Faculty/Staff | Department of Population Medicine

Faculty

Jason Block, MD, MPH, Director Associate Professor (617) 867-4835 \| Email	Emily Oken, MD, MPH, Associate Director Professor (617) 867-4879 \| Email
Izzuddin Aris, PhD Assistant Professor (617) 867-4239 \| Email	Brittany Charlton, MSc, ScD Associate Professor (857) 218-5463 \| Email
Marie-France Hivert, MD, MMSc Associate Professor (617) 867-4505 \| Email	Joshua Petimar, ScD Assistant Professor (617) 867-4518 \| Email
Davene Wright, PhD Associate Professor (617) 867-4530 \| Email

Staff

Kameela Afifi, BS \| Research Assistant \| Email Kameela Afifi joined CoRAL as a Research Assistant on Project Viva in August 2022. She received her BS in Cognitive Science from University of California, Santa Cruz in 2022. While there, Kameela was also a Research Assistant for campus labs studying learning, memory, and psychopathology. In her free time, Kameela likes to paint, play chess, and spend time in nature.
Isa Berzansky, MS \| Research Analyst \| Email Isa (she/her) joined CoRAL as a research analyst supporting projects on sexual and gender minority reproductive health and cancer disparities under Brittany Charlton. She completed her MS in epidemiology with a concentration in reproductive health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. During graduate school, she earned certificates in Women, Gender, & Health, and Maternal & Child Health and worked on research projects examining infertility, trans health, and incarceration during pregnancy.
Eunjae Benson, BA \| Research Assistant \| Email Eunjae (she/her) received her BS in Clinical Psychology with Criminology and Law minors from Belmont Abbey College in May of this year. While in college she was involved in a legal genomics research project studying admissibility of genomic information in criminal trials and also assisted with forensic and developmental psychology research as a behavior analyst. In her free time, she enjoys reading, painting, and cooking and hopes to pursue graduate school for epidemiology or clinical psychology in the future.
Luke Bernier, BA \| Research Assistant \| Email Luke Bernier joined CoRAL as a Research Assistant on Project Viva in August 2022. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the College of the Holy Cross. During his time at Holy Cross, he was able to start his research career by studying visual motion processing in animal species. In the future, Luke hopes to continue his education in psychology. Outside of work, he enjoys playing sports, practicing guitar, and attending concerts.
Nicole Bornkamp, BA, MPH \| Senior Project Manager, Data Science \| (617) 867-4803 \| Email Nicole Bornkamp joined CoRAL in 2019. She completed her BA from Princeton University and MPH from Columbia University. She oversees all aspects of research data for Project Viva, comprised of a portfolio of 14 grants ranging from large multi-year prime awards funding ongoing data collection to smaller extant data-only subcontracts. She is responsible for Project Viva’s data architecture and design, operational data management, the provision of cleaned data for internal and external researchers, data reporting, and data analysis.
Lauren Cleveland, MS, MPH \| Senior Project Manager \| (617) 867-4419 \| Email Lauren Cleveland is a Project Manager supporting chronic disease related studies and conducts research on obesity prevention policy. Lauren studied English at the University of New Hampshire and puts her undergrad degree to use as an editor for the Weighing in Blog and organizing CoRAL's book club. She received her MPH from Tufts School of Medicine, where she focused on health communication and her MS in food policy from Tufts Friedman School. Prior to HPHCI, she coordinated a longitudinal study for Dartmouth College's Geisel School of Medicine that investigated the impact of food marketing on young children.
Sarah Cohan, PMP \| Program Manager \| (857) 636-0904 \| Email Sarah joined the Project Viva team in June 2020. She was previously the Lab Manager for the Vision Sciences Lab in the Harvard Department of Psychology, collaborating on research exploring the spectrum of human face recognition abilities, and developing and validating online cognitive assessments. Following that she was a project and portfolio manager with the Football Players Health Study at Harvard Medical School, developing and managing studies of former NFL player behavioral and physical function. She received her BA in Theatrical Stage Management and Psychology from the University of Vermont, and is a certified Project Management Professional. Outside of HPHCI, she is the HR manager for Company One Theatre (www.CompanyOne.org), sings with the Boston Symphony, is a graduate student in Management with a focus on Organizational Behavior, bakes at www.TheSweeteryBoston.com, and loves playing with her baby boy, born in March 2020.
Caroline Collis, BA \| Senior Research Assistant \| Email Caroline joined CoRAL as a Research Assistant on Jason Block's team. She helps with data cleaning for Jason’s grants on nutrition policy and obesity research. She graduated from the Commonwealth Honors College at UMass Amherst in 2019 with a B.A. in Legal Studies. Prior to joining the Institute, Caroline was a marketing analyst, and most recently, a research assistant at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in cardiology research. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her friends, family, and pets, and playing competitive ultimate frisbee.
Julia D’Ambrosio, MPH \| Administrative/Project Specialist \| Email Julia joined CoRAL as an administrative/project specialist in May 2024. Prior to joining CoRAL, Julia conducted research to support the development and validation of clinical outcome assessments used in clinical trials. In this role, Julia conducted qualitative research and supported data collection and presentation to insert the patient voice into the drug development process. Julia received her MPH from Boston University, with a certificate in Community Assessment, Program Design, Implementation and Evaluation. She also has her BA in English from the College of the Holy Cross.
Susana Feldman \| Research Assistant \| Email Susana Feldman joined the ECHO team in the spring of 2024 as a Research Assistant. She received her B.A. from Amherst College, where she majored in sociology and psychology. At Amherst, she collaborated on multiple social impact research projects, including a police reform project. She also served on a diversity, equity, and inclusion board and taught at a local preschool. She is passionate about destigmatizing mental health and aspires to make lasting change in the mental health field.
