2021 Alumni News

Susan Addiss, M.P.H. ’69, former commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Public Health and Addiction Services, was interviewed by BBC World News in March 2021 to discuss the new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance for vaccinated Americans.

Gregory Belok, D.D.S., M.P.H. ’74, announced that his son, Hal Michael Belok, D.D.S., has joined his multispecialty group dental practice in Manhattan, two blocks from the Yale Club, after completing his chief residency at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx. The practice concentrates on evidence-based restorative and cosmetic dentistry for adults and children.

Monica Brase, Ed.D., M.P.H. ’98, alternative education science teacher at Windsor (Connecticut) High School, was honored as educator of the year by the Windsor Board of Education in June 2021. During the school year, Brase had to be creative in finding new ways to engage and connect with students while dealing with the challenge of teaching virtually. She sometimes traveled to her students’ homes or reached out to them over the phone to mentor them individually.

Patrick Byam, M.P.H. ’08, is now the director of the Safe and Healthy Schools Branch at the Ministry of Education in the Canadian province of Ontario.

Javier Cepeda, Ph.D., M.P.H. ’10, has been appointed as a Bloomberg Assistant Professor of American Health in the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Cepeda is also the B. Frank and Kathleen Polk Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Bloomberg School. His research interests include understanding how punitive drug policies can increase the risk of overdose, and HIV and hepatitis C virus transmission. His research also focuses on evaluating the facilitators and barriers to accessing harm reduction and treatment services among people who inject drugs and examining the trajectories of substance use, infectious disease and comorbidities among this population. Cepeda’s work also involves informing policy to help make evidence-based decisions as they relate to reducing the harms and disparities in care among people who inject drugs.

Kirsty Clark, M.P.H. ’16, has accepted a tenure-track assistant professor position in the Department of Medicine, Health and Society and Public Policy Studies at Vanderbilt University. She is working toward mental health equity for stigmatized populations.

Cara Donovan Mitchell, M.P.H. ’18, joined Farm Fresh Rhode Island, the largest winter farmer’s market in New England, in November 2020 as its Food Access program director. She is responsible for the oversight of all Farm Fresh RI Farmers Market and Food Access programs. Farm Fresh RI programming includes efforts to increase the affordability and availability of fresh, local foods for all residents of Rhode Island.

Alina Engelman, Dr.P.H., M.P.H. ’07, received tenure and promotion to associate professor of public health at California State University, East Bay. She also received a campuswide Outstanding Researcher Award. An article about COVID-19 and food insecurity in the deaf community in Public Health Reports for which she was the lead author was tweeted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as part of its daily credible health and safety updates.

Aliyar Fouladkhah, Ph.D., M.P.H. ’14, and Minoo Bagheri, a Harvard-trained nutritionist, were married in September 2020. It was a busy year for Fouladkhah, as he received tenure and promotion to associate professor at Tennessee State University. In addition, he held public health programs in Guatemala and South Africa.

Byron Kennedy, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H. ’01, medical director for the Connecticut Department of Correction, and two colleagues wrote a letter to the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine that was published in November 2020. The letter, “Risk Factors for SARS-CoV-2 in a Statewide Correctional System,” explored the data on SARS-CoV-2 infection and outcomes in correctional facilities.

Luis Maldonado-Vasquez, M.P.H. ’15, accepted a postdoctoral fellowship in October 2020 at the University of Washington’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle to publish findings related to diet and exercise among U.S. Hispanics/Latinos, focused more broadly on cancer prevention and survivorship.

John Ndikum, M.P.H. ’18, has been busy consolidating much of his work for the upcoming publication of two books, Intelligence of the Heart and Precision Living Breakthrough. Another book, Excellent While You, was published in 2020.

Patricia Nez Henderson, M.D., M.P.H. ’94, was recently elected president of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT), an international research organization whose primary goal is to promote the science of commercial tobacco and nicotine. She is the organization’s first Indigenous president. Under the auspices of the Black Hills Center for American Indian Health, she has become one of the leading authorities on commercial tobacco research in Native American communities. Her work in this field has effectively focused on incorporating tribal values and customs of living in harmony as it pertains to smoke-free environment and the use of ceremonial tobacco with Western evidence-based protocols, technology and science.

