2005-2006 H. Jack Geiger Congressional Health Policy Fellows
Lisa Cacari-Stone, Ph.D.Scholar in Health Disparities
Harvard School of Public Health
Dr. Lisa Cacari Stone is an Alonzo Yerby Public Health Fellow and WK Kellogg Scholar in Health Disparities Research at the Harvard School of Public Health in the Department of Society, Human Development and Health.
In 2005, Dr. Cacari Stone served as an H. Jack Geiger Congressional Health Policy Fellow for Senator Edward M. Kennedy with the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions working on public health legislation including the reauthorizations of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act and Community Health Centers Act and other health disparities elimination policies including the Healthcare Equality and Accountability Act, Hispanic Health, and Cultural and Linguistic Health Care Access. Previously, she was Health Policy Visiting Faculty with the Department of Family and Community Medicine, School of Medicine and the Political Science Department at the University of New Mexico (UNM).
Dr. Cacari-Stone, a member of the National Hispanic Science Network, was a national recipient of the WK Kellogg Doctoral Fellowship in Health Policy Research (1999-2004) and graduate of The Heller School of Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University (2004). Her research interests include: impact of public policies on health disparities (i.e. immigration, Medicaid, welfare reform, Title VI-language access); HIV and substance abuse prevention including environmental policy strategies; and mental health and primary care access for underserved communities in the Southwest.
Currently, she is collecting data for “Monitoring and Evaluating the Effectiveness of Alcohol Policies to Reduce Underage Drinking among Border Youth” (#U01-AA0149626, NIAAA). From 2001-2005 she was co-investigator to the community outreach component of the “Southwest Alcohol Research Group”, which is funded by NIAAA to address alcohol problem disparities in American Indian and Latino/a populations.
Emily S. Ihara, Ph.D.Assistant Professor
George Mason University
Dr. Emily S. Ihara is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Social Work, George Mason University. She began this tenure-track position in the fall of 2006. Previously, Dr. Ihara was the H. Jack Geiger Congressional Fellow in the office of Congressman Mike Honda (D-CA-15) and for the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC).
She provides legislative assistance for issues related to racial and ethnic health disparities, health care, women, seniors, Medicare, Social Security for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, welfare, and housing.
Prior to her work on Capitol Hill, Dr. Ihara was a Research Associate at the Center on an Aging Society at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute where she focused on access to health and long-term care services, particularly for underserved and low-income populations. Dr. Ihara, a recipient of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Doctoral Fellowship in Health Policy (1999-2004) and the Okura Mental Health Leadership Foundation Fellowship (2000), has also worked as a researcher and policy analyst for various agencies, including the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Schneider Institute for Health Policy at Brandeis University, and the Executive Office of Health and Human Services in Massachusetts.
She brings her extensive clinical experience as a social worker to children, adolescents, and adults with trauma, health, and mental health issues to her understanding of research and policy. Dr. Ihara has authored articles on racial and ethnic minorities, work and chronic conditions, cultural competence in health care, child and adolescent mental health services, health insurance for older populations with chronic conditions, prescription drugs, and other topics.
Dr. Ihara is a graduate of UC Berkeley (A.B.), UCLA (M.S.W.), and The Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University (Ph.D., M.A.).
Natasha Williams, Ph.D., J.D., M.P.H.Senior Researcher, National Center for Primary Care
Morehouse School of Medicine
Dr. Natasha H. Williams is a Senior Researcher at Community Voices at the National Center for Primary Care at Morehouse School of Medicine. Dr. Williams received her Ph.D. from Brandeis University in Social Policy in May 2003.
She served as the A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. Research Fellow in Social Justice at Harvard Law School, a National Institutes of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism trainee at the Heller Graduate School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, a postdoctoral fellow in urban health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a H. Jack Geiger Congressional Fellow in Health Policy in the office of Congresswoman Donna M. Christensen, Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Health Braintrust.
Dr. Williams received her Masters of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 1995, her Juris Doctor from George Mason School of Law in 1994 and her Bachelor of Science in medical technology from the University of Maryland at Baltimore in 1990. Her research focuses on the intersection of law, public health and social policy in the areas of on men’s health, prison health, prisoner reentry and health disparities.