Emily Goldsmith, BS, MA \| Project Manager \| Email Emily joined CoRAL in June 2020 as the Operations Project Manager for Project Viva. Previously, she worked for two global health organizations, Pathfinder International and Management Sciences for Health, where she managed reproductive health and maternal and child health programs. In addition, she managed community health projects while serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Togo. She holds an MA in Law and Diplomacy from Tufts University and a BS in Development Sociology from Cornell University. Outside of work, Emily enjoys hiking, running, skiing, and spending time with friends and family.
Kate Harvison, MSc \| Research Assistant \| Email Kate joined CoRAL as a Research Assistant on Project Viva. She completed her MSc in Biosocial Medical Anthropology from University College London in 2023, where for her dissertation she conducted research on pregnant women’s experiences using online forums to answer questions about their symptoms and seek social support. Prior to this, she received her BS in Biological Anthropology from George Washington University in 2022. In her free time Kate enjoys reading, choral singing, and baking.
Tabor Hoatson, MPH \| Research Analyst \| Email Tabor Hoatson (he/him) joined CoRAL in 2022 as a research analyst investigating sexual minority reproductive health and cancer outcome disparities under Dr. Brittany Charlton. He supports Dr. Charlton's team by operationalizing study proposals, performing statistical analyses, and contributing to manuscript preparation. Tabor received his BA with Honors in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Stanford University in 2020 and his MPH with a concentration in quantitative methods from Boston University School of Public Health in 2022.
Chelsea Jenter, MPH \| Director of Operations \| (617) 867-4984 \| Email Chelsea Jenter, MPH, works closely with Dr. Emily Oken and Dr. Jason Block to oversee the operations of CoRAL within the Department of Population Medicine. Ms. Jenter has managed many research projects, spanning from IT interventions to large-scale interventions to nation-wide consortia. Ms. Jenter received her AB from Smith College and her MPH in Health Policy and Management from Boston University. She has worked in the Department of Population Medicine twice: first in the early 2000s, and then again starting in 2011.
Pi-I (Debby) Lin, MS, ScD \| Research Scientist II \| Email Debby began as a research fellow in CoRAL in 2017. Her research uses population-level data to study the impact of environmental and chemical exposures on health outcome across the life-course. Her research had span across heavy metals (arsenic, lead, mercury, cadmium, manganese), phthalate, and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). One of her research specialty is to apply diet-wide association studies (DWAS) to evaluate the relationship between diet and chemical exposure. Using DWAS, she had uncover several previously unidentified dietary sources of exposure to PFAS and arsenic. Prior to joining the Department of Population Medicine, Debby earned a Doctoral of Science in Environmental and Occupational Molecular Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, a Master of Science in Epidemiology and Public Health at Kaohsiung Medical University and a Bachelor of Science in Genetics and Cell Biology from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Debby grew up in Taiwan and is of Amis and Hakka descent; her Indigenous name is Lapic Kalay. In her spare time, Debby enjoys cooking, biking, hiking, swimming and scuba diving.
Kathleen Lynch, BS \| Project Coordinator \| (617) 867-4954 \| Email Kathleen joined Project Viva in June 2017 as a Research Assistant. She received her BS in Public Health from Syracuse University in May 2016. At Syracuse, Kathleen was given many opportunities to engage in service learning, including an internship with the American Red Cross, in emergency preparedness. After college, she went on to serve as an AmeriCorps VISTA in Philadelphia. She is also a part-time graduate student at Boston University, working toward her Master's in Public Health.
Allison Nolan, MPH \| Project Manager \| Email Allison Nolan joined the CoRAl Division as the ECHO Project Manager. She received her BS from Cornell University and MPH from Boston University, where her focus was maternal and child health, as well as health policy. Prior to joining CoRAL, Allison was a research coordinator at Tufts Medical Center. In this role, she coordinated multiple clinical trials within the newborn medicine department, as well as a longitudinal ECHO cohort. She joins HPHCI as the Project Manager of a new ECHO birth cohort (PI: Emily Oken), in collaboration with BIDMC.
Marleny Ortega, MPH \| Project Manager \| (617) 867-4918 \| Email Marleny joined Project Viva in September 2012 as a Research Assistant/Phlebotomist. She received her BA in Psychology/Child and Adolescent Development from Southern New Hampshire University and her MPH in 2019 from the same school. Prior to joining the Viva team, Marleny was a data collector at New England Research Institutes. In her free time, she enjoys reading, spending time with her family, and traveling.
Banapsha Rahman, MPH \| Project Coordinator \| Email Banapsha joined CoRAL as a Project Coordinator in February 2024. She has extensive experience working in government and public service, including the New York State Assembly. Most recently, Banapsha was a Graduate Research Assistant at the Harvard Prevention Research Center, where she conducted research on the cost-effectiveness of improved childhood nutrition and physical activity. Banapsha received her BA in Political Science from John Jay College of Criminal Justice and her MPH in Nutrition from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Outside of work, Banapsha enjoys cooking, traveling, and dog sitting.
Priscilla Ramirez, BS \| Project Coordinator \| Email Priscilla joined CoRAL as a Project Coordinator. She obtained her BS in Exercise Science from Rutgers University in 2019. She has had the opportunity to work in research in the fields of maternal-fetal medicine and cancer survivorship. She is currently working towards her MPH at Boston University and has joined CoRAL to support the startup of the Institute’s new Center of Excellence in Maternal Health.
Sheryl Rifas-Shiman, MPH \| Senior Research Associate \| (617) 867-4824 \| Email Sheryl L. Rifas-Shiman, MPH, is a senior research analyst/biostatistician in the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute. She is involved with many projects at the DPM including observational epidemiology, surveillance, and randomized interventions. Her research interests include nutrition and other exposures that occur during pregnancy and childhood, and the influence of these experiences on the health of both mother and child. Sheryl has led several analyses in the area of research methodology and predictors of childhood obesity. As an educator, she has advised many research fellows and graduate/medical students on their research projects.
