DrPH/CHP Student Profiles

			Nesreen Al-Anbar recently earned her Master’s in Emergency and Public Safety from Drexel University. Throughout this program she focused on her native country, Saudi Arabia. In her thesis, she identified a need for accreditation through a trauma foundation and for the establishment of a unified trauma registry system in the kingdom. Prior, she completed her bachelor’s degree in Cardiovascular Technology at Gwynedd Mercy College. She pursued this based upon her extensive work and training as a Cardiovascular Technologist in Saudi Arabia and in Europe. Currently she attends Drexel as a full time doctoral candidate in Public Health in Community Health and Prevention. She is an athlete and lover of adventure: Tae Kwon Do Master, tennis player, equestrian rider, diver, white water rafter and paraponter.

			Jennifer Breaux received her MPH in 2004 from Drexel University School of Public Health and her BS in Exercise Science from Rutgers University. Prior to pursuing a career in public health, Jen worked as an athletic trainer where she mended the bodies and egos of student athletes. During her MPH studies, Jen researched and worked on issues related to food insecurity, hunger, school nutrition, obesity and obesity related programming. She is currently research coordinator for the Children’s Sentinel Nutrition Assessment Program (C-SNAP), a research project that addresses poor nutrition in children and families in an effort to stop the cycle of poverty and poor nutritional development.

A firm believer in the mind/body connection, Jen practices yoga to help her deal with the stressors associated with school, work and life. In her spare time (spare time?) Jen enjoys exercising on her treadmill (or as she refers to it “the hamster wheel”), trips to Virginia, and classic rock.

			Robin Brennan has over ten years experience managing programs and conducting research. She was an independent consultant evaluating the effectiveness of substance abuse treatment programs in Maryland correctional facilities. Before that, she was responsible for conducting research and tracking the progress of 1,500 substance abuse treatment participants for the School of Medicine at the University of Maryland. Currently, she is the Director of the Youth Health Empowerment Project (Y-HEP), a project of Philadelphia FIGHT, which offers a comprehensive range of health promotion and youth development programs using a harm reduction approach to at risk youth.

			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, Jonathan 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.

			Michelle Renee Chyatte has her B.S. in broadcast journalism from Kent State University in Kent, Ohio and her MPH from the Consortium of Eastern Ohio Master of Public Health. Michelle was a reporter for a number of years for WKSU, 89.7 FM, a NPR affiliate. She also spent time at NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C. on a fellowship. While pursuing the DrPh degree, her principle research areas are maternal/child health, policy development and assessment, human rights, and ethics. Always one to believe in the power of listening and storytelling, Michelle knows that she has not placed her microphone down permanently and hopes to combine public health with journalism.

			Chari Cohen is Senior Research Associate and Senior Program Manager at the Hepatitis B Foundation (HBF), in Doylestown, PA. She has almost 10 years experience designing and implementing local and national hepatitis B outreach and education programs. As part of the public health research team at HBF, Ms. Cohen plays a key role in designing the public health research priorities and initiating projects to achieve these goals. Her current research focus is on barriers to care for individuals with chronic hepatitis B, as well as local and national hepatitis B surveillance to attain a more accurate estimate of the burden of chronic hepatitis B in the U.S.

			Holly Funkhouser Cucuzzella holds a Master in Public Health from the Medical College of Virginia and is a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES). She is currently employed by the Burlington County (NJ) Health Department as the Director of Health Education. 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 Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) and has worked in the field of Public Health for 12 years. Her background is in HIV/AIDS and STI prevention, teen pregnancy prevention, program implementation and program evaluation. She has conducted presentations on HIV 101 for adolescents and young adults and has assisted with the editing of HIV intervention training manuals and materials for the University of Pennsylvania. 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.

			Yeetey Enuameh is a 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).

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.

			Lucy Wachera Kibe got her bachelors degree in Agriculture and Home Economics from Egertom Unversity, Njoro, Kenya, and her master’s in Nutrition and Dietetics from The University of Akron, Ohio. Her research interests are osteoporosis, vitamin D, HIV transmission through breast milk, and cardiovascular risks in recent immigrants from developing countries. Lucy is currently a research coordinator at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s nutrition and growth lab, where she is involved in examining bone health in adults with chronic renal insufficiency.

			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. Her interest areas include international health, health disparities, and maternal and child health. Through various experiences here and abroad, she has developed a strong commitment to public health. In 2001, she completed a summer fellowship in Harare, Zimbabwe where she examined and analyzed HIV/AIDS coverage by major Zimbabwean newspapers. After completing her MPH, she spent 9 months in South Africa working with a program aimed at preventing HIV/AIDS and expanding risk reduction practices among South African youth.

			Candace Robertson received her BS in Biology from Villanova University and her Master's of Public Health from MCP Hahnemann (now Drexel) University. She is currently the Research Manager at the Women's Health Education Program, Drexel University College of Medicine. Ms. Robertson has participated in research focused on the epidemiology of adolescent violence in urban centers such as Philadelphia, hypertension in Pacific Islanders, menopause education and health risks associated with the menopausal transition, cultural competence, barriers to the inclusion of minorities in research and a DES education awareness program. Her primary research interests include exploring health disparities particularly those issues affecting women, minorities and adolescents.

			Telisa Stewart received her B.A. in Sociology from the University of Southern Maine in 2002 and her Master's of Public Health (Health Policy and Management) from University of Massachusetts in 2005. Throughout her graduate work, Telisa has been working at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in N.H. with prostate cancer patients. Her research interests include comprehensive cancer programs, multidisciplinary clinics, newly diagnosed prostate cancer patients (unique male needs in health care), prostate cancer: databases and tracking systems, patient education and support, patient decision making, and doctor/patient interactions. She also has been involved in free health clinics, medical support and access issues for the disadvantaged and pharmaceutical/pharmacological donations.

			Alia Turganbaeva -- after graduating from Kyrgyz State Medical University Alia worked as an OB/GYN in a gynecological hospital. After 6 years of working in a clinical setting, she entered the Public Health Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Department of Maternal and Child Health and graduated in 2006 with an MPH degree. After graduating from the UNC she returned to Kyrgyzstan and worked as a Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator in a Swiss Red Cross project which coordinates Community Action for Health efforts in Kyrgyzstan in partnership with Kyrgyz Republican Health Promotion Center, the Ministry of Health, SDC, SIDA and USAID projects. Alia’s interests include nutrition and anemia in mothers and children.

Ms. Turganbaeva is working on her dissertation, entitled "Factors associated with adherence to iron supplements among Kyrgyz rural women."