DrPH/CHP Student Profiles

 

 

Jeanette Bowles completed undergraduate work in 2007 at Temple University majoring in Psychology. In 2010, she completed a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Pennsylvania where she was awarded the John Hope Franklin Combating American Racism Award by the Black Men at Penn. Her previous clinical experience involves work with homeless communities including housing-first programs, harm-reduction techniques, case management, counseling, and accessing housing and healthcare. In 2010, she completed the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities [LEND] research fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and in 2012 she completed the Opening Doors for Diverse Populations to Health Disparities Research program at Drexel University. Her current research interests are within the combined arena of harm-reduction, substance abuse, mental health, and housing, and how these factors are influenced by stigma, deservingness, and policy. Jeanette also regularly volunteers at a local animal rescue in Philadelphia and has passion for animals and animal rights.

 

 

Jonathan Cass graduated from the Drexel MPH program in 2001, concentrating in Community Health and Prevention. His masters project addressed the “digital divide” among north Philadelphia residents by helping to set up and evaluate the effectiveness of a public access computer center. After graduation, Jon worked as a Research Associate for the New England Research Institutes in Watertown, MA, helping with community outreach efforts on a community‐based survey of urologic disorders in a multiethnic sample of Boston residents. Jon is currently the Director of Community Projects at the Drexel School of Public Health, serving as the liaison between community agencies, faculty, and students for the first year practicum and second year masters project programs. Jon’s dissertation work is based on a pattern analysis of food frequency questionnaire and 24 hour diet recall data from the 2005-06 National Health and Nutrition Education Survey.

 

 

Chari Cohen is Director of Public Health for the Hepatitis B Foundation (HBF), in Doylestown, PA. For the past 10 years, she has worked with the HBF public health team to plan, implement, and evaluate community programs and research projects focusing on hepatitis B and liver cancer. Currently, her research focuses on reducing HBV and liver cancer health disparities, and developing models for improved health care access and management for chronic HBV infection, including the early detection and prevention of liver cancer. Ms. Cohen directs Hep B United Philadelphia, a campaign to increase testing and vaccination to fight hepatitis B and liver cancer. She serves as Vice-Chair of the National Task Force on Hepatitis B: Focus on Asians and Pacific Islander Americans, and is on the executive committee of the Asian Pacific Islander Caucus of APHA. She is also actively involved in national advocacy efforts, and works with organizations around the U.S. to help them become HBV advocates and learn how to implement HBV-related projects using best practices. Ms. Cohen received her MPH in Community Health Education from Temple University in 2001. She is currently a doctoral candidate at Drexel University School of Public Health.

 

 

Holly Funkhouser Cucuzzella holds a Master in Public Health from the Medical College of Virginia, is a licensed Health Officer in the State of New Jersey, and is a Master Certified Health Education Specialist (MCHES). She is currently employed by the Burlington County (NJ) Health Department as the Health Officer. Prior to this she was employed by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

 

Mrs. Cucuzzella has experience working as a health educator, risk communicator, epidemiologist, and clinical research coordinator. She is a member of the New Jersey Society for Public Health Education and the National Society for Public Health Education. Mrs. Cucuzzella enjoys running, biking, and spending time with her family. Her dissertation is entitled, “The Impact of an Educational Outreach Visit on Knowledge, Attitude and Communicable Disease Reporting Practices among Physicians, Physician Assistants and Advanced Practice Nurses.”

 

 

Zupenda M. Davis received her BS in Public Health from Rutgers University and her MPH from UMDNJ‐School of Public Health. She is a Master Certified Health Education Specialist (MCHES) and has worked in the field of Public Health for 17 years. Her background is in HIV/AIDS and STI prevention, teen pregnancy prevention, program planning, implementation, and evaluation.

Zupenda currently is a Training Specialist for the PA/Mid‐Atlantic AIDS Education and Training Center of the Health Federation of Philadelphia, where she coordinates trainings for HIV providers and provides technical assistance to HIV health care and social service organizations in the city of Philadelphia.

