JACLYN ALEXANDER-MOLLOY, MS, BA is an assistant project director in the lab. She earned a BA in Communication from the University of New Hampshire and an MS in Health Communication, with a concentration in Applied Communication Research, from Boston University. While completing her master’s degree, Jackie spent a semester at the Brigham and Women’s STRATUS Center, as a student researcher, focusing on product penetration. Prior to becoming part of the Viswanath Lab team, she was a Data Specialist at Forrester Research, where she extracted and analyzed survey data for clients in the healthcare and financial services sectors. Her focus is to aid in the growth of public health education and disease prevention and she looks forward to continually increasing her knowledge of these areas at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

CASSANDRA ANDERSEN, BS is a community health educator in the lab and completed a BS in Environmental Policy and Development at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. At the Central Massachusetts Center for Healthy Communities, she worked with organizations and coalitions to provide support, technical assistance, evaluation, and training to staff and community members on the use of evidence-based models and programs. She is active in her community, volunteering on boards and committees at several organizations, such as Oak Hill Community Development Corporation, United Way of Central Massachusetts, and the Central Massachusetts Regional Employment Board.

Cassandra is passionate about engaging youth and adults in learning the skills and techniques they need to advocate for themselves, to strengthen their communities, and to work together towards civic and economic self-sufficiency. She believes that involving community members in the research and data collection process leads to more effective community-building initiatives and is essential for increasing authentic community collaboration with researchers.

CABRAL BIGMAN, PhD is a Yerby postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She earned a PhD in communication from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in psychology from Oberlin. Her time as a research fellow at the Center of Excellence in Cancer Communication Research (CECCR) at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, and as a reporter who covered medical device and diagnostic policy, contributed to her interests in health inequalities, framing, health communication and risk communication. 

CARMENZA BRUFF, MA, BS joins the Viswanath Lab as a community health educator in the city of Lawrence for the Community-Based Participatory Research study P.L.A.N.E.T. MassCONECT. Carmenza received a BS in Human Services/Community Organizing from Springfield College and is enrolled in the MA in Education/Integrated Studies program at Cambridge College.

In her interest to be actively involved in the community and to help people with language barriers, Carmenza works as a freelance Medical Interpreter. She brings vast experience with underserved communities in Colombia, where she worked in the Prevention Against Cancer Program at the Instituto National de Cancerologia in Bogota. This knowledge was expanded through her job as a Community Health Educator for the Merrimack Valley Lead Prevention Program in Lawrence.  She has also served on the Lawrence YWCA Board of Directors and on the Community Affairs Advisory Board for the city of Haverhill.

Carmenza is currently a member of the Arts Council of Haverhill, where she resides. She loves new knowledge, reading, dancing, and traveling.

JOSEPHINE CRISOSTOMO, MPH, BA completed a BA in Psychology at CUNY - Queens College and an MPH at Boston University School of Public Health. She most recently worked as a program coordinator for the Boston Public Health Commission, where she specialized in coalition building and community organizing. She also served as the communications assistant for the Education Development Center, Inc.’s Higher Education Center, where she worked on press and communications projects, and worked with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Cancer Prevention and Control Program, as the social marketing assistant.

Josephine actively volunteers at organizations such as Cradles to Crayons and the American Cancer Society, and serves the community as a Certified Child Passenger Safety Technician. She has a passion for health communications and health promotion, and is specifically interested in translating health communications research into practice in the field. She continues to pursue these interests as Senior Project Director for the Center for Community-Based Research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Rachel Faulkenberry, MPH, BA is pursuing her doctorate in Society, Human Development and Health at the Harvard University School of Public Health. She has earned BAs in Magazine Journalism and Sociology from the University of Georgia and completed her MPH at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. Rachel’s interests focus on the role of health communication in the reduction of cancer disparities. For her doctoral work, Rachel hopes to explore aspects of communication that may influence outcomes for cancer patients and survivors, including the influence of patient-provider interactions on treatment and end-of-life care decisions; barriers to accessing information on cancer treatment and survivorship; and ways to engage communities to change the information environment.

MINSOO JUNG, PhD, MPH is a Research Fellow in the lab. He has a keen interest in community capacity building, health disparity, health communication and quantitative methodology including social network analysis. Prior to joining the lab, he has worked as a research assistant professor in the Health Science Research Institute, Korea University. His professional research goal is directed toward broadening our understanding of the issues in health promotion.

Minsoo completed his PhD and MPH in the Graduate School of Public Health at Seoul National University. He earned a BA in Sociology from Yonsei University. His doctoral dissertation investigated the relationship between community capacity and health behaviors using multilevel regression analysis.

