Students and Alumni

Graduate Research Assistant

Ms. Alam is a first-year doctoral student in the department of Epidemiology. She received a B.A. in Economics with a minor in Mathematical Decision Sciences from UNC. For her honors thesis, she analyzed racial bias in police use of force in the New York “Stop and Frisk” policy. Prior to starting her doctoral program, she worked as an Economist at RTI International, where she evaluated the effects of public health media campaigns on attitudes and behaviors and studied national disparities in tobacco use among LGBT young adults.  Outside of work, she volunteered as a Crisis Hotline Companion and Support Group Facilitator at the Orange County Rape Crisis Center. Her research interests include violence prevention, minority health, and econometric methods.

Graduate Research Assistant

Julia is a doctoral student in the Health Behavior Department. She received her BS in Psychology from the University of Vermont and her MPH from Boston University with certificates in epidemiology and maternal and child health. She is interested in multi-level public health approaches to gender-based violence, including intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and firearm violence. She is particularly interested in the overlap between gender-based violence, public health, and the criminal legal system. At IPRC, she is involved in the eProtect project, which aims to evaluate of the effectiveness of the North Carolina electronic filing (e-filing) system for domestic violence protective orders, and Project RESTART, which aims to develop a model domestic violence intervention program centered around restorative justice and the social determinants of health.

Graduate Research Assistant

Kate Vinita Fitch is a doctoral student in the Department of Epidemiology and a research assistant for the Innovations in Suicide Prevention Research (INSPIRE) project at IPRC. Prior to coming to UNC, she completed her BA in Public Health from the University of Colorado Denver while conducting research on disparities in how threatening individuals are when they are killed by police based on their race and mental health status. Kate’s primary research interests are self- and other-inflicted violence, including suicide, police brutality, and domestic abuse, especially against people with mental illness.

Graduate Research Assistant

Katherine Gora Combs is a doctoral student in the Department of
Epidemiology at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and works as a graduate research assistant for the Community Opioid Resources Engine for North Carolina (CORE-NC), a North Carolina opioid settlements collaboration. Katherine is a two-time alumna of UNC, having received a Master of Public Health (Health Behavior) with a certificate in Community Preparedness and Disaster Management and a Bachelor of Science in Public Health (Biostatistics) with a second major in Music (Performance). She is the 2021-2022 recipient of the Gary G. and Carolyn J. Koch Merit Scholarship in Public Health and was inducted into the Delta Omega Honorary Society in 2021. Her current research interests include maximizing the intersection of research, policy, and practice to address substance use and injury. She is also passionate about improving the communication of injury and violence research to policymakers and the public.

Graduate Research Assistant

Muhammad Hudhud is a first year doctoral student in the Department of Health Behavior at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Public Health. A native of Baltimore, MD, Muhammad completed his undergraduate and master’s degrees at Johns Hopkins University in public health and public mental health respectively. His research interests include injury control and violence prevention, specifically around firearm, youth, interpersonal, and self-directed violence. Muhammad enjoys cooking, working out, reading, and playing piano.

Graduate Research Assistant

Amelia Martin is a doctoral student in the Department of Epidemiology investigating occupational fatality trends and disparities in North Carolina. Prior to coming to UNC, she received her B.S. in Biology and a secondary-major in Global Health from Duke University. She has worked on projects examining the impact of e-waste exposure on maternal and child health, the relationship between green space access and chronic health outcomes, and infectious disease community transmission. Her current research interests include air pollution and heavy metal exposure, pesticide exposure, and occupational health.

Graduate Research Assistant

Dr. Martin is a doctoral student in the Department of Epidemiology where she is contributing to research projects at the Injury Prevention Research Center and the National Catastrophic Center for Sport Injury Surveillance on topics of workplace violence, musculoskeletal injuries, and catastrophic injuries. Her interests include injury mitigation in sport injuries and musculoskeletal conditions. She is a physical therapist and a board-certified sports specialist. Prior to pursuing her PhD, she contributed to research investigating clinical measures of the adolescent overhead athlete, collegiate athlete health and well-being, and injury surveillance utilizing publicly available data among American professional leagues.

Graduate Research Assistant

Kristin Shiue is a doctoral student in the Department of Epidemiology. Before coming to UNC, she received her MPH in Epidemiology from the East Carolina University Brody School of Medicine and worked at IQVIA as a member of the Injury Surveillance & Analytics team, collaborating on research efforts to examine injury and player health in professional sports leagues. Kristin is a recipient of the Gillings School’s Robert Verhalen Endowed Scholarship in Injury Prevention/Trauma Management and the Gary G. and Carolyn J. Koch Merit Scholarship in Public Health. Beyond sport-related injury, Kristin’s research interests lie at the intersection of substance use and pain, particularly the leveraging of large healthcare databases and integrated data systems to guide the development of effective strategies to manage pain and mitigate the ongoing opioid crisis.