Yoselin Rios-Saldivar, BA \| Research Assistant \| Email Yoselin joined CoRAL as a Research Assistant on the ECHO team in June 2024. She graduated from Smith College with a B.A. in Psychology. At Smith, Yoselin was involved in research exploring the intersections of society, psychology, and health, reflecting her strong interest in language and health equity. In her free time, she enjoys exploring new places, crocheting, and spending time with family and friends.
Nicole Santino, MA \| Research Assistant \| Email Nicole joined Project Viva as a Research Assistant in January 2024. She received her bachelor's in Psychology from the University of Rhode Island and received her Master’s in Psychology at Southern Connecticut State University, where she completed her master’s thesis researching vagus nerve stimulation music and its effectiveness in reducing PTSD symptoms. In her free time, Nicole enjoys reading, hiking, running, and skiing, and she hopes to continue her education in Clinical Psychology in the future.
Melissa Sidote \| Research Analyst \| Email Melissa joined Coral in June 2021 working with the Project Viva Data Science Team. She received her MPH at the University of Miami, where she also worked as a Research Assistant. Melissa contributes to all data management and analysis work for the Project Viva Data Science Team. She primarily oversees the portfolio of ECHO data work, focuses on streamlining internal data management and processing, creates new database systems and processes, performs programming tasks for data management and operations, trains new data science team members, and contributes as needed to individual data analysis projects.
Denise Simon, MPH \| Sr. Project Manager \| (617) 867-4905 \| Email Denise Simon, MPH, is a Sr. Project Manager in the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute. After receiving a BS in Health Science from Boston University, she went on to earn her MPH from Boston University School of Public Health with a concentration in Maternal and Child Health. Her research experience has involved research study design, data collection, and project oversight of epidemiologic research studies. She also participates in budgetary preparations for research grant proposals and ongoing financial monitoring for funded projects. Her interests include maternal and child health, wellness, healthcare policy, and community health education.
Eliza Stuart, BS/BA \| Research Assistant, Data Science \| Email Eliza joined CoRAL in June 2022 working with the Project Viva Data Science Team. She recently completed her BS/BA in Public Health and Geography at the University of Miami, where she was also working as a Research Assistant. Eliza support data management work of the Project Viva Data Science Team, including data cleaning, creation and preparation of relevant datasets, querying existing data to be used for the various grants and grant partners, managing data import and export as relates to the grants, and synthesizing relevant data for presentation as needed to internal and external collaborators.
Karen Switkowski, PhD, MPH \| Research Scientist \| (617) 867-4218 \| Email Karen Switkowski, PhD, MPH, is a Research Scientist in the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute. Her background is in nutrition science and epidemiology, and she is primarily interested in researching associations of early-life nutrition, including maternal diet and nutritional status during pregnancy and infant and child nutrition, with child health outcomes. Dr. Switkowski works primarily on Project Viva, a longitudinal study of mother-child pairs. She was the Project Viva Project Manager from 2012-2016, and before coming to DPM, she worked as an Epidemiologist at the Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute. Dr. Switkowski received her PhD in Nutritional Epidemiology and MS in Biochemical and Molecular Nutrition from the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, as well as an MPH in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the Tufts School of Medicine, Public Health and Professional Degree Programs.
Szilvia Szegedi, BA \| Project Manager \| (617) 867-4879 \| Email Szilvia joined CoRAL in January of 2014. She is currently a Project Manager focusing on pre-award research administration while also providing support for Drs. Emily Oken and Jason Block. She also oversees the CoRAL administrative team and the division’s communications efforts. Szilvia earned her BA in Communications from Boston College, where she also played Division I varsity tennis for 4 years. Prior to joining CoRAL, she worked as a marketing manager focused on increasing diversity and multiculturalism in the non-profit hospitality industry. When she’s not running, reading, or cooking, she spends most of her free time with her husband and their two young sons.
Jeff Verly, MSF \| Senior Financial Analyst \| Email Jeff joined CoRAL as a Financial Analyst for the Project Viva team. Jeff brings knowledge and experience from both non-profit and for-profit financial institutions. During the summer of 2019, Jeff was an Internal Audit Intern with Harvard Pilgrim Health Care corporate in Quincy, MA. Jeff received his Bachelor's from Lasell College and his Master of Science in Finance from UMass Boston.
Chamaine Washington, MPH \| Project Coordinator \| Email Chamaine joined CoRAL as a Project Coordinator in October 2022. She provides administrative support for Izzuddin Aris, Marie-France Hivert, and Peter James, and also manages many of Peter James' projects. Before joining CoRAL, she worked within TIDE as both an Administrative/Project Specialist and a Project Coordinator, supporting analytic timeline management and data coordination for numerous projects within the Infectious Diseases portfolio. Chamaine received her BS in Environmental Science from the University of Massachusetts Boston and earned her MPH in 2022 from the University of New England.
Yutong Zhang, MS \| Associate Research Analyst \| Email Yutong’s primary work focuses on the Project Viva data, supporting projects across multiple grants and investigators. She mainly works on data management, processing survey data, and generating preliminary results. Before joining the team, Yutong completed her MS in Nutrition from Tufts University, focusing on nutritional epidemiology and disease analysis.

