Sawsan Abdulrahim,
Ph.D.,
completed a BA degree in Genetics from the University of California, Berkeley,
and
an M.P.H. in Epidemiology from San Diego State
University. She pursued her Ph.D. in Health Behavior/Health Education at
the University of Michigan School of Public Health, where she focused her research
on immigrant health and the psychological stress of acculturation. She was
also a Graduate Teaching Instructor in the Women’s Studies Department
at Michigan. The title of her dissertation is “Racial Identification,
Social Mobility and Health Among Arab Immigrant Entrepreneurs in Dearborn
and Detroit.” Prior to beginning her doctoral training, Ms. Abdulrahim
worked for two years as project coordinator for the Arab Community Center
for Economic
and Social Services in Dearborn, Michigan, where she combined community service
and advocacy work.
She volunteered at the
Health, Development, Information and Policy Institute, a health NGO in Palestine,
during the summer of 1999.
An immigrant and a Palestinian refugee, Abdulrahim is the recipient of
the 1999 student activist award from the Arab American Anti Discrimination
Committee,
and is a steering committee member of an active web-based organization
advocating for the right of return of Palestinian refugees to their homeland.
Dr. Abdulrahim was a Kellogg Fellow at the University of Michigan. She is
currently a postdoctoral researcher at American University of Beirut.
Lisa Cacari Stone,
Ph.D., is an H. Jack Geiger Congressional Health Policy
Fellow with Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Committee on Health, Education, Labor
and Pensions. Prior to working on the Hill, she was a Health Policy Visiting
Faculty with the Department of Family and Community Medicine, School of Medicine
at the University of New Mexico (UNM).
Dr. Cacari Stone was a Kellogg Fellow at Brandeis University and her research
interests include: health disparities; HIV and substance abuse prevention;
binational health policies and networks between the U.S. and Mexico; role of
immigration and social policies in determining health status; and mental health
and primary care access for uninsured populations in the Southwest.
Her topic areas of expertise include: Latino health care disparities; long-term
care; immigrant health access and health care financing; Medicaid, Welfare
Reform and Immigration Reform (as it affect health delivery and access for
Latino immigrants in the U.S.); HIV prevention and Latino leadership; substance
abuse policies to address border youth drinking; and mental health in rural
states.
After her Geiger Fellowship, Dr. Cacari Stone will begin a two year postdoctoral
Fellowship at Harvard School of Public Health, supported jointly by the W.K.
Kellogg Scholars in Health Disparities Program and the Harvard Yerby Fellowship
Program.
Shawn Henderson,
Ph.D.,
received her doctorate from the University of Michigan School of Public Health.
Dr.
Henderson is graduated with a BA in Public Policy
from Brown University. She was awarded the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship in Public
Policy. Dr. Henderson received a Rackham Merit Fellowship from the University
of Michigan. She was the founder and director of the Young Women’s Health
Collective and served as Research Associate at American Practice Management
Health Care Consulting, both located in Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Henderson, who
is African-American, has focused her research on race and gender as they pertain
to the health care workforce. In lieu of a dissertation, she wrote a series
of three papers: “Predictors of Change in the Self-Perceived Health of
African-American Men and Women”; “Self-Perceptions of Health Status
as a Predictor of Prevalence of Chronic Health Conditions”; and “Factors
Predicting Previously Unaware, Untreated African-American Hypertensives in
1988 that are Untreated in 2002.”
Pedro Rafael Hernandez,
Ph.D., received dual doctorates in Public Health and Sociology from Brandeis
University.
Dr. Hernandez received a MS in Applied
Social Research from Hunter College/CUNY, where he also completed undergraduate
study in Sociology and Latin American Studies. He was awarded the 1991 Ruth
Weintraub Graduate Fellowship and Lily D. Mage Research Award. While pursuing
his doctorate, Hernandez also served as a Senior Research Associate for QualiData
Research, Inc. and as Editor of Healthy Outlook, published by the Division
of Health, Health Policy and Services of the Society for the Study of Social
Problems. He has held research posts with the Family and Children Policy Center,
Heller Graduate School, Brandeis University and the Division of Research and
Evaluation, Medical and Health Research Association of New York City, Inc.
