Epidemiology

Current Fellows

Predoctoral

  • Erin Annunziato

    Erin Annunziato, MPH, is an SAETP pre-doctoral fellow in the MSPH Department of Epidemiology. She is interested in researching structural-level determinants of substance use-related harms. Her current research examines relationships between state-level drug policy programs, criminal legal system exposure, and substance use treatment. Erin completed her MPH in Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health in 2021. 

    Selected Publications

    • Mauro, P. M., Gutkind, S., Annunziato, E. M., & Samples, H. (2022). Use of Medication for Opioid Use Disorder Among US Adolescents and Adults With Need for Opioid Treatment, 2019. JAMA network open, 5(3), e223821. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.3821 

  • Ariana Gobaud

    Ariana Gobaud, MPH is a SAETP pre-doctoral fellow in the MSPH Department of Epidemiology. Her work focuses on social and spatial epidemiology. She is interested in the complex problems at the intersection of health, race, and socioeconomic status. Her current work explores the underlying spatial patterns in populations to examine the geography and factors underpinning gun violence. Ariana received her BS in Human Biology and Society from UCLA and completed her MPH in Epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University.

    Selected publications:

    • Gobaud AN, Mehranbod CA, Kaufman E, Jay J, Beard JH, Jacoby SF, Branas C, Bushover B, Morrison CN. Assessing the Gun Violence Archive as an Epidemiologic Data Source for Community Firearm Violence in Four US Cities. JAMA Network Open, 2023, 6(6):e2316545.
    • Gobaud AN, Mehranbod CA, Morrison CN, Hoofnagle MH. Gun shows and universal background check laws across state lines. Preventive Medicine, 2022; 107094.
    • Mehranbod CA, Gobaud AN, Jacoby SF, Uzzi M, Bushover B, Morrison CN. Historical Redlining and the Epidemiology of Present-Day Firearm Violence in the United States: A Multi-City Analysis. Preventive Medicine, 2022; 107207.
    • Afif IN, *Gobaud AN, Morrison CN, Jacoby SF, Maher Z, Dauer ED, Kaufman EJ, Santora TA, Anderson JH, Pathak A, Ola Sjoholm L, Goldberg AJ, Bear JH. The changing epidemiology of interpersonal violence during the COVID-19 pandemic in Philadelphia, PA. Preventive Med, 2022, 158:107020.
    Ariana Gobaud

  • Megan Marziali

    Megan Marziali, MPH, is an SAETP pre-doctoral fellow in the MSPH Department of Epidemiology. Her research primarily focuses on psychosocial factors, social networks, and substance use, with current work exploring (1) partner incarceration and maternal substance use and (2) the impact of endometriosis on risk substance use. Her previous work investigated topics such as state- and national-level policies during COVID-19, and the impact of loneliness and social isolation among people living with HIV in Canada. Megan received her BSc in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of British Columbia and completed her MPH in Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health in 2021.

    Selected publications:

    • Marziali ME, Levy NS, Martins SS. Perceptions of peer and parental attitudes toward substance use and actual adolescent substance use: The impact of adolescent-confidant relationships. Subst Abus. 2022;43(1):1085-1093. doi: 10.1080/08897077.2022.2060439. PMID: 35442871; PMCID: PMC9706817.
    • Marziali ME, Armstrong HL, Closson K, McLinden T, Wang L, Barath J, Harris M, Roth EA, Moore DM, Lachowsky NJ, Hogg RS, Sang JM, Card KG. Loneliness and self-rated physical health among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men in Vancouver, Canada. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2020 Jun;74(7):553-559. doi: 10.1136/jech-2019-213566. Epub 2020 Apr 8. PMID: 32269083; PMCID: PMC7527030.
    • Marziali ME, Card KG, McLinden T, Wang L, Trigg J, Hogg RS. Physical Distancing in COVID-19 May Exacerbate Experiences of Social Isolation among People Living with HIV. AIDS Behav. 2020 Aug;24(8):2250-2252. doi: 10.1007/s10461-020-02872-8. PMID: 32328849; PMCID: PMC7178096.
    • Hogg R, Marziali M. Behind elevated hospitalisation rates: addressing racism in the medical system. Lancet Public Health. 2023 Oct;8(10):e746-e747. doi: 10.1016/S2468-2667(23)00210-4. PMID: 37777279.
    Megan Marziali

  • Amy Pitts

    Amy Pitts is a SAETP pre-doctoral fellow in the Department of Biostatistics. Her research primarily focuses on causal inference approaches to enhance the external validity of clinical trials related to substance use disorders and methods to understand prenatal anesthesia exposure. In previous research, she explored the inference of health outcomes among patients with HIV during COVID-19 pandemic and used MRP model to improve survey representativeness.  Amy entered into the PhD program directly after receiving her BS in Applied Mathematics and Data Science & Analytics from Marist College in 2020.