Fellows

Payal Chakraborty, PhD, MS | Email
Payal Chakraborty (she/her) is a research fellow in the division of Chronic Disease Research Across the Lifecourse (CoRAL). As a postdoctoral researcher, she is working with Dr. Brittany Charlton on projects that aim to quantify reproductive health disparities among LGBTQ individuals. Her research focuses on sexual and reproductive health. Specifically, she is interested in research that works towards ensuring that individuals have the resources, support, and agency to enact their reproductive health choices, with a specific emphasis on impacts of existing structures and policies, as well as proposed legislation, on sexual and reproductive health outcomes. She received her PhD in Epidemiology from The Ohio State University and her Masters in Global Health from Duke University. As a graduate student, her work focused on sexual and reproductive health in Ohio. Specifically, her research focused on abortion and contraception access, and her PhD dissertation focused on risk factors for syphilis.

Hilary Dolstad, MD | Email
Hilary Dolstad, MD, is a Fellow in General Internal Medicine under the mentorship of Izzuddin Aris. She is a physician with a clinical focus on pediatric and adult primary care; and a community-based research focus in child and maternal health, and disparities in birth outcomes. She received her BA in Biology from Williams College and her MD from Harvard Medical School.

Soren Harnois-Leblanc, PhD | Email
Soren is an ADA/Pyle postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School investigating the role of dietary habits on diabetes risk markers from early childhood to late adolescence in Project Viva Cohort using causal inference methods, under the supervision of Drs. Marie-France Hivert and Jessica Young. Before this fellowship, she earned her PhD in Public Health with a specialization in Epidemiology at Université de Montréal investigating the natural history of type 2 diabetes in children and of cardiovascular disease in youth with type 1 diabetes, as well as the role of lifestyle habits on these two conditions. Following her PhD, Soren did a 1-year fellowship in health economy and epidemiology at McGill University examining the healthcare costs of pediatric obesity and estimating cost-effectiveness of a pediatric weight management program. More broadly, her research focuses on the prevention of obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease in at-risk children and children from the general population using robust statistical methods.

Ross Hatton, PhD, MPA | Email
Ross Hatton is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Population Medicine. He received his PhD in Health Policy and Management from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and his MPA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research applies qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods to evaluating federal social safety net programs. He is particularly interested how the public understands, accesses, and uses these resources, what these resources mean for diet and chronic disease, and how experiences and perceptions of federal social safety net programs shape the political environment in which they are enacted and administered.

Landon Hughes, PhD | Email
Landon Hughes is currently a Yerby Fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and also holds a position as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Division of Chronic Disease Research Across the Lifecourse (CoRAL). Before joining Harvard, Landon completed a Ph.D. in Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of Michigan and a BA in Sociology and Political Science at Grand Valley State University. As a social epidemiologist, his research utilizes demographic methods to examine morbidity and mortality among LGBTQ populations and considers the effects of social factors on health and aging. At CoRAL, he works alongside Dr. Brittany Charlton to examine pre- and perinatal health and aging among LGBTQ populations.

Sabrina Karim, MD | Email
Sabrina Karim, MD is a clinical fellow in pediatric gastroenterology at Boston Children’s Hospital. She completed her residency and chief residency in the Boston Combined Residency Program at Boston Medical Center and Boston Children’s Hospital. She is joined the Project Viva team starting in summer 2024 as part of her pediatric gastroenterology research fellowship.

