Faculty

Derek Brown is a health economist who uses innovative methods to study health-care costs and quality, access to care, and health behaviors. His primary goal is to improve the valuation of health outcomes and policies, and to enhance the economic evaluation of public health policies.  Brown’s areas of focus are child health (Medicaid, child maltreatment, […]

For over two decades, Charlene Caburnay has been at the forefront of designing, developing, and evaluating health communication programs at the Health Communication Research Laboratory, directly addressing critical public health issues such as cancer, diabetes, COVID-19, childhood immunization and chronic diseases. She has created communications aimed at a variety of audiences, including smokers, families at […]

  Jessica Backman-Levy’s research focuses on the relationships between gender, poverty and global reproductive health. She designs and evaluates culturally grounded interventions that promote gender equality, and strengthen health and development outcomes.  Backman-Levy has worked in underserved communities in the United States, Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. She has provided research support and […]

William (Bill) Effah is a physician-scientist with a decade of experience in clinical, field and academic health care in the United States and internationally. His work is focused on developing scalable, cost-effective and innovative health strategies and technology tools for managing infectious and chronic diseases in low-resource settings.  Before joining the School of Public Health, Effah […]

Patrick J. Fowler’s research aims to prevent homelessness and its harmful effects on children, families, and community well-being using innovative community- and data-driven methodologies. Trained in child clinical-community psychology, Fowler develops innovative approaches to inform policies and programs that promote housing and family stability. His work uses a complex systems perspective to inform developmentally and […]

Kate Barbier has over 20 years of experience as a social work and public health professional focusing on program planning and implementation, interdisciplinary collaboration, group facilitation, and community engagement in a broad range of social service and health-care settings. At the School of Public Health, she oversees the applied practice experience (practicum) program for master’s […]

Rachel Garg’s research examines how individual-level unmet social needs, such as housing instability and food insecurity, impact health outcomes and behaviors such as smoking cessation. By building theory around the mechanisms linking social needs and health, she aims to inform the development of interventions that address these needs and reduce health disparities.   Garg is a […]

Ross Hammond uses advanced computational modeling to understand and find practical solutions for critical public health and social science issues. His work encompasses a broad range of public health topics including obesity etiology and prevention, food systems, tobacco control, behavioral epidemiology, and the broader social determinants of health such as crime, corruption, segregation, trust and […]

Ragini Maddipati has more than 14 years of experience in clinical research, data management and analysis, program management and evaluation, as well as sexual and reproductive health and reproductive justice.   After earning her MSW from the Brown School in 2009, Maddipati worked in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at WashU Medicine as a key […]

Virginia (Ginger) McKay’s research is centered around the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based practices, with a particular focus on sustaining effective interventions and de-implementing ineffective or harmful practices.  McKay examines these issues in the context of infectious disease, antimicrobial stewardship, and cancer, employing mixed methods and systems science approaches to tackle research questions in these […]