LEESA LIN, MSPH, BA serves as the Program Coordinator for the Harvard School of Public Health Preparedness and Emergency Response Research Center (PERRC). Her research interests focus on the assessment of public health systems’ emergency preparedness capabilities, communication during large scale disasters, knowledge dissemination and translation, social determinants, and the development and evaluation of social interventions. Leesa holds a MS in Global Health and Population from the Harvard School of Public Health and a BA in Psychology from the University of British Columbia.

LISA LOWERY, BS serves as the Program Coordinator for the Viswanath Lab's research team. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Education, with a concentration in Exercise Science. Her interests include promoting physical fitness, raising money for charity — especially by running marathons, and taking her Newfoundland dog for long walks.

Lisa is excited to be a part of the groundbreaking research being conducted by the Viswanath Lab. She is particularly fascinated by the field of Community-based Participatory Research.

MICHAEL P. McCAULEY, PhD completed a doctorate in Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and he comes to the Viswanath Lab following earlier careers as a communication and journalism professor and radio journalist. Mike has joined the Lab’s ongoing effort to study the social and political forces that shape the work of health and science journalists. His other research interests focus on stress-related cognitive impairments and the impacts of chronic stress on the health behaviors of disadvantaged populations.

SARA MINSKY, MPH, BA completed a BA in Economics at Emmanuel College and an MPH at Boston University. She most recently worked as a project manager for the Social and Behavioral Sciences Department at the Boston University School of Public Health. Her experience includes managing randomized controlled trials examining residual effects of alcohol on occupational and academic performance, acute effects of transdermal scopolamine on simulated ship navigation performance, and effectiveness of condom promotion interventions on STD reduction.

She has also directed a quasi-experimental pilot evaluation researching the impact of interactive computer-based video on urban and suburban adolescent alcohol and marijuana use. Prior to joining the Viswanath Lab, Sara worked for six years as an evaluator for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's STD/HIV Prevention Training Center. Her eclectic research interests and personal dedication to cancer prevention have led her to become a Project Director for the Center for Community-Based Research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. 

YUDY MUNETON, MA, BS is an assistant project director working on several projects within the Viswanath Lab. She attended the University of Massachusetts Boston where she received a BS in Psychology and Biology and a Master in Clinical Social Work at Boston College.

Yudy’s undergraduate thesis focused on "Asthma as a Risk Factor and Supportive Relationships as a Resource Factor in Asthmatic Children’s School Functioning." Her current research interests are in health disparities associated with race, socioeconomic status, and neighborhoods, especially as they relate to underserved populations. She is also passionate about working to improve access to mental health services within the Latino community.

Yudy is very excited about the opportunity to learn how information dissemination impacts public health.

REBEKAH NAGLER, PhD is a cancer prevention fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She is interested in health communication and message effects, with a particular focus on the effects of news media coverage on health behavior and policy. During her time with the Viswanath Lab, Rebekah hopes to learn more about communication inequalities, social determinants of health, and differential effects of health media exposure on population subgroups. Prior to joining the lab, she was a research fellow at the Center of Excellence in Cancer Communication Research (CECCR) at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.

Rebekah received her PhD in Communication and her BA in the History and Sociology of Science, both from the University of Pennsylvania.

SHOBA RAMANADHAN, ScD, MPH is a Research Scientist in the lab. Her research interests center around dissemination and implementation, capacity-building, and social networks. Prior to joining the lab, she was an AHRQ Postdoctoral Fellow at the Yale School of Public Health. While there she studied health management capacity-building programs in low- and middle-income countries, with a focus on Ethiopia and Liberia.

Shoba received her doctorate from the Harvard School of Public Health, where she studied the use of staff social networks in community-based organizations to facilitate program adoption and implementation. She also holds an MPH in Health Management from the Yale School of Public Health and a BA in Biology from Cornell University.

MEGAN RAO, BA recently completed a BA in Political Science at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. She has joined the Viswanath Lab as a Survey Assistant, applying her experience in the world of politics to the field of health communication. In 2008, Megan was a Field Organizer for President Barack Obama's presidential campaign in southeast Michigan. She later served as an intern at the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C. Megan also interned in the Executive Office of the President at The White House, where she assisted in event management for the First Lady's "Let's Move!" initiative to end childhood obesity.

LIYING SHEN, MA, BS is a research assistant in the lab.  Liying’s research interests include community intervention strategy, health promotion campaigns, knowledge translation and health dissemination strategy on a global scale. She hopes to explore indicators of cultural norms in developing countries that may influence health outcome for non-communicable diseases, such as cancer, obesity, heart disease, osteoporosis, and etc. Prior to her work in the lab, she worked as the communication specialist in advocating for the legislation of effective smoke-free policy in public places in Shanghai.

She received her Bachelor Degree of Clinical Medicine and Master of Communication in Fudan University, China. Now she is pursuing her doctorate in Society, Human Development and Health at the Harvard University School of Public Health, with a concentration in health communication. Liying actively volunteers at the China Children Pediatric Foundation and the Bring Me Hope foundation.