Sarah McKetta, MD, PhD | Email
Sarah McKetta is a research fellow in CoRAL under the supervision of Dr. Brittany Charlton, where her focus is on reproductive and perinatal disparities for LGBT+ Americans, with special attention towards structural causes. Sarah’s research focuses on structural discrimination, women’s health, and substance use. Her clinical background is in sexual health, and prior to her doctoral training she spent 4 years working in patient care and women’s health research at Planned Parenthood. Prior to joining the Department, she received her MD/PhD at Columbia University, where she studied social epidemiology under the mentorship of Drs. Katherine Keyes and Mark Hatzenbuehler, and her master’s degree from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Colleen Reynolds, SM | Email
Colleen (she/they) is a PhD candidate in Reproductive, Perinatal, and Pediatric Epidemiology at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Their research focuses on reproductive health disparities faced by sexual and gender minorities. Colleen is particularly interested in the advancing the application of quantitative epidemiological methods in health disparities research. She received her BA in Public Health from American University and her SM in Epidemiology from Harvard.

Alexandra Ross, PhD, MHS | Email
Alex Ross joined CoRAL as a Research Fellow, collaborating with Jason Block and Josh Petimar. She recently earned her PhD in Nutrition Epidemiology from the UNC Chapel Hill School of Global Public Health and holds a Master’s degree in social and behavioral science from Johns Hopkins. Her research has centered on changes in the retail food environment, with an emphasis on food affordability, pricing, nutrient regulations, and international policy evaluations in the U.S. and South Africa.

Kodiak Soled, PhD, MSN | Email
Dr. Kodiak Soled (she/her) joined CoRAL as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. She is supporting Dr. Brittany Charlton’s team with NIH-funded research, including a new 5-year award that aims to elucidate obstetrical and perinatal health disparities impacting sexual minorities and their offspring. She uses qualitative and quantitative research methods, community-based approaches, and a social and structural determinants of health lens to identify and address perinatal and reproductive health disparities and promote resilience among LGBTQ+ individuals. Dr. Soled holds a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in LGBTQ Health from Columbia University, a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) from Johns Hopkins University, and a Bachelor of Arts degree (BA) in Critical Global Studies from Pitzer College.

Diana Soria-Contreras | Email
Diana Soria-Contreras is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute. She received her MSc from the University of Alberta, Canada, and her PhD from the National Institute of Public Health. Her research interests include the impact of pregnancy and maternity in the development of obesity and chronic diseases, as well as the impact of women's reproductive history on these outcomes.

Michelle Tam | Email
Michelle Tam (she/her) is a Research Fellow in the Department of Population Medicine. She works alongside Dr. Brittany Charlton to investigate reproductive health disparities among sexual minority and racial/ethnic minority populations. Dr. Tam’s research interests focus on LGBTQ+ communities, Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) populations, healthcare access, sexual and reproductive health, technoscience, and both mixed-methods and qualitative research approaches. She is interested in research that advances reproductive justice, addresses intersecting inequalities, and ensures meaningful access to sexual and reproductive rights. Dr. Tam completed a Ph.D. in Social and Behavioral Health Sciences from the University of Toronto. Her doctoral research examined access to assisted reproductive technologies for LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities.

Li Yi, PhD | Email
Li Yi, PhD (he/him/his) is a Thomas O. Pyle Research Fellow in the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute. Li has focused his research on investigating the impact of the neighborhood built environment and greenness on health behaviors and chronic disease outcomes. His current work intersects the fields of environmental epidemiology, health behavioral research, and bioinformatics by integrating smartphones and wearable devices, Big Data analytics, and geographic information systems (GIS) into large prospective cohort studies, including Nurses' Health Studies, Growing Up Today Study, Project Viva, and Maternal and Developmental Risks from Environmental and Social Stressors Study. In the Division of Chronic Disease Research Across the Lifecourse (CoRAL), Li is currently working with Drs. Peter James, Izzuddin Aris, Marie-France Hivert, and Emily Oken on several analyses examining the impact of neighborhood characteristics such as greenness exposure, deprivation, walkability on maternal and child health outcomes. Li holds an interdisciplinary PhD in Population, Health and Place from the University of Southern California, an MS in Architectural and Urban Conservation from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MSc in Urban Planning from the University College London.

Jason Block, MD, MPH, Director Associate Professor (617) 867-4835 \| Email	Emily Oken, MD, MPH, Associate Director Professor (617) 867-4879 \| Email
Izzuddin Aris, PhD Assistant Professor (617) 867-4239 \| Email	Brittany Charlton, MSc, ScD Associate Professor (857) 218-5463 \| Email
Marie-France Hivert, MD, MMSc Associate Professor (617) 867-4505 \| Email	Joshua Petimar, ScD Assistant Professor (617) 867-4518 \| Email
Davene Wright, PhD Associate Professor (617) 867-4530 \| Email

