PRC Team

Rafael Pérez-Escamilla, Ph.D., is Professor of Public Health, and Director of the Office of Public Health Practice, the Global Health Concentration, and the Maternal Child Health Promotion track at the Yale School of Public Health. He is the PI of the Yale-Griffin CDC Prevention Research Center (PRC). His global public health nutrition and food security research program, supported with over $80 million in extramural funds, has contributed to improvements in breastfeeding and other maternal, infant and young child nutrition outcomes, iron deficiency anemia among infants, household food security, and early childhood development. He has co-led innovative mixed-methods implementation studies assessing the impact of community health worker person centered interventions on breastfeeding, type-2 diabetes, post-partum hypertension and mental health outcomes in vulnerable communities, including people of color in the U.S. He has published over 370 research articles, 3 books/monographs, and numerous journal supplements, book chapters, and technical reports. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine (elected in 2019) and of the United Nations Expert Group on Food Security and Nutrition Data and Statistics (appointed in 2025). He has been a senior advisor to maternal-child community nutrition programs as well as household food security measurement projects funded by the World Health Organization, the Pan American Health Organization, UNICEF, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), the World Bank, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Governments across world regions. He obtained his BS in Chemical Engineering from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City and his MS in Food Science and his PhD in Nutrition from the University of California at Davis. His postdoctoral training at UC Davis focused on the link between nutrition and early childhood development.

Kathleen O’Connor Duffany, PhD, is Associate Professor of Public Health in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Department at the Yale School of Public Health, Director of Research and Evaluation for CARE (the Community Alliance for Research and Engagement) and Co-Director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center. Dr. O’Connor Duffany’s research and practice examines the social, biological, behavioral, and structural barriers to health equity. Her work includes extensive interactions with community-based organizations, agencies, and community residents to improve health outcomes. From large scale multi-national projects, to local community-based programs, she has designed and collaborated on studies and evaluations assessing and addressing social factors influencing health with an interest in long-term structural and policy change. She works collaboratively with community partners to identify ways to improve health in the community at large and communicate findings in multiple formats to reach academicians, community residents, and policy makers – conducting rigorous community research for practical benefit. Dr. O'Connor Duffany’s expertise in evaluation extends over 30 years and includes the range of evaluation purposes and types. At YSPH, she teaches Community Health Program Evaluation to MPH and PhD students, engaging future researchers, evaluators, and practitioners in community-based participatory evaluation approaches focused on health equity, and mentoring students in developing evaluation plans for community organizations, health centers, and hospitals. To support ongoing workforce development trainings, she conducts annual trainings in Evidence Based Public Health for health department staff, hospital administrators, and CHWs across CT. In her role at Y-G PRC/CARE and YSPH, she along with her well-established evaluation team provides evaluation technical assistance, capacity building, and full support for evaluations, with recent studies focused on equity across a range of topics including evaluation of Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Programs in CT and CA, Breastfeeding initiative needs assessments, Supporting Wellness in Pantries (SWAP) process and outcomes study, CHW-led community clinical linkage process and outcomes study, implementation science guided study of a virtual Diabetes Prevention Program supported by CHWs, rapid community assessments for vaccines, evaluation of local health communications efforts, and formative and outcome evaluation of CARE leadership programs including Community Research Fellows, New Haven Health Leaders, and Vaccine Equity Fellows programs, to name a few. She also serves on several committees and leadership teams related to food security, nutrition, and population health. She is working with local and national partners to inform food as medicine policy through research and coalition buildingLastly, she serves as Faculty Director of the newly formed Community Impact Lab that seeks to engage students in public health practice with local community organizations ensuring these ongoing partnerships are equitable, sustained, and impactful for the organization and the community they serve.

Beth Patton Comerford, MS received her undergraduate and graduate degrees in Psychology with an emphasis on social and organizational psychology. As Deputy Director, she is responsible for management and oversight of the Prevention Research Center activities.

Ms. Rockiy G. Ayettey is a Research Associate/ Grants Coordinator at the PRC. Her role involves coordination of both clinical research studies activities and grant-related activities.

Dr. Susan Burger, Assistant Professor in Nursing is a doctorally prepared registered nurse (BSN-Duke University; MSN-Nursing Education-Southern CT State University; PhD-University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill) with more than 30 years nursing experience. Dr. Burger joined the WCSU faculty in the fall of 2015. Prior to coming to WCSU, she held academic positions at the University of Connecticut, New York University, Sacred Heart University, and Rutgers University. She is a Certified Nurse Educator with clinical expertise in Community-Public Health Nursing and Maternal-Child Health Nursing.Dr. Burger is an active researcher and presenter. Her program of research focuses on reducing re-hospitalization among chronically ill individuals through more effective self-management. Over the past 5 years she has been studying the impact of telehealth monitoring on health outcomes among community dwelling, low income residents in Stamford, CT. She is currently investigating the implementation of a new patient centered medical home care team model and its impact on quality, cost, and satisfaction in a multi-site community health center located in Bridgeport, CT Dr. Burger was inducted into Sigma Theta Tau in 1987 and is actively involved in the CT Association of Public Health Nurses and the Eastern Nursing Research Society. In addition, she is looking forward to serving on many department and university committees at WCSU.

