School of Arts and Sciences
Department of Community Health

Faculty

Faculty

Core Faculty

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John Fu

Professor and Department Chair of Community Health
Categorical data analysis, survival data analysis, longitudinal data analysis, latent variable analysis, smoking behavior, substance abuse, major depression, disparity in financial access
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Leah Abrams

Assistant Professor
Social epidemiology, health policy, population aging, work/retirement, mortality trends, mental health
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Talha Ali

Assistant Professor
structural racism and racial/ethnic health disparities across the lifespan social support networks of older adults caregiving and dementia social determinants of healthy aging dyadic analysis
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Jennifer Allen

Professor
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Benjamin Chrisinger

Assistant Professor
Food access, environments, and security; Welfare; Built environment and health; Citizen science; American Medical Directories
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Alexandra Collins

Assistant Professor
substance use; harm reduction; housing; built environment and health; space-based stigma; gender and drug use; qualitative methods
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Karen Kosinski

Senior Lecturer
Infectious diseases, global health, One Health, schistosomiasis, water infrastructure
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Keren Ladin

Associate Professor
Health equity, health services research, decision-making, and bioethics
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Amy Lischko

Professor of the Practice
State health policy, consumer engagement in health care choices, Medicaid policy, health policy synthesis
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Elizabeth Marfeo

Associate Professor
Health outcomes measurement development, work disability, productive aging, health policy
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Shalini Tendulkar

Senior Lecturer
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Liana Woskie

Assistant Professor
Reproductive Policy, Health System Performance, Health Economics, Healthcare Quality

Affiliate Faculty

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Aerielle Allen

Assistant Professor
Social Processes, Intergroup Relations, Psychology of Racism and Social Equity
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Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha

Assistant Dean for Diversity and Inclusion and Julia A. Okoro Professor of Black Maternal Health
Currently, I am an Associate Professor within the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine at Tufts University. Additionally, I am the Principal Investigator of an NIMHD R01 (1R01MD016026-01) study entitled "Reducing Racial Disparities in SMM Post COVID19: Assessing the integration of maternal safety bundles and community based doulas to improve outcomes for Black women" Given my extensive training in community-driven participatory research, health disparities, maternal and child health, and qualitative methods, my participation in the BIRCWH Program as a mentor with a focus on health disparities will be an opportunity to further expand my expertise. For the past 15 years, I have worked successfully in communities of color on issues including advancing the understanding, prevention, and reduction of maternal mortality or morbidity among racial and ethnic minority women and socioeconomically disadvantaged women. I have spent substantial time building community-researcher relationships in urban communities, providing technical assistance, and serving as a member of various community-based organizations. Previously, as a recipient of an NIMH training grant, I served as the PI of a pilot study that focused on mother-daughter communication in HIV+ African American women. The pilot study, Project DASH (DIVAS Against the Study of HIV/AIDS) is a dyadic study that explores HIV risk for daughters with HIV+ mothers. This mixed methods pilot study utilized individual interviews and a quantitative survey to examine the quality and context of the mother/daughter relationship as a predictor of sexual behavior and HIV risk in the daughter.
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Virginia Chomitz

Associate Professor
My work is centered on solutions-oriented research that leverages community goals and assets to respond to priority public health issues .I have 20-plus years of experience in community-engaged and school-based research in obesity prevention, healthy eating and physical activity promotion in the cities of Boston, Cambridge, Somerville and other cities and neighborhoods in Massachusetts. Examples of my active living research include assessing the impact of school physical education and physical activity programming on PA and obesity. Examples of healthy eating research include assessing the impact of school-based food service, gardening, farm-to-school, and curricular interventions on healthy eating and obesity. My dissemination activities have focused on bringing study results to the community through reports and presentations for use in rapid quality improvement cycles. My peer-reviewed publications reflect the pragmatic research and evaluation approach I have taken to contributing to community health improvement. My current research focuses on incorporating social determinants into promoting healthy eating and phys activity and ensuring the equitable reach and relevance of interventions for vulnerable populations. I am an active member of the Addressing Disparities in Asian Populations through Translational Research (ADAPT), a coalition of researchers and community agency leads dedicated to health equity and community health improvement in Boston Chinatown. Through this community-engagement, I am conducting research on Chinese children's healthy eating and physical activity in child-care and dental-clinic settings, as well as a study assessing relationships of health and housing conditions with residents who have recently moved to affordable housing units in Boston Chinatown. I am currently engaged with Shape Up Somerville to conduct a food system assessment designed to inform policies and programs to support healthy eating in that city. These studies set the stage for externally funded longitudinal research trials and for informing local programming and policies to address health disparities.
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Laura Corlin