Kameela Afifi, BS \| Research Assistant \| Email Kameela Afifi joined CoRAL as a Research Assistant on Project Viva in August 2022. She received her BS in Cognitive Science from University of California, Santa Cruz in 2022. While there, Kameela was also a Research Assistant for campus labs studying learning, memory, and psychopathology. In her free time, Kameela likes to paint, play chess, and spend time in nature.
Isa Berzansky, MS \| Research Analyst \| Email Isa (she/her) joined CoRAL as a research analyst supporting projects on sexual and gender minority reproductive health and cancer disparities under Brittany Charlton. She completed her MS in epidemiology with a concentration in reproductive health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. During graduate school, she earned certificates in Women, Gender, & Health, and Maternal & Child Health and worked on research projects examining infertility, trans health, and incarceration during pregnancy.
Eunjae Benson, BA \| Research Assistant \| Email Eunjae (she/her) received her BS in Clinical Psychology with Criminology and Law minors from Belmont Abbey College in May of this year. While in college she was involved in a legal genomics research project studying admissibility of genomic information in criminal trials and also assisted with forensic and developmental psychology research as a behavior analyst. In her free time, she enjoys reading, painting, and cooking and hopes to pursue graduate school for epidemiology or clinical psychology in the future.
Luke Bernier, BA \| Research Assistant \| Email Luke Bernier joined CoRAL as a Research Assistant on Project Viva in August 2022. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the College of the Holy Cross. During his time at Holy Cross, he was able to start his research career by studying visual motion processing in animal species. In the future, Luke hopes to continue his education in psychology. Outside of work, he enjoys playing sports, practicing guitar, and attending concerts.
Nicole Bornkamp, BA, MPH \| Senior Project Manager, Data Science \| (617) 867-4803 \| Email Nicole Bornkamp joined CoRAL in 2019. She completed her BA from Princeton University and MPH from Columbia University. She oversees all aspects of research data for Project Viva, comprised of a portfolio of 14 grants ranging from large multi-year prime awards funding ongoing data collection to smaller extant data-only subcontracts. She is responsible for Project Viva’s data architecture and design, operational data management, the provision of cleaned data for internal and external researchers, data reporting, and data analysis.
Lauren Cleveland, MS, MPH \| Senior Project Manager \| (617) 867-4419 \| Email Lauren Cleveland is a Project Manager supporting chronic disease related studies and conducts research on obesity prevention policy. Lauren studied English at the University of New Hampshire and puts her undergrad degree to use as an editor for the Weighing in Blog and organizing CoRAL's book club. She received her MPH from Tufts School of Medicine, where she focused on health communication and her MS in food policy from Tufts Friedman School. Prior to HPHCI, she coordinated a longitudinal study for Dartmouth College's Geisel School of Medicine that investigated the impact of food marketing on young children.
Sarah Cohan, PMP \| Program Manager \| (857) 636-0904 \| Email Sarah joined the Project Viva team in June 2020. She was previously the Lab Manager for the Vision Sciences Lab in the Harvard Department of Psychology, collaborating on research exploring the spectrum of human face recognition abilities, and developing and validating online cognitive assessments. Following that she was a project and portfolio manager with the Football Players Health Study at Harvard Medical School, developing and managing studies of former NFL player behavioral and physical function. She received her BA in Theatrical Stage Management and Psychology from the University of Vermont, and is a certified Project Management Professional. Outside of HPHCI, she is the HR manager for Company One Theatre (www.CompanyOne.org), sings with the Boston Symphony, is a graduate student in Management with a focus on Organizational Behavior, bakes at www.TheSweeteryBoston.com, and loves playing with her baby boy, born in March 2020.
Caroline Collis, BA \| Senior Research Assistant \| Email Caroline joined CoRAL as a Research Assistant on Jason Block's team. She helps with data cleaning for Jason’s grants on nutrition policy and obesity research. She graduated from the Commonwealth Honors College at UMass Amherst in 2019 with a B.A. in Legal Studies. Prior to joining the Institute, Caroline was a marketing analyst, and most recently, a research assistant at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in cardiology research. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her friends, family, and pets, and playing competitive ultimate frisbee.
Julia D’Ambrosio, MPH \| Administrative/Project Specialist \| Email Julia joined CoRAL as an administrative/project specialist in May 2024. Prior to joining CoRAL, Julia conducted research to support the development and validation of clinical outcome assessments used in clinical trials. In this role, Julia conducted qualitative research and supported data collection and presentation to insert the patient voice into the drug development process. Julia received her MPH from Boston University, with a certificate in Community Assessment, Program Design, Implementation and Evaluation. She also has her BA in English from the College of the Holy Cross.
Susana Feldman \| Research Assistant \| Email Susana Feldman joined the ECHO team in the spring of 2024 as a Research Assistant. She received her B.A. from Amherst College, where she majored in sociology and psychology. At Amherst, she collaborated on multiple social impact research projects, including a police reform project. She also served on a diversity, equity, and inclusion board and taught at a local preschool. She is passionate about destigmatizing mental health and aspires to make lasting change in the mental health field.
Emily Goldsmith, BS, MA \| Project Manager \| Email Emily joined CoRAL in June 2020 as the Operations Project Manager for Project Viva. Previously, she worked for two global health organizations, Pathfinder International and Management Sciences for Health, where she managed reproductive health and maternal and child health programs. In addition, she managed community health projects while serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Togo. She holds an MA in Law and Diplomacy from Tufts University and a BS in Development Sociology from Cornell University. Outside of work, Emily enjoys hiking, running, skiing, and spending time with friends and family.