Nirmal (Nim) Patel, M.D., M.P.H. ’95, was named senior vice president of care transformation at TimelyMD. In this role, she focuses on population health, optimizing quality of care and tailoring measures of success for campuses. Patel has created first-of-its-kind telehealth solutions focused on primary care, dermatology and behavioral health, while using data to show success. She developed a unique approach to quality and value measurement for the largest telemedicine platform in the United States to facilitate improved outcomes.

Natalie (Pospolita) Silverstein, M.P.H. ’96, published her first book, Simple Acts: The Busy Family’s Guide to Giving Back, in 2019. Silverstein, the New York area coordinator of Doing Good Together, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit, is a writer, speaker and consultant on the topics of family and youth service. Her second book, Simple Acts: The Busy Teen’s Guide to Giving Back, will be published in early 2022.

Ryan Saadi, M.D., M.P.H. ’95, chairman and CEO of Tevogen Bio, announced that the company has finalized the design of its state-of-the-art, eco-friendly headquarters in New Jersey. The 160,000-square-foot facility will serve as the hub for the company’s research and development, manufacturing and distribution of its investigational T-cell therapies for COVID-19, other viral infections and oncology, and will bring nearly 1,800 life sciences jobs to New Jersey.

Michael S. Siclari, M.D., M.P.H. ’78, participated in the Moderna vaccine trials at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Providence, Rhode Island, in February 2021. He was actively involved in the facility’s response (in the emergency department, a COVID-19 zone), as well as at Community Health in Central Falls, the town that had Rhode Island’s highest positive COVID-19 percentage, and testing the Rhode Island Disaster Medical Assistance Team. Once vaccines became available, he was involved in the state’s vaccine rollout at one of the points of distribution. An interesting piece of history: Siclari was presented his Yale M.P.H. degree and Dartmouth Medical School degree by the same person, Robert McCollum, M.D.

Pavita Singh, M.P.H. ’14, published her first poetry book in spring 2021: To All the Magic in Me: A Collection of Love Letters to All of Life’s Emotions.

Jeremy Steglitz, Ph.D., M.P.H. ’11, launched his own practice in November 2020: Jeremy Steglitz Psychotherapy LLC in Washington, D.C.

Panagiotis Vagenas, Ph.D., M.P.H. ’11, started a new position as research development specialist at San Jose State University in June 2020.

Kimberly Vasquez, M.P.H. ’15, joined the Yale School of Medicine as a multicenter project manager in January 2021.

Leon F. Vinci, D.H.A., M.P.H. ’77, was presented the 2020 A. Clark Slaymaker Honor by the Virginia Environmental Health Association during its Fall Educational Conference for outstanding contributions to the environmental health profession and environmental health programs across the state. During this meeting, he was elected as a vice president of the VEHA. Vinci is also an ecoAmerica-designated world climate and health leader and a national climate ambassador with the National Environmental Health Association.

Myrna Weissman, Ph.D. ’74, was awarded the 2020 Pardes Humanitarian Prize in Mental Health by the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation for her transformative work in the mental health care of dis-advantaged people suffering from depression. Weissman is Diane Goldman Kemper Family Professor of Epidemiology in Psychiatry at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, and chief of the Division of Epidemiology at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. With Gerald Klerman, M.D., she developed interpersonal psycho-therapy, which addresses depression associated with disruption of attachments due to grief, disputes, transitions or loneliness. Weissman also adapted IPT for African

and Muslim countries and donated the copyright to the World Health Organization. She actively contributes to Strong Minds, a humanitarian effort, providing IPT to more than 70,000 depressed, impoverished women in Uganda and Zambia. This effort has received a number of major international awards. Weissman also participates in PRIDE SSA, which is funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, to improve mental health services in Mozambique.

Tiara C. Willie, Ph.D. ’18, was appointed as a Bloomberg Assistant Professor of American Health in the Department of Mental Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in September 2020. She is a social epidemiologist examining the etiology and health consequences of gender-based violence among populations experiencing, or at risk of, violence, both domestically and globally. Her research investigates determinants of victimization and perpetration at the individual, relationship, community and societal levels in order to develop primary interventions. She aims to better understand mechanisms linking victimization and poor mental, sexual and reproductive health.

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