Archives: Affiliates

Alan Griffith’s primary research revolves around the causes and effects of social networks in economic development. He studies how networks form and change over time, as well as how such networks influence—and are influenced by—economic and other social outcomes. His research aims to take insights from economic theory and statistics of networks to bear on real-world applications, as well as positing new methods to draw inferences from observed interactions. His additional research areas deal with related issues, mostly arising out of issues in economic development. It broadly spans economic theory, econometrics, development, and labor subfields in economics while taking methodological cues from structural estimation in industrial organization.

Dr. Grace John-Stewart is a Professor of Global Health, Medicine, Epidemiology, and Pediatrics at the University of Washington. Her interests include prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT), improving outcomes for children with HIV, and addressing relevant co-infections that affect women and children with HIV (including TB, pneumonia, diarrhea, CMV).  Dr. John-Stewart has published over 280 peer-reviewed articles. Her research is based in Kenya and includes molecular epidemiologic studies, clinical trials, implementation science studies, and program evaluations focused on HIV and maternal child health.  She received the Elizabeth Glaser Scientist Award for research on mother-to-child transmission of HIV.  Dr. John-Stewart has mentored numerous trainees, received a K24 Mentorship Award, and received a UW School of Medicine mentorship award. She is the Director of the UW CFAR International Core and the UW Global Center for Integrated Health of Women, Adolescents and Children (Global WACh).

Dr. Wagenaar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington, and a Technical Advisor to Health Alliance International, a Center in the Department of Global Health. His work focuses on using innovative implementation science methods to answer pressing questions around improving public-sector health systems and health policies globally. He has particular interests in improving the prevention and treatment of mental illness in low-resource settings in the US and globally. In addition, he is passionate about the use of quasi-experimental designs and routine health information systems data to optimize the scale-up of complex health systems approaches globally.

He is currently PI or Co-I on a number of mental health implementation science projects in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and South Africa. As faculty in the DGH, he teaches the Advanced Global Health Evaluation Methods course (GH537) offered each spring. He has also worked to develop innovative online distance learning courses in implementation science that have, to date, trained >1,000 students from >30 countries.

Arthur Acolin is an Associate Professor in the University of Washington’s College of Built Environments. He obtained his Ph.D. in Urban Planning and Development from the Sol Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California in May 2017. His dissertation, titled “Three Essays on Frictions in Housing Markets” looked at various market imperfections that affect household housing choices and impact their financial outcomes. His field of research is housing economics with a focus on international housing policy and finance. His particular interest is on how housing market institutions and market designs affect household access to housing (tenure choice, housing consumption and mobility decision). Prior to completing his Ph.D. Acolin was a Research Associate in the Real Estate department of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania where he worked on housing, urbanization and economic development issues. He obtained a master in Urban Policy from the London School of Economics and Sciences Po Paris and an undergraduate degree in Urban Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Engi Attia received her medical degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and a Master’s in Public Health from the University of Washington. She completed her Fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship here at the University of Washington. Engi’s research interests involve the intersection of chronic lung disease and HIV infection. In collaboration with TREE at the Coptic Hope Center in Nairobi, Kenya, she is examining chronic lung diseases and associated risk factors among individuals with HIV infection, with a particular interest in adolescents with vertically-acquired HIV. Engi spent time at the Coptic Hope Center in 2014 and again in 2015 to implement two prospective, observational studies addressing these relationships under the combined mentorship of Drs. Michael Chung and Kristina Crothers. Engi received a K23 (HL129888) Career Development Award in February 2017 from the NIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to continue examining mechanisms of and risk factors for chronic lung disease in HIV-infected adolescents in Nairobi.

Tim Thomas is a postdoctoral scholar and research director at the Urban Displacement project specializing in urban sociology, demography, and data science. His research focuses on how neighborhood change, housing, and displacement affects household socioeconomic stratification by race and gender in the United States. Tim is also the Principal Investigator for the Evictions Study, a multi-metropolitan analysis on the neighborhood drivers of eviction using census data and text mining court records. Tim’s research agenda is marked by an intellectual foundation in policy-relevant research operationalized through civic and academic collaborations that address real-world problems and advances scholarly research. In 2019, his team’s work on evictions provided empirical evidence that helped pass several tenant protection laws in Washington State.

In addition to his work on evictions, Tim has published academic articles and reports on migration, gentrification, homelessness, hate crimes, and displacement. He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Washington and was a Moore/Sloan Data Science Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Washington’s eScience Institute.

Carmen Gonzales is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Washington and an Associate Director for the Center for Communication, Difference, and Equity. Her research employs community-based and participatory methods to examine technology engagement and health disparities among immigrant and minority populations. She has 10 years of experience conducting research in under-served communities, more recently on connectivity and digital equity.  Her work on digital equity has been supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, through which she identified the supports that Limited English Proficiency families need as more health resources migrate online. She was previously a research assistant and postdoctoral researcher on a study funded by the National Cancer Institute that examined the barriers and conduits to cervical cancer prevention among Latina women in Los Angeles.

Jane Lee’s program of research focuses on reducing health disparities among racial/ethnic and immigrant populations. She studies the unique role of migration-related processes in shaping health behaviors and identifies novel approaches to reach and engage immigrant groups. Her current work aims to reduce HIV-related disparities among immigrants who are at high-risk for HIV with specific attention to increasing HIV testing and linkage to care. The long-term goal is to develop effective, evidence-based interventions to decrease risk behaviors and health disparities among immigrant communities.

Prior to joining the faculty at the UW School of Social work, Lee was a research scientist at the Center for Latino Adolescent and Family Health. She received her PhD in 2017 from New York University Silver School of Social Work and earned a Master’s of Science in Social Work from Columbia University in 2011.

The nexus of Lee’s research and teaching is an emphasis on community involvement and collaboration. Through community-based and participatory approaches, her work acknowledges communities’ strengths and expertise and is grounded in their priorities. By developing interventions that can be translated into practice within communities, she focuses her research on underserved immigrants groups that often lack access to traditional health care and clinical services.

Kim England is an urban social geographer with research interests in employment, migration, critical social policy and inequalities. Her research focuses on three major themes: (i) migration of care workers (especially nurses and domestic workers) and the impacts on workers of reformulating health care policy and changing labor laws; (ii) socioeconomic restructuring, local labor markets, and workplaces, especially clerical work; (iii) families and the home, connecting everyday experiences and social policy formation (e.g. work-life balance). She conducts research on these three themes largely in North America and Europe. She is also known for her writing on critical methodologies, including the politics and ethics of doing social science research.