Kate Harvison, MSc \| Research Assistant \| Email Kate joined CoRAL as a Research Assistant on Project Viva. She completed her MSc in Biosocial Medical Anthropology from University College London in 2023, where for her dissertation she conducted research on pregnant women’s experiences using online forums to answer questions about their symptoms and seek social support. Prior to this, she received her BS in Biological Anthropology from George Washington University in 2022. In her free time Kate enjoys reading, choral singing, and baking.
Tabor Hoatson, MPH \| Research Analyst \| Email Tabor Hoatson (he/him) joined CoRAL in 2022 as a research analyst investigating sexual minority reproductive health and cancer outcome disparities under Dr. Brittany Charlton. He supports Dr. Charlton's team by operationalizing study proposals, performing statistical analyses, and contributing to manuscript preparation. Tabor received his BA with Honors in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Stanford University in 2020 and his MPH with a concentration in quantitative methods from Boston University School of Public Health in 2022.
Chelsea Jenter, MPH \| Director of Operations \| (617) 867-4984 \| Email Chelsea Jenter, MPH, works closely with Dr. Emily Oken and Dr. Jason Block to oversee the operations of CoRAL within the Department of Population Medicine. Ms. Jenter has managed many research projects, spanning from IT interventions to large-scale interventions to nation-wide consortia. Ms. Jenter received her AB from Smith College and her MPH in Health Policy and Management from Boston University. She has worked in the Department of Population Medicine twice: first in the early 2000s, and then again starting in 2011.
Pi-I (Debby) Lin, MS, ScD \| Research Scientist II \| Email Debby began as a research fellow in CoRAL in 2017. Her research uses population-level data to study the impact of environmental and chemical exposures on health outcome across the life-course. Her research had span across heavy metals (arsenic, lead, mercury, cadmium, manganese), phthalate, and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). One of her research specialty is to apply diet-wide association studies (DWAS) to evaluate the relationship between diet and chemical exposure. Using DWAS, she had uncover several previously unidentified dietary sources of exposure to PFAS and arsenic. Prior to joining the Department of Population Medicine, Debby earned a Doctoral of Science in Environmental and Occupational Molecular Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, a Master of Science in Epidemiology and Public Health at Kaohsiung Medical University and a Bachelor of Science in Genetics and Cell Biology from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Debby grew up in Taiwan and is of Amis and Hakka descent; her Indigenous name is Lapic Kalay. In her spare time, Debby enjoys cooking, biking, hiking, swimming and scuba diving.
Kathleen Lynch, BS \| Project Coordinator \| (617) 867-4954 \| Email Kathleen joined Project Viva in June 2017 as a Research Assistant. She received her BS in Public Health from Syracuse University in May 2016. At Syracuse, Kathleen was given many opportunities to engage in service learning, including an internship with the American Red Cross, in emergency preparedness. After college, she went on to serve as an AmeriCorps VISTA in Philadelphia. She is also a part-time graduate student at Boston University, working toward her Master's in Public Health.
Allison Nolan, MPH \| Project Manager \| Email Allison Nolan joined the CoRAl Division as the ECHO Project Manager. She received her BS from Cornell University and MPH from Boston University, where her focus was maternal and child health, as well as health policy. Prior to joining CoRAL, Allison was a research coordinator at Tufts Medical Center. In this role, she coordinated multiple clinical trials within the newborn medicine department, as well as a longitudinal ECHO cohort. She joins HPHCI as the Project Manager of a new ECHO birth cohort (PI: Emily Oken), in collaboration with BIDMC.
Marleny Ortega, MPH \| Project Manager \| (617) 867-4918 \| Email Marleny joined Project Viva in September 2012 as a Research Assistant/Phlebotomist. She received her BA in Psychology/Child and Adolescent Development from Southern New Hampshire University and her MPH in 2019 from the same school. Prior to joining the Viva team, Marleny was a data collector at New England Research Institutes. In her free time, she enjoys reading, spending time with her family, and traveling.
Banapsha Rahman, MPH \| Project Coordinator \| Email Banapsha joined CoRAL as a Project Coordinator in February 2024. She has extensive experience working in government and public service, including the New York State Assembly. Most recently, Banapsha was a Graduate Research Assistant at the Harvard Prevention Research Center, where she conducted research on the cost-effectiveness of improved childhood nutrition and physical activity. Banapsha received her BA in Political Science from John Jay College of Criminal Justice and her MPH in Nutrition from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Outside of work, Banapsha enjoys cooking, traveling, and dog sitting.
Priscilla Ramirez, BS \| Project Coordinator \| Email Priscilla joined CoRAL as a Project Coordinator. She obtained her BS in Exercise Science from Rutgers University in 2019. She has had the opportunity to work in research in the fields of maternal-fetal medicine and cancer survivorship. She is currently working towards her MPH at Boston University and has joined CoRAL to support the startup of the Institute’s new Center of Excellence in Maternal Health.
Sheryl Rifas-Shiman, MPH \| Senior Research Associate \| (617) 867-4824 \| Email Sheryl L. Rifas-Shiman, MPH, is a senior research analyst/biostatistician in the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute. She is involved with many projects at the DPM including observational epidemiology, surveillance, and randomized interventions. Her research interests include nutrition and other exposures that occur during pregnancy and childhood, and the influence of these experiences on the health of both mother and child. Sheryl has led several analyses in the area of research methodology and predictors of childhood obesity. As an educator, she has advised many research fellows and graduate/medical students on their research projects.