Associate Professor
Dr. Corlin is an environmental epidemiologist who develops and applies cutting-edge epidemiological and exposure assessment methods to characterize and mitigate the health effects of exposure to environmental toxicants among vulnerable populations.
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David Gute

Professor
environmental and occupational epidemiology, environmental health and safety
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Shayesteh Jahanfar

Professor
Dr. Jahanfar is a reproductive epidemiologist with a grounding in public health and biostatistics. Her research focuses on reproductive health, maternal-child health, and genetic versus environment studies. She has worked with several twin studies in Australia, Malaysia, Canada, and the USA. Her research interests are reproductive health, maternal-child health, global health, HIV/AIDS, opioid use, and twin studies. She is working on WHO-funded projects related to reasons for Cesarean sections, family planning, and assisted vaginal birth. As a Cochrane trainer, reviewer, author, and current Director of the Cochrane Affiliate at Tufts with US Network, she is keen to connect Tufts with the Cochrane Collaboration. She is also the co-director of the Pregnancy and Childbirth US Satellite with Cochrane. She actively seeks interested students and researchers to collaborate on Cochrane's work, twin studies, and reproductive health research projects. Dr. Jahanfar is working with Maternal and Perinatal Health, Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research, World Health Organization.
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Daniele Lantagne

Research Professor
water, sanitation, hygiene, infectious diseases, developing countries, emergencies
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Melissa McInerney

Professor
Public Economics, Health Economics, Labor Economics, and Applied Microeconomics
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Amy Millay

Distinguished Senior Lecturer
Twentieth-Century Latin American literature; Oral tradition; Testimonial literature; Health in the Spanish-speaking world
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Elena Naumova

Professor
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Thomas Stopka

Professor
Dr. Stopka's current research focuses on the intersection of opioid use disorder, overdose, and infectious diseases (HCV, HIV, STIs, COVID-19). He employs GIS, spatial epidemiological, qualitative, biostatistical, and laboratory approaches in multi-site, interdisciplinary studies and public health interventions. He currently leads and contributes to clinical trials and observational studies funded by the NIH, CDC, and SAMHSA to assess the effectiveness of a mobile, telemedicine-based HCV treatment and harm reduction model for rural opioid users in Northern New England, to reduce opioid overdose deaths by 40% in Massachusetts, and to evaluate the overdose prevention impacts of administration of medication for opioid use disorder in houses of correction. Dr. Stopka is also Co-PI of the Tufts research priority group focused on equity in health, wealth, and civic engagement. He teaches courses in GIS and spatial epidemiology, research methods for public health, and epidemiology. He enjoys mentoring research assistants, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty in ongoing research studies and collaborative publications.
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Helen Suh

Professor
Environmental health, environmental epidemiology, air pollution, exposure science, data analytics
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Rosemary CR Taylor

Associate Professor
The response of societies and their governments to cross-border health threats; social theory and the development of sociological approaches to political problems: eg. the 'new institutionalism' in sociology and political science; the impact of cultural frameworks and social institutions on population health; the comparative historical study of epidemics; the generation and international transfer of scientific knowledge; risk regulation in the face of scientific uncertainty and globalization.

Part-time Faculty

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Jennifer Mandelbaum

Lecturer