    Selected publications:

    • Pitts, A. J., & Fowler, C. R. (2023). Comparison of open-source software for producing directed acyclic graphs. arXiv preprint arXiv:2305.12006.
    • Duong, N. Q., Pitts, A. J., Kim, S., & Miles, C. H. (2023). Sensitivity analysis for transportability in multi-study, multi-outcome settings. arXiv preprint arXiv:2301.02904.
    • Lawlor, M., Ng, V.G., Ahmed, S., Dershowitz, L., Brener, M., Kampaktsis, P., Pitts, A., Vahl III, T.P., Nazif, T., Leon, M.B. and George, I., (2023.) Right Atrial Pressure in Pulmonary Hypertension Assessment in Tricuspid Regurgitation. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 81(8_Supplement), pp.1970-1970.
    • Pitts, A., & Rivas, P. (2019). Finding Time Series Breakpoints with Fully Connected Neural Networks. In Proceedings on the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ICAI) (pp. 352-357). ISBN: 1-60132-501-0.

Postdoctoral

  • Emilie Bruzelius

    Emilie Bruzelius, PhD, is a SAETP post-doctoral research fellow in the MSPH Department of Epidemiology. Her research examines relationships between substance use and social policies and health outcomes, with a focus on pregnant people and families. Her dissertation evaluated the impacts of prenatal drug use criminalization on utilization of drug treatment and pregnancy care services. Emilie received her PhD in Epidemiology and MPH in Sociomedical Sciences from MSPH at Columbia University. She also completed advanced training in data science from DSI at the Fu School of Engineering at Columbia University and a BA in Sociology from Brandeis University.

    Selected publications:

    • Bruzelius, E., & Martins, S. S. (2022). US Trends in Drug Overdose Mortality Among Pregnant and Postpartum Persons, 2017-2020. JAMA, 328(21), 2159–2161. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2022.17045
    • Bruzelius E, Levy NS, Okuda M, Suglia SF, Martins SS. Prescription Drug Monitoring and Child Maltreatment in the United States, 2004-2018. J Pediatr. 2022 Feb;241:196-202. doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2021.10.014. Epub 2021 Oct 20. PMID: 34678247.
    • Bruzelius E, Cerdá M, Davis CS, Jent V, Wheeler-Martin K, Mauro CM, Crystal S, Keyes KM, Samples H, Hasin DS, Martins SS. Naloxone expansion is not associated with increases in adolescent heroin use and injection drug use: Evidence from 44 US states. Int J Drug Policy. 2023 Apr;114:103980. doi: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2023.103980. Epub 2023 Feb 28. PMID: 36863285.
    • Bruzelius E, Baum A. The Mental Health of Hispanic/Latino Americans Following National Immigration Policy Changes: United States, 2014-2018. Am J Public Health. 2019 Dec;109(12):1786-1788. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2019.305337. Epub 2019 Oct 17. PMID: 31622153; PMCID: PMC6836785.
    Emilie Bruzelius

  • Kechna Cadet

    Kechna Cadet, PhD, MPH (she/her) is a NIH T32 SAETP Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Dr. Cadet’s research explores the impact of social contextual determinants on substance use and negative health outcomes among marginalized communities. Dr. Cadet received her PhD from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and received her training and funding from the NIH T32 Drug Dependence Epidemiology Training program. Her dissertation used multi-level latent variable modeling and social epidemiological theories to examine the impact of structural contextual factors (e.g., residential segregation, income inequality, area deprivation, exposure to violence, spatial access to drug-related programs) on polysubstance use typologies and distal outcomes of HIV, HCV, and non-fatal overdose among people who inject drugs. Dr. Cadet earned her MPH in Community Health and Social Sciences from CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy and received her B.S. in Psychology from Drexel University.  

    Selected publications:

    • Cadet K, Baker DR, Brown A. A qualitative assessment of provider satisfaction and experiences with a COVID-19 community mobile health clinic outreach model in underserved Baltimore neighborhoods. SAGE Open Med. 2023 Feb 10;11:20503121231152090. doi: 10.1177/20503121231152090. PMID: 36789405; PMCID: PMC9922646.
    • Kurani S, Webb L, Cadet K, Ma M, Gibson M, Jallah N, Park JN, Johnson RM. Area-level deprivation and adverse childhood experiences among high school students in Maryland. BMC Public Health. 2022 Apr 23;22(1):811. doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-13205-w. PMID: 35459200; PMCID: PMC9034595.
    • Ruglass, L. M., Espinosa, A., Fitzpatrick, S., Meyer, M. K., Cadet, K., Sokolovsky, A., Jackson, K.M., & White, H. R. (2020). Prevalence and correlates of concurrent and simultaneous cannabis and cigarette use among past-year cannabis-using US college students. Substance Use and Misuse. 
    • Bauer AG, Ruglass LM, Shevorykin A, Saraiya TC, Robinson G, Cadet K, Julien L, Chao T, Hien D. Predictors of therapeutic alliance, treatment feedback, and clinical outcomes among African American women in treatment for co-occurring PTSD and SUD. J Subst Abuse Treat. 2022 Aug;139:108766. doi: 10.1016/j.jsat.2022.108766. Epub 2022 Mar 22. PMID: 35346534; PMCID: PMC9187592.
    Kechna Cadet