 

Zupenda is a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) candidate at Drexel University‐School of Public Health, specializing in Community Health and Prevention. She is currently working on her dissertation entitled, “African American Heterosexual Men’s Perceptions of Emotionally and Sexually Intimate Relationships with Women: Implications for Sexual Risk Behaviors.” Zupenda’s hobbies include photography, reading, and travel. She is a member of APHA, SOPHE, SAAPHI (Society for the Analysis of African American Public Health Issues), NAHSE (National Association of Health Services Executives), ABWHE (Association of Black Women in Higher Education), Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., and Bethany Baptist Church in Lindenwold, NJ.

 

 

Yeetey Enuameh is a Physician who was trained at the Pirogov Vinnitsa State Medical University, Vinnitsa, in the Ukraine. He has been practicing as a Medical Doctor in Ghana since his graduation in 1997. He graduated from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana in 2005 with a Master of Science in Health Service Planning and Management. Yeetey’s dissertation at the Master’s level focused on assessing and improving the Reproductive Health needs of students of KNUST. Prior to enrolling at Drexel University, he was a Clinical Research Fellow working with a team of scientists on Malaria Vaccine and Drug Trials at the Kintampo Health Research Institute (KHRC) in Ghana. He is the convener of the Joanna Briggs Institute- Kintampo Health Research Center Evidence Synthesis Group (JBI- KHRC ESG). Yeetey’s areas of interests include (Adolescent) Sexual and Reproductive Health, Infectious Diseases and Evidence Based Clinical Practice. In March 2008, he received a Provost Fellowship from Drexel University, for academic years 2008-9 and 2009-10. He is a fall 2009 Fellow of the Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Graduate Fellowship Program with the Board of Children, Youth and Families (BYCF) at the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in Washington, DC. For his dissertation, Yeetey will be evaluating adolescent friendly health-care delivery services in his home country, Ghana.

 

 

 

Theresa Fay-Hillier is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the College of Nursing and Health Professions. She received her Master's Degree in Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Holy Family University. She is currently enrolled in the DrPH program in the School of Public Health Community Health and Prevention at Drexel University. She is a board certified Clinical Nurse Specialist in Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing by the American Nurses Credentialing Center. Ms. Fay-Hillier has an interest in working with the chronically mentally ill as well as people who are victims of abuse. Her experience in her areas of interest have been numerous and in a variety of community settings. She was a co-leader of a homicide bereavement group for families at the Philadelphia City Morgue. Ms. Fay-Hillier was also a co-owner of a nurse owned business providing critical incident stress debriefing services to employees who worked in both health care agencies and general business facilities. After the 911 tragedy, Ms. Fay-Hillier was involved with debriefing employees who worked in or around the New York City area. She was also responsible for supervising other clinicians who performed debriefments in both New York City and the Washington D.C. areas as a result of the 911 tragedy. She has presented at both national and international conferences on issues related to Intimate Partner Violence and has also a co-authored several peer reviewed articles. She is looking forward to continuing her scholarly work during her doctoral program at Drexel University.

 

 

Aleksandar Kecojevic received a BSc in biology from the University of Western Ontario and an MPH from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Prior to joining Drexel, Mr. Kecojevic worked on developing point-of-care rapid diagnostics, HIV-testing initiatives, and a clinical trial on community-associated MRSA infections. While at Drexel, he has worked on projects involving prescription drug misuse among young adults in New York and Los Angeles and overdose prevention among injection drug users in Los Angeles and Philadelphia. To date, his research activities have led to co-authorship of twenty-one peer-reviewed papers, including several first author articles.