Yoselin Rios-Saldivar, BA \| Research Assistant \| Email Yoselin joined CoRAL as a Research Assistant on the ECHO team in June 2024. She graduated from Smith College with a B.A. in Psychology. At Smith, Yoselin was involved in research exploring the intersections of society, psychology, and health, reflecting her strong interest in language and health equity. In her free time, she enjoys exploring new places, crocheting, and spending time with family and friends.
Nicole Santino, MA \| Research Assistant \| Email Nicole joined Project Viva as a Research Assistant in January 2024. She received her bachelor's in Psychology from the University of Rhode Island and received her Master’s in Psychology at Southern Connecticut State University, where she completed her master’s thesis researching vagus nerve stimulation music and its effectiveness in reducing PTSD symptoms. In her free time, Nicole enjoys reading, hiking, running, and skiing, and she hopes to continue her education in Clinical Psychology in the future.
Melissa Sidote \| Research Analyst \| Email Melissa joined Coral in June 2021 working with the Project Viva Data Science Team. She received her MPH at the University of Miami, where she also worked as a Research Assistant. Melissa contributes to all data management and analysis work for the Project Viva Data Science Team. She primarily oversees the portfolio of ECHO data work, focuses on streamlining internal data management and processing, creates new database systems and processes, performs programming tasks for data management and operations, trains new data science team members, and contributes as needed to individual data analysis projects.
Denise Simon, MPH \| Sr. Project Manager \| (617) 867-4905 \| Email Denise Simon, MPH, is a Sr. Project Manager in the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute. After receiving a BS in Health Science from Boston University, she went on to earn her MPH from Boston University School of Public Health with a concentration in Maternal and Child Health. Her research experience has involved research study design, data collection, and project oversight of epidemiologic research studies. She also participates in budgetary preparations for research grant proposals and ongoing financial monitoring for funded projects. Her interests include maternal and child health, wellness, healthcare policy, and community health education.
Eliza Stuart, BS/BA \| Research Assistant, Data Science \| Email Eliza joined CoRAL in June 2022 working with the Project Viva Data Science Team. She recently completed her BS/BA in Public Health and Geography at the University of Miami, where she was also working as a Research Assistant. Eliza support data management work of the Project Viva Data Science Team, including data cleaning, creation and preparation of relevant datasets, querying existing data to be used for the various grants and grant partners, managing data import and export as relates to the grants, and synthesizing relevant data for presentation as needed to internal and external collaborators.
Karen Switkowski, PhD, MPH \| Research Scientist \| (617) 867-4218 \| Email Karen Switkowski, PhD, MPH, is a Research Scientist in the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute. Her background is in nutrition science and epidemiology, and she is primarily interested in researching associations of early-life nutrition, including maternal diet and nutritional status during pregnancy and infant and child nutrition, with child health outcomes. Dr. Switkowski works primarily on Project Viva, a longitudinal study of mother-child pairs. She was the Project Viva Project Manager from 2012-2016, and before coming to DPM, she worked as an Epidemiologist at the Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute. Dr. Switkowski received her PhD in Nutritional Epidemiology and MS in Biochemical and Molecular Nutrition from the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, as well as an MPH in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the Tufts School of Medicine, Public Health and Professional Degree Programs.
Szilvia Szegedi, BA \| Project Manager \| (617) 867-4879 \| Email Szilvia joined CoRAL in January of 2014. She is currently a Project Manager focusing on pre-award research administration while also providing support for Drs. Emily Oken and Jason Block. She also oversees the CoRAL administrative team and the division’s communications efforts. Szilvia earned her BA in Communications from Boston College, where she also played Division I varsity tennis for 4 years. Prior to joining CoRAL, she worked as a marketing manager focused on increasing diversity and multiculturalism in the non-profit hospitality industry. When she’s not running, reading, or cooking, she spends most of her free time with her husband and their two young sons.
Jeff Verly, MSF \| Senior Financial Analyst \| Email Jeff joined CoRAL as a Financial Analyst for the Project Viva team. Jeff brings knowledge and experience from both non-profit and for-profit financial institutions. During the summer of 2019, Jeff was an Internal Audit Intern with Harvard Pilgrim Health Care corporate in Quincy, MA. Jeff received his Bachelor's from Lasell College and his Master of Science in Finance from UMass Boston.
Chamaine Washington, MPH \| Project Coordinator \| Email Chamaine joined CoRAL as a Project Coordinator in October 2022. She provides administrative support for Izzuddin Aris, Marie-France Hivert, and Peter James, and also manages many of Peter James' projects. Before joining CoRAL, she worked within TIDE as both an Administrative/Project Specialist and a Project Coordinator, supporting analytic timeline management and data coordination for numerous projects within the Infectious Diseases portfolio. Chamaine received her BS in Environmental Science from the University of Massachusetts Boston and earned her MPH in 2022 from the University of New England.
Yutong Zhang, MS \| Associate Research Analyst \| Email Yutong’s primary work focuses on the Project Viva data, supporting projects across multiple grants and investigators. She mainly works on data management, processing survey data, and generating preliminary results. Before joining the team, Yutong completed her MS in Nutrition from Tufts University, focusing on nutritional epidemiology and disease analysis.