Graduate Research Assistant

Mason (he/him) is a second-year MPH student in the Department of Health Behavior at the Gillings School of Global Public Health. Prior to beginning his MPH, he received a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, where he also worked as a research assistant supporting projects focused on community-engaged research and gun violence prevention. At the IPRC, Mason supports the Strengthening Systems for North Carolina Children (SYNC) and Collaborative Learning Institute (CLI) projects. His research interests include adverse childhood experiences and community-engaged system dynamics tools. He is also passionate about resource access and addressing systemic inequities through community-led systems change.

Graduate Research Assistant

Monica is a doctoral student in the Department of Epidemiology. She received her MPH in Epidemiology from the Colorado School of Public Health. Prior to beginning her doctoral training, worked as both a Healthcare Consultant and Research Assistant conducting applied public health research. At the IPRC, Monica supports the Innovations in Suicide Prevention Research (INSPIRE) project. Her research interests include substance abuse disorders, reduction of risk-taking behaviors in young adults, and self-directed violence prevention.

Professor in Pediatric Critical Care, Primary Children’s Hospital at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT

Dr. Keenan’s key accomplishments in graduate school include completing the first ever population-based study of abusive head trauma (Shaken Baby Syndrome) in the United States and completing a mixed methods research study that identified disparities in evaluation and diagnosis of child abuse. During her graduate education, Dr. Keenan received the Bert Kaplan Best Student Publication by the UNC Department of Epidemiology and the Gillings School of Global Public Health Bernard Greenberg Award for Excellence in Doctoral Research. Dr. Keenan graduated with a PhD in Epidemiology from UNC Chapel Hill in 2004.

IPRC’s contribution to training: Dr. Keenan was advised by Dr. Steve Marshall.

Director of Health Education and Community Transformation, Durham County Department of Public Health, Durham, NC

During her graduate education, Dr. Downey-Piper received the Kerr Memorial Award for commitment to community health education and the Lucy Morgan Award for integrity and leadership in health education. Key accomplishments since graduating with an Master’s degree in Health Behavior Health Education from the Gillings School of Global Public Health in 2008 include leading the largest Health Education Division in NC, launching the state’s first replication site of the Cure Violence program, leading a 400-member coalition, which won the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Culture of Health Prize, and co-leading Durham’s first Health Impact Assessment, which resulted in funds for connecting sidewalks around schools in Durham, NC.

IPRC’s contributions to training: Ms. Downey-Piper was trained by IPRC faculty in the development of study procedures, research tools, and implementation methods as part of the Violence Against Home Health and Hospice

Assistant Professor in the Division of Biostatistics, Department of Epidemiology and Population Health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, NY

During his graduate education, Dr. Viswanathan received travel awards from UNC IPRC and the UNC Department of Biostatistics in addition to the Delta Omega Award. His key accomplishments since graduating with a DrPH in Biostatistics from UNC Chapel Hill in 2011 include his influential research on inflicted traumatic brain injuries in children in India, mentoring numerous trainees domestically and internationally in injury and violence prevention research and biostatistics, and being an Associate Editor for the BMC Public Health journal.

IPRC’s contributions to training: Dr. Viswanathan was advised by IPRC faculty and an IPRC graduate research assistant throughout his doctoral training.

Senior Epidemiologist in the Office of Epidemiology and Research at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB)

Dr. Vladutiu’s key accomplishments in graduate school included conducting the largest state-based study of motor vehicle crashes and adverse pregnancy outcomes in North Carolina. She received the UNC Graduate Education Advancement Board Impact Award and the SOPHE/CDC Unintentional Injury Prevention and Control Fellowship. Since graduating with a PhD in Epidemiology from UNC Chapel Hill in 2012, Dr. Vladutiu’s key accomplishments include facilitating and leading the redesign of the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program’s performance measurement system.  In 2018, Dr. Vladutiu was a recipient of the Early Career Professional Achievement Award in MCH Epidemiology – a National MCH Epidemiology Award sponsored by the Coalition for Excellence in MCH Epidemiology.

IPRC’s contributions to training: Dr. Vladutiu was mentored by IPRC Directors Drs. Carol Runyan and Steve Marshall.

Senior Epidemiologist in the Alaskan Division of Public Health in Anchorage, AK

Dr. Parrish’s key accomplishments in graduate school include linking multiple administrative databases to examine predictive analytics for child maltreatment in Alaska. During graduate school, he received the Doris Duke Fellowship for the promotion of child wellbeing and prevention of child abuse and neglect. Since graduating with a PhD in Epidemiology from UNC Chapel Hill in 2016, Dr. Parrish’s key accomplishments include co-chairing the Alaska Statewide Violence and Injury Prevention Partnership, and serving as the Technical Advisor for measurement to the Federal Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities.

IPRC’s contributions to training: Dr. Parrish collaborated on and gained experience through various projects at IPRC to quantify national, regional, and state rates of abusive head trauma in infants and was advised by Dr. Steve Marshall.