 

In 2011, Mr. Kecojevic was awarded the Walter J. Lear Outstanding Student Research Award at the American Public Health Association (APHA) meeting. More recently, he was awarded a two-year, Health Services Research Dissertation (R36) grant from the National Institutes of Health. Mr. Kecojevic will use the grant to study the topic of his dissertation proposal - Prescription drugs misuse and risky sexual behavior among young men who have sex with men in Philadelphia. This research will expand our understanding of the effects of emerging phenomena (prescription drug misuse) on adverse consequences of sexual activity (HIV and STIs). In addition, the study investigates risk and protective social factors that contribute to both prescription drug misuse and risky sexual practices among this vulnerable population.

 

 

Avat Kioumarsi received her BS in Theatre-Scene Decoration in Iran in 2005. Then she changed her field work and started working in Substance Use and HIV/AIDS in Middle East and North Africa Harm Reduction Association (MENAHRA) Knowledge Hub in Iran. During those three years working in MENAHRA, she was responsible for a challenging and multifaceted program of work, which included studying substance use and HIV/AIDS related materials, moderating focus group discussions, interviewing with substance users, coordinating training courses and workshops for the participants from neighboring countries, collaborating with key civil society partners to develop regional Harm Reduction activities, and monitoring and evaluation of the programs. She also participated in several international conferences and training courses such as Opioid Substitution Treatment (OST), Voluntary Counseling & Testing for HIV/AIDS (VCT), Methadone Maintenance Treatment (MMT), principles of consultation & interview with substance users, etc. She moved to Sweden in 2010 and graduated from Lund University’s MPH program in September 2012. Her master’s project focused on the “Quality of life in people with double burden of substance use and HIV-infection in Tehran, Iran.”

 

 

Debra Langer currently works as a research associate at the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute. She has worked on autism-focused state and local projects for the past 3 years, including research projects for the Eastern Autism Services, Education, Resources and Training (ASERT) Collaborative, funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare Bureau of Autism Services. Upon joining the Autism Institute in 2011, she began a lead role on a project funded by the Public Health Management Corporation to evaluate a web-based educational tool for early intervention providers. Her current research interests are focused on understanding the experience of and helping families of children with autism. For six years prior to working in the autism field, Debra led state and federal research projects and programs addressing addiction in Pennsylvania and nationally. Debra holds a Master’s degree in public administration from the University of Pittsburgh, a Master’s degree in archaeology from the University of Toronto, and a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from Binghamton University. Debra lives in Jenkintown with her husband, Jason, and daughter, Ayala.

 

 

Anuli Uzoaru Njoku received her BS in Public Health from Rutgers University and her MPH in International Health from Boston University School of Public Health. Currently a DrPH degree candidate, her proposed dissertation involves investigating the psychosocial determinants of colon cancer screening decision-making among primary care patients. Her research interests include health disparities in chronic disease prevention and control, sociocultural and behavioral aspects of public health, and community-based research. She has over 13 years of experience in the public health field, including over 7 years of experience conducting behavioral research in cancer prevention and control.

 

Most recently, as a Clinical Research Specialist at Thomas Jefferson University, she conducted research within a patient navigator intervention that aimed to increase colorectal cancer screening rates among African-Americans. Her involvement in this research culminated in professional presentations and publications at national and international conferences. Her previous experiences include international fellowships in HIV/AIDS prevention in Zimbabwe and South Africa. She has also served as a teaching facilitator for three Drexel MPH courses in community and behavioral assessment as well as teaching assistant for three MPH courses, including Leadership and Public Health.

 

 

 

Alison M. Tartaglia entered the doctoral program in 2008. She holds a BS from Temple University in Health Education and an MS in Public Health from Walden University. Alison has been working in the field of community health education and prevention for over 10 years, having held positions primarily in reproductive health and nicotine dependency. Her most recent professional endeavors have included teaching public health for two years as a Visiting Associate Professor, and currently as a Health Education Specialist in WELLWVU at West Virginia University. Her research interests include nicotine addiction and recovery, women's health, health disparities, and college student health. Alison resides in Morgantown, West Virginia with her husband.