Celebrating our school's leaders in public health
Dr. Bhramar Mukherjee, PhD, the Anna M.R. Lauder Professor of Biostatistics and senior associate dean of public health data science and data equity, has been chosen as the 2025 president-elect of the Eastern North American Region (ENAR) of the International Biometrics Society, one of the largest and most impactful professional statistics and biostatistics societies. The society advances biological science through the development of quantitative theories and the application, development, and dissemination of effective mathematical and statistical techniques.
Mukherjee also is the President’s Invited Speaker for the 65th ISI World Statistics Congress 2025. She “is renowned for her work in integrating genetic, environmental, and health data. With over 390 publications and numerous awards, including election to the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, she brings invaluable expertise to our conference,” the ISI announcement reads.
Dean Megan l. Ranney, MD, MPH, was honored as one of 50 individuals and companies driving advances in medicine, fostering innovation, and shaping the future of biopharma and health care. The honor was bestowed by Fierce Life Sciences and Fierce Healthcare, which named Ranney one of their Fierce 50 health leaders for 2024. The Fierce family of online publications covers business and policy news in a broad range of health-related industries through such online outlets as Fierce Pharma, Fierce Biotech, Fierce Hospitals, Fierce Health Finance, and others. Ranney was honored in the Social Impact category for her leadership, research, and advocacy in working to prevent firearm injuries.
YSPH Digital and Social Media Strategist Kayla Steinberg is the recipient of the 2024 YSPH Staff Award for Outstanding Service. The Workplace Survey Committee’s Staff Award Selection Subcommittee was particularly impressed by the praise Steinberg received for her “creativity, knowledge of public health, and mastery of social and digital media to deliver important, engaging, and timely health information to the public.”
Dr. Daniel Carrión, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of epidemiology (Environmental Health), was recently chosen to be the Climate and Health Scholar for the National Institute of Minority Health Disparities for 2024–2025. The National Institutes of Health’s Climate and Health Scholars Program was established in 2023 to help build climate and health research capacity at the NIH. The purpose of the program is to support NIH institutes, centers, and offices in developing a stronger base of climate and health knowledge.
Associate Professor of Public Health (Health Policy) Dr. Jacob Wallace, PhD, served as co-author of a paper entitled “Conditional Cross-Design Synthesis Estimates for Generalizability in Medicaid,” which won the Outstanding Statistical Application Award from the American Statistical Association. The paper was also honored with the American Society ofHealth Economists’ 2024 Willard G. Manning Memorial Award for Best Research in Health Econometrics. The paper was published in the journal Biometrics in December 2023. The awards are in recognition of his study on the casual effects of managed care plans on the cost and quality of care.
Dr. Ijeoma Opara, PhD, MPH, associate professor of public health (Social and Behavioral Sciences), was named a 2024 Aspen Ideas: Health Fellow in recognition of her work with citizen researchers to reimagine public health in communities of color. Opara and Dean Megan l. Ranney, MD, MPH, took part in the Aspen Ideas: Health Conference and the Aspen Ideas Festival in June. The two events combine for more than 100 sessions and over 300 speakers including some of the top minds in the fields of health, politics, business, journalism, literature, and entertainment.
Dr. Terika McCall, PhD, MPH, MBA, assistant professor of biostatistics (Health Informatics), was recognized for her efforts to use innovative technology to reduce public health disparities and to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. McCall is the inaugural recipient of the International Society for Research on Internet Interventions’ (ISRII) Extraordinary Contributions to Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Award, which is given to an ISRII member who is an early- to mid-career professional whose research uses innovative technology to reduce public health disparities. The award highlights the recipient’s use of technologies such as mobile apps and wearables. McCall’s expertise is in user-centered design and usability testing of digital health tools. She created a prototype of a smartphone app, WellSis, to support Black women with managing their mental health.
The Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) Scientific Advisory Board and its Board of Directors recently announced its $60.2 million commitment to fund breast cancer research in 2023-2024, supporting more than 250 scientists at leading academic and medical institutions, including eight grants at Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital. Dr. Melinda Irwin, PhD, MPH, is the recipient of the Westchester Women’s Award in Memory of Marla Mehlman. Her research examining the effects of lifestyle interventions and their integration into a personalized care plan has been funded by the BCRF since 2013. Her team has completed the first year of a phase III clinical trial, The Lifestyle, Exercise and Nutrition Early after Diagnosis (LEANer) Study. Irwin is the associate dean of research and Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Epidemiology (Chronic Diseases), Yale School of Public Health; deputy director (Public Health), Yale Center for Clinical Investigation; and deputy director, Yale Cancer Center.
Associate Professor of Epidemiology (Environmental Health Sciences) Dr. Kai Chen, PhD, delivered the plenary lecture on climate change epidemiology at the World Congress of Epidemiology 2024 in Cape Town, South Africa in September. Chen is co-faculty director of the Yale Center on Climate Change and Health. The topic of his presentation was “Climate Change: What Should All Epidemiologists Be Thinking About?”
Two faculty members in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Dr. Ijeoma Opara, PhD, MPH, associate professor of public health, and Dr. Trace Kershaw, PhD, department chair and Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Public Health, are partnering with faculty from two historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) as part of a new research grant program instituted in the spring by Yale University. The partnerships are funded by grants from the university’s new Alliance for Scholarship, Collaboration, Engagement, Networking and Development (ASCEND) initiative.