He is the recipient of the American Sociological Association’s National
Institute of Mental Health Fellowship. Dr. Hernandez’s dissertation is
titled, “Methodological, Conceptual and Policy Limitations of the Uncritical
Use of Race and Ethnicity in Medical Research.”
Emily S. Ihara,
Ph.D.,
is 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. Specific projects included national
surveys of Medicaid home and community-based services, personal care services,
and enrollment simplification; issue briefs on health literacy, cultural competence,
and chronic conditions; and incremental reform of long-term care financing
and organization. She also has experience with quantitative data analysis using
state and national databases, such as the California Health Interview Survey
(CHIS), the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), the National Health Interview
Survey (NHIS), and the Health and Retirement Survey (HRS). She 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.).
Her dissertation research was titled, “Ethnicity matters: Socioeconomic
position and health among Asian American ethnic groups.” Her research
interests include: social and economic determinants of health; and mental health
inequalities for racial and ethnic minorities and vulnerable populations. Her
topic areas of expertise are: health and mental health policy; race/ethnicity
and socioeconomic position; Medicaid; and long-term care. Dr. Ihara was a Kellogg Fellow at Brandeis University.
Julie Martinez
Ortega, Ph.D., J.D. completed her jurist doctor degree from the University of California,
Los
Angeles in 1995, after graduating with a
B.S. in Human Biology, with concentration in Health Policy, at Stanford University
and received her doctoral degree from Brandeis University. After completing
her legal studies, Martinez worked as a Research Assistant at the RAND Institute.
Dr. Martinez Ortega is Mexican American. Her dissertation was entitled, “The
Impact of Individual and Familial Attributes, County-Level Social Context,
and State Health Policy on Mexican American Children’s Health Insurance
Enrollment.” In addition to having held teaching assistantships at Brandeis
and Tufts University, Dr. Martinez Ortega has served as a Research Analyst
at Paul Dryfoos Consulting Services and as a Civil Litigation Associate with
the Los Angeles-Based firm of Hadsell & Stromer, Inc. The recipient of
an Agency for Health Care Policy and Research Doctoral Fellowship, she has
served as a Kerr White Scholar doing research on the differential impact of
health insurance expansion by race.
Jay Allen Pearson,
Ph.D.,
received his doctoral degree from University of Michigan School of Public
Health.
He received his M.S. degree in Public Health
from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Dr. Pearson completed his
baccalaureate studies at North Carolina Central University majoring in Community
Health Education. Prior to receiving his Ph.D., Dr. Pearson worked in a number
of public health-related arenas as: Outreach Program Coordinator and Migrant
Health Educator for Farm Worker Health Services, Inc.; Project Evaluator at
North Carolina Community Based Public Health Initiative; and as a Child Survival
Health Specialist, United States Peace Corps. Previously, he was an Instructor/Project
Director, Safe Homes Pesticide Safety Project, North Carolina Central University.
During his academic career, Dr. Pearson was recognized with the Minority Merit
Assistantship by the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, the Chancellor’s
Scholarship at North Carolina Central University, and with the US Air Force
ROTC Scholarship. His doctoral research focused on issues of race, ethnicity,
class and communication as they relate to access to health care. The topic
of his dissertation was on “the influence of social and economic status
on health for ethnically and racially diverse populations.”
Edna Viruell-Fuentes,
Ph.D., received her Ph.D. from the University Of Michigan School of Public
Health in Health
Behavior and Health Education. Dr. Viruell-Fuentes
received her bachelor’s degree in mathematics and psychology from Berea
College. She received her MPH from the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill School of Public Health.
Dr. Viruell-Fuentes was
a W.K. Kellogg Fellow in Health Policy Research and a Ford-MacArthur pre
doctoral fellow. Dr. Viruell-Fuentes’ research interests
include how gender, race/ethnicity, immigrant status and local and transnational
social networks contribute to health status. She is also interested in researching
how discrimination might impact the health of Latino/a immigrants and their
children.
Dr. Viruell-Fuentes is currently at the Harvard University site of the Scholars
in Health Disparities program. Her scholarship is funded through the W.K.
Kellogg Foundation and the Harvard Yerby Fellowship program.
