diabetes Management
- Natasha Williams: Mental Health Among Black Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual People: Examining Patterns of Risk, Treatment Utilization, and Mental Health Management Strategies
- Chioma Woko: The Effect of Source Credibility on Promising Message Themes: A Message Pretesting Study to Address COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy among Black Americans
- Angela Adler: Brain Injury and Romantic Partnership: Relationship Quality and Stigma
- Deanna Barath: Hospital Cross-Sector Partnerships to Improve Health Outcomes
- Rebekah Cross: Gentrification, Residential Mobility and Preterm Birth among Black Women: A Mixed-Methods Study of Racial Resegregation in Northern California
- Yaminette Diaz-Linhart: Does Worker Voice Impact Worker Well-being in Health Care and Social Services?
- Tran Doan: A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Universal Routine Depression Screening of U.S. Adolescents in Primary Care
- Josefina Flores Morales: Three Essays on the Health of Immigrants and Undocumented Adults and Elders
- Terrell Frazier: Innovation at the Intersection: Specifying the Dynamics of Tactical Innovation within Heterogenous Activist Networks
- Regina Fuller: The (Un)Making of Comprehensive Sexuality Education Policy in Ghana
- Cristina Gomez-Vidal: The Legal Reproduction of Maternal and Infant Health Inequities in Unincorporated Communities
- Ashley Gripper: We Don’t Farm because it’s Trendy: An Environmental Justice Approach to Understanding the Connections Between Urban Agriculture and Health in Philadelphia
- Raven Hardy: Mechanism of Brain Circuitry Underlying Cognitive Decline in Sickle Cell Disease (SCD)
- Demar Lewis: Black Ideologies on Community Safety in the 21st Century
- Kathleen McCarty: Sport Opportunities for Collegiate Students with Disabilities: A Mixed Methods Review of Current Program Offerings, Barriers, and Facilitators
- Laurent Reyes: A Phenomenological Study Exploring Experiences of Civic Participation among Older African Americans and Latinx Immigrants using an Intersectional Life-Course Perspective
- Kristi Roybal: Exploring the Relationship between Historical Redlining and Place-Based Reproductive Health Inequities: A Qualitative GIS Approach
- Leslie Salas-Hernández: Understanding Police-Public Contact: The Role of Police Violence and a Police Training Intervention
- Samantha Scott: How Deep is your Kaumaha? Unfolding the Experiences of Historical and Intergenerational Trauma among Wāhine
- Dislorei (Desi) Small-Rodriguez: Remaking Collective Identities: Data Sovereignty, Citizenship, and Indigenous Nations
- Jennifer Whittaker: Understanding the Role of Place in Health and Wellbeing for Rural Families: A Photovoice Project by Moms
- Bukola Bakare: Corporate Social Responsibility and Traffic Congestion: A Mixed Methods Study
- Samuel Baxter: Examining Racial Differences in Cardiovascular Health among Young Men: The role of Residential Segregation
- Jasmine Blanks Jones: Performance as Public Work: Youth as Civic Actors for Policy and Practice in Liberia
- Erica Browne: Moving Further Upstream to Promote Racial Equity: A Mixed Method Analysis of Private Nonprofit Hospital Community Benefit
- Brittney Butler: Examination of Exposures to Anti-Black Racism Over the Lifecourse and their Association with Pregnancy Induced Hypertensive Disorders Among Black Women
- Alane Celeste-Villalvir: Finding the Missing Millions: An Exploration of Challenges and Facilitators to Hepatitis C (HCV) Screening Among Individuals Experiencing Homelessness
- Angeliz Encarnación Burgos: Urban Development under Conditions of Colonialism: A Critical Urban History of Santurce, Puerto Rico
- Mario Alberto Espinoza-Kulick: La Gente Unida: Latinx Immigrant and Indigenous Health and Advocacy on California’s Central Coast
- Jenny Guadamuz: Immigration Status, Cardiovascular Risk Factors, and Medication Use in the United States
- Ana Herrera: The Association between Tobacco Retail Outlet Density and Advertising with Neighborhood Socio-demographic Characteristics around Colleges in Texas
- Amy Jones: The New Affirmative Action: The Experience of Students of Color in Diversity-Focused Collegiate Incorporation Programs
- Matthew Lee: Advancing Understandings of Policy Implementation and Sustainability to Address Health Equity: A Mixed Methods Case Study of Tobacco Control in New York City
- Jennifer McGee-Avila: Multilevel Points of Intervention to Improve Cervical Cancer Screening Among Women Living with HIV: A Mixed Methods Approach to Addressing Health Inequities
- Marcela Nava: The Political Economy of Immigrant Health: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Social Capital and the Immigrant Paradox
- Adrian Neely: School Connectedness and African American Students: An Examination with Implications for Policy and Teacher Education
- Marie Plaisime: Perceptions of Racial Bias & Interracial Anxiety Among Medical Students: A Mixed Methods Study
- Arrianna Planey: A Multi-Scale Spatial & Political Economic Analysis of Health Policy, Provider Location Decisions, and Access to Audiology Services
- Jennifer Richmond: Reducing Racial Disparities in Health Services Use: Exploring the Role of Racial Equity Training for Nurse Navigators and Improved Measurement of Trust in Health Care
- Kristefer Stojanovski: Systems Science Approaches to Visualize, Model, and Explore Stigma’s Role in Socially Patterning HIV Risk Among Gay, Bisexual, and Other Men Who Have Sex With Men (GBMSM) in Europe
- Dana Williamson: Understanding Capacity-building Efforts to Address Environmental Justice Concerns
- Henry Willis: Developing a Culturally-Adapted Mobile Mental Health Intervention: A Multi-Study, Mixed Methods Approach
- Andrew Anderson: Exploring Mental Health Disparities among Accountable Care Organizations
- Sondra Calhoun Lavigne: Antimicrobial Use and Resistance: Intersections of Companion Animal and Public Health
- Michelle Doose: Examining the Multilevel Influences on Diabetes and Hypertension Clinical Care Management among Breast Cancer Patients
- Paul Shafer: Effect of the Affordable Care Act on Utilization of Emergency and Primary Care
- Patrice Williams: “They Over-Promised and Under-Delivered”: A Mixed Methods Study on the Effects of Residential Displacement Pressure on Black Residents in Southwest Atlanta