Dr. Jeannette Ickovics, PhD, Samuel and Liselotte Herman Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences, received the 2023 Martha May Eliot Award from the American Public Health Association (APHA) in recognition of her work on group prenatal care.
The Yale Pepper Center collaborated with Dr. Heping Zhang, PhD, Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Biostatistics, and Dr. John Hwa, MD, PhD, professor of medicine (Cardiovascular Medicine) at Yale School of Medicine, to obtain new funding for their work in Alzheimer’s disease or related dementias. They were each awarded $250,000 in direct costs by the National Institute on Aging as an administrative supplement to the Pepper Center grant.
Grants from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences will fund the projects led by Dr. Zeyan Liew, PhD, MPH, through 2029. Liew, associate professor of epidemiology (Environmental Health Sciences), and his team will evaluate whether maternal and child exposure to higher levels of neurotoxic chemicals, including perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and pesticides commonly found in commercial and household products may influence the risk for developing cerebral palsy.
Dr. Nicole Deziel, PhD, MHS, associate professor of epidemiology (Environmental Health Sciences), and Dr. Amy Bei, PhD, assistant professor of epidemiology (Microbial Diseases), were selected to participate in the National Academy of Medicine’s (NAM) Emerging Leaders Forum in Washington, D.C. The invitation-only event is a cornerstone of NAM’s mission to recognize and engage early- and mid-career professionals who have shown exceptional promise, achievement, and leadership in health policy, health care, biomedical science, and related fields.
The Yale Institute for Global Health (YIGH) selected Dr. Nicola Hawley, PhD, associate professor of epidemiology (Chronic Diseases), to receive the 2024 Hecht Global Health Faculty Network Award. The award is intended to lay the foundation for recipients’ successful pursuit of additional funding opportunities. Her project, affiliated with the Yale Network for Global NCDs (NGN), will focus on adapting and pilot testing an intervention designed to promote mental health among adolescents in American Samoa.
Professors Dr. Hongyu Zhao, PhD, and Dr. Mark Gerstein, PhD, have been awarded a $1.9 million grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) to advance the Developmental Genotype-Tissue Expression (dGTEx) project. This landmark initiative aims to unravel the complexities of gene expression patterns across developmental stages, providing critical insights into genetic influences on health and disease. Zhao, Ira V. Hiscock Professor of Biostatistics, professor of genetics, and statistics and data science, and Gerstein, the Albert L. Williams Professor of Biomedical Informatics, and professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry, computer science, and statistics and data science, will lead the multidisciplinary effort. The grant, in the form of a U01 award, is intended to support cooperative research initiatives that address specific scientific areas of interest.
Dr. Akiko Iwasaki, PhD, Sterling Professor of Immunobiology and professor of epidemiology (Microbial Diseases), was awarded a grant by the Lupus Research Alliance (LRA) to investigate a possible cause of lupus. The 2023 Dr. William E. Paul Distinguished Innovator Award provides up to $1 million over four years
for Iwasaki to study whether the immune system’s reaction to viruses can trigger lupus.
The Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research elected Dr. Joan K. Monin, PhD, associate professor of public health (Social and Behavioral Sciences) to become a fellow. Election to the society is reserved for those with a proven record of national and international behavioral medicine research excellence. The academy comprises several hundred eminent senior investigators, all of whom have been elected to membership through a highly selective process. Monin was nominated for election into the academy by her peers and the resulting vote of approval by the membership committee and executive council was unanimous.
The Connecticut Emerging Infections Program (EIP), directed by Dr. Linda Niccolai, PhD, associate dean for academic affairs and professor of epidemiology (Microbial Diseases), received a five-year $19.5 million grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The award will support continuation of the program that was established in 1995. The Connecticut EIP is one of 12 funded sites in the U.S., creating a national network for monitoring infectious diseases and population health.
Dr. Robert Pietrzak, PhD, MPH, professor of psychiatry and of public health (Social and Behavioral Sciences), was recognized by the Psychology Service of VA Connecticut Healthcare System with the Distinguished Psychology for Scientific Advancement Award. Pietrzak is director of the Translational Psychiatric Epidemiology Laboratory at the National Center for PTSD at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System and being honored for his groundbreaking research and significant advancements in the field of psychiatric epidemiology and veteran mental health.
For the second year in a row, Dr. Donna Spiegelman, ScD, Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Biostatistics, was named a top female scientist by Research.com. Yale’s highest-ranking female scientist on the list, she was ranked 27th of the best female scientists in the U.S. Position in the ranking is based on a researcher’s overall H-index, which incorporates both the productivity of the researcher and their citation impact. The ranking of top female scientists comprises leading researchers from core science areas and was based on a detailed evaluation of 166,880 profiles on Google Scholar and Microsoft Academic Graph.
Dr. Joseph Ross, MD, MHS ’06, professor of medicine (General Medicine) and of public health (Health Policy and Management), and Dr. Karen Wang, MD, MHS ’12, assistant professor of internal medicine (General Medicine) and assistant professor of biostatistics (Health Informatics), are members of a research team that was awarded $3.1 million from the National Institute of Mental Health to promote health equity. The project will evaluate drivers of disparities in agitation care and workplace violence and identify patient-centered interventions that will also ensure staff safety using group model-building techniques with patients, security officers, and clinicians.
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