Trainees

Mireille Bitangacha, BA
Mireille Bitangacha is a Clinical Research Assistant in CATALYST, the Center for the Advancement of Analytics, Systems Thinking, and Team Science in The Ohio State University College of Medicine. She has a strong passion for research focused on improving health outcomes for marginalized populations. She holds a BA in History from Centre College and is currently pursuing a master’s in Human Resource Management at The Ohio State University. Her research interests lie at the intersection of Black maternal and child health, looking at food as medicine, and financial literacy to address health disparities and promote well-being in underserved communities.

Eric K. Broni, MD, MPH
Eric Broni is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the IMPACT P3 team of the EQUATE network in the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He received his medical degree from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana. Subsequently, Dr. Broni obtained a concurrent MPH and a Graduate Certificate in Maternal and Child Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. His research interests focus on cardio-obstetrics, the intersection between obesity and cardiometabolic health outcomes in women, and health disparities.

Marissa Cisneros, PhD
Marissa Cisneros, PhD started working on the HERN EQUATE grant under Kiarri Kershaw, PhD after finishing a year long visiting professorship at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. Prior to that she held a 3 year lectureship at Texas A&M University in the Department of Veterinary Physiology Pharmacology. Here she led the Health Disparity track for the Texas A&M University Biomedical Research Certificate. She completed her graduate studies in May of 2020 at the Texas A&M University Sociology department.

Jasmine L. Garland McKinney, PhD,
is a postdoctoral associate in the College of Information at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she supports research activities for the Community, Equity, Data, and Information (CEDI) Lab and the American Heart Association-funded Building Equitable Linkages with Interprofessional Education Valuing Everyone (BELIEVE) Project. Her research focuses on Black women’s experiences with perinatal physical and mental health disparities, impacts of racial stress (e.g., racism, discrimination) on maternal mental health outcomes, and culturally-specific coping mechanisms resulting from intergenerational trauma.

TPrecious Ikjiaku, BSPH
Precious Ikejiaku is a second-year graduate student at UNC Chapel Hill Gillings School of Public Health pursuing a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree in Maternal and Child Health. She is Nigerian, specifically Igbo, and was born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her research focus in Maternal and Child Health is on reducing barriers to Black Maternal Health to see better birthing and health outcomes. Her research interests are understanding the relationship between maternity care providers and community birth workers, such as lactation consultants and doulas, and improving interprofessional collaboration to increase patient-centered care and improve birthing outcomes among Black birthing people. She is passionate and dedicated to improving the health of Black birthing people in the United States.

Sooyoung Kim, PhD, RN
Dr. Sooyoung Kim is a Postdoctoral Scholar at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, working within CATALYST—the Center for the Advancement of Team Science, Analytics, and Systems Thinking. She specializes in pediatric nursing and health services research. Dr. Kim earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing science from Ewha Womans University in South Korea, and she holds a PhD in nursing from The Ohio State University College of Nursing. With her background as a pediatric nurse, she has contributed to improving the quality of care for infants and children through both clinical practice and research. Her dissertation focused on enhancing nursing care for infants experiencing substance withdrawal, aiming to improve care delivery for this vulnerable population.

Amber E. Lachaud, MD
Dr. Amber Lachaud is a Maternal-Fetal medicine fellow working with the IMPACT P3 team of the EQUATE network in the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dr. Lachaud received her medical degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and completed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Brown University/Women and Infants Hospital. She is passionate about addressing disparities to improve adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes. Her current research interests include health equity, implementation science, and qualitative research methodology.

Denita Lindsey, MD, MPH
Dr. Lindsey is a fellow in Neonatal-Perinatal medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She earned her medical degree from Indiana University School of Medicine and completed her residency at the University of Illinois – Chicago College of Medicine. Prior to attending medical school, she attended Xavier University of Louisiana and received a Master of Public Health degree from Northern Illinois University. She has been committed throughout her career to helping eliminate healthcare disparities through mentorship and research interventions. Her current research interest include analyzing the social determinants of health and their impact on adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes. She is particularly focused on how factors such as socioeconomic status, access to healthcare, race, education, and social support networks influence the health disparities observed in maternal and infant populations. Her aim is to identify critical points of intervention that can reduce the incidence of complications during pregnancy and the perinatal period to improve health outcomes for both mothers and their newborns, ultimately leading to the development of evidence-based policies and programs that address these issues and promote equitable healthcare access and outcomes for all.

Ramona Olvera, PhD
Ramona Olvera, PhD, is a post-doctoral scholar in The Center for the Advancement of Team Science, Analytics, and Systems Thinking in Health Services and Implementation Science Research (CATALYST). With over two decades of experience in qualitative, survey, and mixed methods research, Dr. Olvera’s work focuses on the intricate interplay between intersectional marginalized identities and social determinants of health, particularly their impact on patient health outcomes. Her expertise in qualitative research spans various critical topics, including the opioid epidemic, maternal health, financial toxicity in breast cancer, medical-financial partnerships, and end-of-life decision making within the Muslim community. Throughout her career, Dr. Olvera has demonstrated a commitment to addressing health disparities, directing her scholarly research toward empowering women, immigrants, and other historically marginalized groups and communities in their pursuit of equitable healthcare access and health outcomes. Her research is rooted in community-based participatory research (CBPR), emphasizing the importance of developing health interventions in collaboration with the patients and communities they aim to serve. Dr. Olvera earned her doctorate in social policy, along with a master’s degree in social policy and women and gender studies, from The Heller School of Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Wells College, supplemented by graduate coursework in sociology at Boston University. Her academic and professional journey reflects her dedication to advancing social justice and health equity through innovative, community-driven research.

Kayla Torres, MPH
Mrs. Torres, a native of Puerto Rico, is currently a Public Health Fellow at ConnectionHealth. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree from Alabama State University in Montgomery, AL, and later pursued a Master of Public Health with a concentration in Healthcare Organization and Policy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Prior to her current role, Mrs. Torres worked as a Community Health Worker for the From Day One program, where she focused on improving pre- and post-birth outcomes and reducing infant mortality in Jefferson County. During her graduate studies, she interned with the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH), contributing to the Office of Health Equity and Minority Health by supporting projects aimed at serving underserved communities in Alabama through the CDC Health Disparity Grant. Currently, Mrs. Torres is a P3 EQUATE Trainee with the P3OPPY team at UAB and is pursuing her Doctor of Public Health degree at Samford University. Her research interests center on maternal and infant health, with a particular focus on the impact of Community Health Worker interventions in uplifting marginalized communities.