Archives: Affiliates

Dr. Courtney Hill is a cancer epidemiologist. Her research uses multilevel epidemiologic approaches to examine how neighborhood environments, health behaviors, and molecular factors contribute to disparities in cancer risk and survival. She is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Translational Research Fellowship Program at Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research, where she investigates breast cancer disparities related to the tumor microenvironment and cancer treatment-associated epigenetic changes. She earned her PhD and MS in Epidemiology from the University of Washington, where she was supported by an NCI-funded T32 training grant and conducted research using data from cohort and intervention studies, including the Colon Cancer Family Registry, Multiethnic Cohort, and ¡Mi Vida Saludable!.

Paula Francisca Saravia is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Washington, Seattle. She is a medical anthropologist whose research focuses on lived experiences of environmental precarity, Indigenous healing practices, and collective forms of care and healing. She holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California, San Diego, and her work bridges academic scholarship with community engagement and advocacy.

Paula received her undergraduate training in social anthropology at the Universidad de Chile, where she specialized in medical anthropology, later working on poverty reduction programs and teaching as a Lecturer. In 2006, she was awarded an Erasmus Mundus grant from the European Union to pursue the interdisciplinary master’s program Phoenix Dynamics of Health and Welfare. Her doctoral research examined tuberculosis illness experiences and modes of sociopolitical engagement within Aymara communities in Bolivia and Chile. Her current research explores the complexities of care amid environmental precarity among Indigenous communities in Chile, examining the role of language in healing, Indigenous wellbeing, and the sociopolitical relationships Indigenous communities forge with state institutions and local actors.

Brittany Jones-Cobb (she/her) is a licensed clinical social worker and social gerontologist. Brittany’s research centers on advancing health equity for marginalized older adults living with chronic conditions and disabilities—particularly those without the support of a familial or chosen care network. Her work is rooted in a deep commitment to improving outcomes for populations disproportionately isolated, often by intersecting systems of oppression related to disability, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity. She has a Ph.D. in Social Welfare from the University of Washington’s School of Social Work, where she also earned a Graduate Certificate in Demographic Methods.

Dr. Vogel is a systems scientist and epidemiologist whose research centers on health inequities, cardiometabolic and vascular disease, brain health, and the care delivery systems that shape population health. She joined the University of Minnesota School of Public Health in 2026 as a fellow in Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention after completing her PhD at Washington University in St. Louis. Hailing from Washington State, she completed her BASW, BS, MPH, and MSW degrees at the University of Washington and still collaborates with the Washington State Department of Health where she evaluates multisector hypertension control efforts. Her research applies mixed methods, system dynamics, group model building, implementation science, and social network analysis to questions about why prevention and treatment reach populations unevenly. She also contributed to SoNHR and GRAND reporting guidelines for social networks. In current projects, she is examining vascular contributions to cognitive decline and dementia among older adults, and she consults with four Level 1 trauma centers, mostly in California, on the design and implementation of pediatric neurocritical care programs using implementation science, design thinking, and system dynamics. Her training has been supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute since 2021. Dr. Vogel is an Academic Editor at PLOS ONE and reviews for fourteen journals.

Rachel Moran-Prestridge Ph.D (she/her) is a Senior Research Scientist at the Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington’s Information School. Moran received her doctoral degree in 2020 from the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. Her research explores the role of trust in digital information environments and is particularly concerned with how trust is implicated in the spread of mis- and dis-information.  Dr. Moran’s research has been published in Information, Communication & Society, Digital Journalism, Journalism Practice, Media, Culture & Society and Telecommunications Policy. Moran also holds a BA and an MA in Social and Political Science from Cambridge University and an MA in Political Communications from Goldsmiths College, University of London.

Anna Fiastro is a public health professional and researcher focused on sexual and reproductive health and rights, exploring opportunities to expand access to abortion care through the implementation of new technologies, provider practices, and health policies. She has experience in quantitative and qualitative research methods as well as health services and implementation science research approaches.

Natalie a social worker and gerontologist whose research focuses on health equity, aging and disabilityNatalie Turner policy, and long-term services and supports (LTSS), with particular emphasis on Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS). She is currently examining how state policy decisions on the design and generosity of Medicaid HCBS affect service use and health outcomes for older adults. Her long-term goal is to generate research that informs policy change and advances more equitable, responsive, and relevant LTSS. Before graduate school, Natalie worked as a social worker in a specialty outpatient neurology clinic focused on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Her direct experience in aging and health services has deeply shaped her research agenda.

Adam Visokay is a Bellwether Postdoctoral Scholar at UC Berkeley’s School of Information working with Professor Joshua Blumenstock. Adam completed their PhD in Sociology at the University of Washington, co-advised by Professor Sasha Johfre and Professor Tyler McCormick. Adam’s research explores how to leverage computational methods to study social phenomena, typically motivated by questions in public health, economics, and sociology. Adam is particularly interested in how to perform valid statistical inference using predictions from black box algorithms and how to effectively use AI/ML methods in a way that is both transparent and socially grounded.

Dr. Tillyer is a professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her research examines how environmental and situational factors shape criminal opportunities that produce crime and victimization patterns.

Her recent interdisciplinary work has focused on understanding the role of the built environment in producing spatiotemporal crime patterns, with a focus on the public safety benefits of investment. Her work in this area has demonstrated 1) physical property investment is associated with crime reductions at small spatial scales, with no evidence of spatial crime displacement to nearby locations, 2) there is moderate diffusion of crime prevention benefits to nearby locations, 3) investment is particularly impactful in the most under-resourced communities that have historically experienced disinvestment, and 4) investment can mitigate the criminogenic effects of commercial places that communities and residents need but often produce crime.

Dr. Tillyer’s work has been funded by the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the City of San Antonio, Harris County Community Supervision and Corrections Department, and the Justice Research and Statistics Association.

Michael A. Schultz is a quantitative sociologist and social demographer who studies economic mobility, social policy, and workers’ careers. Schultz received his PhD in Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed an NICHD postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Texas at Austin’s Population Research Center. His research has been published in leading social science journals, including the American Sociological Review, the Russell Sage Foundation Journal for the Social Sciences, and Social Science Research.

Schultz uses a structural inequality approach that focuses on how institutions, like education systems, job ladders, and welfare state programs shape worker mobility by race, gender, and class. He specializes in telling stories with data to provide insight into how workers and households navigate opportunities and constraints to advance their careers and gain economic security. Schultz is the PI on an NSF Education Core grant studying the job ladders in the STEM Skilled Technical Workforce and on a Strada Education Foundation grant investigating the occupational and wage outcomes of WA postsecondary school leavers in partnership with the WA Education Research & Data Center (ERDC). Schultz works in partnership with local and state governments and communities to conduct social impact research for the public good.