  • Evan Eschliman

    Evan L. Eschliman, PhD, MS is a SAETP postdoctoral research fellow in the MSPH Department of Epidemiology. Broadly, Evan’s research focuses on the negative health effects of stigma—particularly structural stigma—and culturally and structurally-responsive stigma intervention. Their current projects investigate how structural stigma toward substance use drives health inequities and overdose. Evan completed their PhD in the Department of Health, Behavior and Society at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where their dissertation focused on the concept of structural stigma and how it negatively affects the health and well-being of people who use opioids and people with a history of injection drug use. Prior to their PhD, Evan earned their MS in Sociomedical Sciences from MSPH and a BA in Public Policy Studies from the University of Chicago.

    Selected publications:

    • Becker, T. D., Eschliman, E. L., Thakrar, A. P., & Yang, L. H. (2023). A conceptual framework for how structural changes in emerging acute substance use service models can reduce stigma of medications for opioid use disorder. Frontiers in Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1184951 
    • Eschliman, E. L., Choe, K., DeLucia, A., & Kaufman, M. R. (June 2023). Characterizing accounts of structural stigma toward opioid use on Reddit. Oral presentation given at the Society for Psychological Study of Social Issues Conference 2023, Denver, CO.
    • Eschliman, E. L., Adames, C.N., & Rosen, J.D. Antidiscrimination laws as essential tools for achieving LGBTQ+ health equity. (2023). JAMA. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2023.0944  
    • Yang, L. H., Eschliman, E.L., Mehta, H., Misra, S., Poku, O. B., Entaile, P., Becker, T. D., Melese, T., Brooks, M. J., Eisenberg, M., Stockton, M. A., Choe, K., Tal, D., Li, T., Go, V. F., Link, B. G., Rampa, S., Jackson, V. W., Manyeagae, G. D., Arscott-Mills, T., Goodman, M., Opondo, P. R., Ho-Foster, A. R., & Blank, M. B. (2022). A pilot pragmatic trial of a “what matters most”-based intervention targeting intersectional stigma related to being pregnant and living with HIV in Botswana. AIDS Research and Therapy, 19(1), 26. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12981-022-00454-3

     

     

  • Cho-Hee Shrader

    Cho-Hee Shrader, PhD, she/her series pronouns, is a SAETP post-doctoral research fellow in the MSPH Department of Epidemiology. Her research examines how social networks, social norms, and neighborhoods are intertwined to affect substance use and HIV-related outcomes among sexual and gender minorities- with a focus on achieving health equity. Her current projects examine multilevel (neighborhood, network, individual) influences on substance use and HIV-related outcomes, including sexual behaviors with enhanced vulnerability to HIV. She earned her PhD in Prevention Science and Community Health from the University of Miami. Her dissertation was funded by an F31 grant from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities and focused on how immigration stress and substance use affect the social network configurations and PrEP-related conversations among Latino/e/x sexual minority men in Miami, FL. She has an MPH in Global Health from Emory University and completed her BS in Physiology at the University of Iowa and the University of Cape Town.

    Selected publications:

    • Shrader C-H, Duncan DT, Chen Y-T, Driver R, Russell J, Moody RL, Knox J, Skaathun B, Durrell M, Hanson H, Eavou R, Goedel WC, Schneider JA. Latent profile patterns of network-level norms and associations with individual-level sexual behaviors among Black sexual and gender minorities assigned male at birth: the N2 cohort study in Chicago. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 1-18.
    • Shrader C, Stoler J, Arroyo-Flores J, Doblecki-Lewis S, Carrico A, Safren S, Fallon S, Kanamori M. Geographic Disparities in Availability of Spanish-Language PrEP Services Among Latino Sexual Minority Men in South Florida. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health. 2022 Oct 20. DOI: 10.1007/s10903-022-01412-x. PMID: 36264402.
    • Shrader C, Arroyo-Flores J, Stoler J, Skvoretz J, Carrico A, Doblecki-Lewis S, Kanamori M. The Association Between Social and Spatial Closeness with PrEP Conversations Among Latino Men Who Have Sex with Men. JAIDS. December 1, 2021; 88(4). https://doi.org/10.1097/qai.0000000000002777. 
    • Salerno J, Shrader C, Algarin A, Lee JY, Fish JN. Changes in alcohol use since the onset of COVID-19 are associated with psychological distress among sexual and gender minority university students in the U.S.: Short Communication. Drug and Alcohol Dependence.