Meredith Campbell Britton is a qualtiative researcher and licensed master's level social worker (Connecticut). She earned her master's degree in social work from Fordham University and bachelor's degree in psychology from Providence College.

Meet Yale School of Public Health's Amber Datta.

Meet Yale School of Public Health's Jaime Foster.

Dr. Amber Hromi-Fiedler is currently a Research Scientist in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences in the Yale School of Public Health. Dr. Hromi-Fiedler obtained her B.A. in Psychobiology from Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, in 1994. In 2002, she obtained her M.P.H. from the University of Connecticut and in 2007 she obtained her Ph.D. from the same university. Dr. Hromi-Fiedler specializes in community nutrition with emphasis in maternal and child health (MCH) both domestically and internationally. Internationally, she participated in the implementation of an MCH project with Save the Children in Uganda. In Ghana, with funding from the NIH, she developed and taught an intensive course to build the capacity of local Ghanaian health professional by enhancing their knowledge and skill of analyzing nutritional data using a public domain software available through the Centers for Disease Control. In Ghana, she also collaborated in the training of nutrition staff and the development of nutrition education materials for Liberian refugee caretakers at Buduburam Refugee Camp. The nutrition education materials focused on child nutrition as well as food safety and are currently being used and distributed to caretakers to improve nutritional outcomes among Liberian refugee children. She also conducted a postdoctoral summer fellowship in Ghana examining dietary practices, food availability, and nutritional status among Liberian refugees and Ghanaians living in and around Buduburam Refugee Camp. She continues to work in Ghana on infant and young child feeding projects. Domestically, she has taken the lead on the adaptation of the U.S. Food Security Scale, a national instrument to measure food insecurity, among pregnant Latina women. Dr. Hromi-Fiedler implemented one of the first longitudinal studies in Hartford, CT, examining the association between food insecurity during pregnancy and infant outcomes among Latinas. Dr. Hromi-Fiedler has also conducted feasibility research to develop a community-based intervention to increase fruit and vegetable consumption among low-income pregnant Latinas. Dr. Hromi-Fiedler has presented her work at national and international conferences. Dr. Hromi-Fiedler has authored or co-authored many research articles in the fields of interest.

Since 1996 I have worked and partnered with public health systems and service organizations to strengthen service delivery. I have also taught, advised and conducted research at the Yale School of Public Health, working closely with hundreds of MPH students as they conducted applied public health practice projects in collaboration with public health systems and organizations. Many of my research projects have also been at the community level, where I provide expertise in engagement, relationship building and knowledge generation. I have broad expertise in community health systems and applied public health research and teaching, as well as skills in strategic thinking, mentoring and communication. Beginning in 2024 I co-lead the Rigorous, Rapid and Relevant Evidence aDaptation and Implementation (R3EDI) to Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) Implementation Science Technical Assistance Hub. We provide implementation science technical support and resources for researchers and practitioners working in the area of HIV implementation science in the United States. In addition to my implementation science work I also address interactions between nutrition and infectious disease. Over the last 18 years I have collaborated with Dr. Michael Cappello and the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research in Ghana on longitudinal studies characterizing parasite and host factors affecting response to deworming in Ghana.

Meet Yale School of Public Health's Doug Kearse.

Meet Yale School of Public Health's Claudette Kidd.

Meet Yale School of Public Health's Alyssa Kim.

Katherine LaMonaca is the Assistant Director for Research & Evaluation at the Community Alliance for Research & Engagement (CARE) and the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center. Previously, Katherine was a Research Associate with Yale Clinical and Community Research program and a Program Manager with the Yale Global Health Leadership Institute. Before coming to Yale, she was responsible for developing and implementing new global health education programs at Quinnipiac University and worked for Partners In Health in Boston. She received her M.P.H from the Yale School of Public Health in 2012.

Meet Yale School of Public Health's Andrea Mayer.

Meet Yale School of Public Health's Todd McGuire.

Dr. Njike's principal research interests involve methodological design, conduct, and analysis of clinical studies in chronic disease prevention.

Jasmine Rios is an M.P.H. candidate in the Social and Behavioral Sciences department at the Yale School of Public Health. Concurrently, she is pursuing her B.A. in History of Science and Medicine at Yale College, where she has previously supported research with the Yale Intergroup Relations Lab.

Meet Yale School of Public Health's Bailee Rue.