Archives: Affiliates

James Young is the Director of the WCRER at the University of Washington. James has over 25 years of experience in analyzing property markets worldwide both as a consultant and as an academic with a particular emphasis on market analysis, urban economics, and housing. He has published in leading academic journals including Real Estate Economics, Urban Studies, Housing Studies, Journal of Housing Economics, and the Journal of Real Estate Research.

Jamaica Corker is a Program Officer for Data & Evaluation in the Family Planning Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. A demographer with broad experience in international population dynamics research, her research has focused on fertility and family planning in sub-Saharan Africa, migration and urbanization, and linking demography and geographic information systems (GIS). She has since worked extensively in health and family planning program implementation in sub-Saharan Africa, including several years in the Democratic Republic of Congo with Population Services International (PSI) and as part of the West African Ebola response in 2014-15. She holds a Master’s degree in Population and Development from the London School of Economics and PhD in Demography from the University of Pennsylvania.

I am a sociologist interested in how economic and cultural transformations shape gender and intimate relationships in families. My award-winning book, Women without Men: Single Mothers and Family Change in the New Russia (Cornell, 2015), analyzes how ordinary people, especially single mothers, navigate the transition from state socialism to market capitalism during Russia’s “quiet revolution” in family life. Through in-depth analysis of Russia’s matrifocal families, I challenge several assumptions underlying theories of family life, poverty, and gender. Related to my interest in single-mother families, I have written about nonresident fathers and divorce, the effects of work insecurities and neoliberal capitalism on the self, intergenerational relations between grandmothers and adult children, the intersectionality of gender and age, and the ways in which unpaid care work shapes gender inequality.

My current research examines how “intensive grandmothering” in the United States affects the transition to parenthood, parents’ responses to the child-care crisis, and broader inequalities among families.

Alison Drake, MPH, PhD is an epidemiologist and Assistant Professor at the University of Washington in the Department of Global Health. She received her MPH in Epidemiology from the University of Michigan and PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Washington. She is currently an Assistant Director of the Global Center for Integrated Health of Women, Adolescent, and Children (Global WACh), co-Director of the Family Planning Decision Support Scientific Priority Area for Global WACh, and an Associate Director for the eHealth Scientific Working Group at the University of Washington/Fred Hutch Center for AIDS Research. Dr. Drake’s research interests include HIV prevention among women and adolescents, incident maternal HIV infections, mother-to-child HIV transmission, adolescent reproductive health, family planning, and mHealth. She is the principal investigator for a K01 award to optimize HIV retesting for prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission in Kenya.  Dr. Drake is also a collaborator on Mobile WAChx, a randomized clinical trial that will evaluate short message service (SMS) interventions to improve maternal antiretroviral adherence in Kenya. In addition, she is a co-instructor for two courses in the School of Public Health, Responsible Conduct of Research: Global to Local and Global Perspectives on Reproductive Health.

Dr. Carey Farquhar, MD, MPH, is a professor at the University of Washington in the Departments of Global Health, Medicine, and Epidemiology. Dr. Farquhar is also the Associate Chair for Academic Programs in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington. She received her MD at Harvard Medical School. She completed a residency and chief residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in infectious disease at the University of Washington, where she also earned a Masters in Public Health. She mentors US and Kenyan trainees and currently conducts research in Kenya on HIV testing and partner notification services, HIV and HCV diagnosis and access to treatment among persons who inject drugs,and non-communicable diseases among HIV-infected persons.

She has published more than 160 peer-reviewed papers and is the Director of the UW Kenya Research and Training Center and 3 international training programs: International AIDS Research and Training Program (IARTP), Afya Bora Consortium Fellowship in Global Health Leadership, and Global and Rural Health Fellowship. She is also Director of the UW Internal Medicine Global Health Pathway. Dr. Farquhar teaches 3 courses in the School of Public Health — AIDS: A Multidisciplinary Approach, the Responsible Conduct of Research, and the Integrated Residency Global Health Leadership course. In addition, she sees HIV-infected patients one half-day per week at Madison Clinic and attends on the wards at Harborview Medical Center. NA

Ariel Rokem is a Research Associate Professor at the University of Washington Department of Psychology. He received a Bachelors and Masters degree in Biology and Cognitive Psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2002 and 2005). He then received a PhD in neuroscience from UC Berkeley (2010) and additional postdoctoral training in computational neuroimaging at Stanford (2011 – 2015). He was a Senior Data Scientist at the University of Washington eScience Institute (2015-2020), before joining the faculty of the Department of Psychology in 2020. His group (https://neuroinformatics.uw.edu/) develops computational tools to study the biological basis of brain function and applies them to a variety of research questions.

Dr. Nicole Errett is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the University of Washington School of Public Health. Her research interests and expertise are in the use of public policy to enhance health outcomes during and after disaster. Her commitment to community-relevant, translatable research is grounded in nearly a decade of practical experience in public health and healthcare emergency preparedness and management. She served as the Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Policy and Legislative Director at the Baltimore City Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management, and the Evaluation and Assessment Manager at the Northwest Healthcare Response Network.

Dr. Brandon Guthrie is an epidemiologist and an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Global Health and Epidemiology at the University of Washington (UW). He has 10 years of experience conducting epidemiologic research on prospective cohorts and intervention trials involving people affected by HIV in Kenya, with a current focus on implementation science research and improving engagement in HIV/AIDS care. He has published manuscripts related to HIV treatment, transmission, and resistance among HIV-discordant couples, and presented at international HIV/AIDS conferences on topics including barriers to ART initiation. His current research focuses on a series of studies intended to improve engagement in HIV care following diagnosis using a combination of expedited CD4 testing and peer counseling to overcome barriers to linkage and retention in care. All of his research projects involve the use of eHealth tools to support data collection and/or as a component of an intervention. He is also a co-leader of the Global Health Data Toolkit Working Group to develop standardized surveys and data collection instruments, and an instructor for workshops and lectures on implementation of eHealth tools.

Prior to serving as Research Manager at Grounded Solutions Network, Vince was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Shimberg Center for Housing Studies at the University of Florida, where he spent over six years conducting research on affordable housing. Vince led a project to develop an online housing search tool for low-income households to find affordable, available housing in opportunity-rich neighborhoods. He received his PhD from University of Florida’s College of Design, Construction, and Planning. His dissertation focused on relocation decisions and location outcomes of government subsidized low-income renters. Additionally, Vince had experience in planning and community development from non-profit, local government, and consulting perspectives. His commitment to serving people and communities is anchored with a blend of professional experience: a designer appreciating aesthetics and creativity, a planner longing for understanding various forces that drive the built environment, and an advocate of the poor and promoting social integration.

Jane M. Simoni, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and a Professor and Director of Clinical Training in the Department of Psychology at the University of Washington in Seattle. She directs the Behavioral Science Core of the UW/Fred Hutch CFAR, where is the senior advisor to the eHealth Scientific Working Group. Her research has focused on behavioral aspects of HIV treatment, with NIMH-funded intervention studies in New York City, Seattle, the U.S.-Mexico border, China, and Kenya. The Chinese government has recognized her with a “High-End Foreign Expert” Award for 20015-2018. She has over 200 publications, and two of her medication adherence intervention strategies (peer support and electronic reminders) are included among those with “Good Evidence” in the CDC’s DEBI program for adherence interventions. Her collaborations include HIV treatment and other behavioral studies in the U.S. as well as Kenya, Rwanda, and South Africa. Formerly funded by a K24 award from NIMH, she is an active mentor of doctoral students and early career scientists, serving as primary mentor on several NRSA pre-doctoral and K series awards. Her current work aims to employ computer technology to enhance intervention impact and dissemination.