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over 2 years ago

Mentor Session Sign-up Available!

Dear Competitors,

 I am pleased to announce that scheduling is now available to meet with four terrific mentors via Zoom (up to 20 minutes). Their bios, and links to a Calendly page to sign up to meet with them, are below. You may sign up to meet with each mentor once, but please do not sign up for more than one slot per mentor. Each mentor has different availability between October 4 – October 26. Additional mentors and/or time slots may be added—stay tuned. We are looking forward to seeing your solutions!

 Mentor #1:

José Arturo Bauermeister, MPH, PhD (he/him) is Chair of the Department of Family and Community Health. His research integrates perspectives from public health, social science, medicine and human sexuality to create behavior change interventions that can reduce the health disparities experienced by sexual and gender minority adolescents and young adults. His work has been published in over 250 scientific publications and book chapters in the areas of HIV/AIDS, LGBTQ+ health, behavioral health, and cognitive and emotional well-being.  He has received over $40 million in funding as principal investigator and over $200 million as co-investigator in federally-funded research. Dr. Bauermeister is Fellow of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, an Aspen Institute Health Innovators Fellow, and a Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.

 Mentor #2

Allysha C. Maragh-Bass, PhD, MPH, is a Scientist II in the Behavioral, Epidemiological, and Clinical Sciences (BECS) Division at FHI 360. She is a Social/Behavioral Scientist and former Scholar with the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN). Dr. Maragh-Bass has nearly 20 years of research experience in HIV/AIDS, substance use, qualitative, and quantitative methods in clinical and community-based research and programs. She is on the editorial board for the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse and has led numerous NIH, CDC, and USAID-funded projects focused on HIV prevention in communities minoritized by race, gender, and sexual orientation. Since late 2019, Dr. Maragh-Bass has led decolonization and global equity work at FHI 360. She is also a 2021 Social Lab and Systems Innovator, as awarded by the Reimagination of the INGO and Global Civil Society (RINGO) Project. In addition to her scientist and applied nonprofit work, Dr. Maragh-Bass is also a highly experienced educator, who has held adjunct faculty positions for over a decade. She is currently a Visiting Professor at the University of California San Francisco Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, and an Adjunct Professor at the Duke Global Health Institute.

 Mentor #3

Alok Patra, MPH, is the Public Health Informatics Branch Director at the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO). Before joining NACCHO, Alok worked for the past eight years as an Immunization Information System (IIS) Manager/Coordinator, establishing the Immunization Information Systems (IIS) for New Jersey in 2019 and New Hampshire in 2020.  In addition, during his time in NH, he led the Vaccine Documentation/Technology Branch during the COVID-19 pandemic and MPX outbreaks. Alok received his Master of Public Health from the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC). He has been in the US Army Reserve since 2015 and is currently in school to become an Army Officer. Alok was born and raised in India. He enjoys playing cricket, running, hiking, and spending time with family and friends.

 Mentor #4

Jessica Willoughby, PhD, MA, is an associate professor at the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University. Dr. Willoughby’s research focuses on how media, including digital media, can have a positive impact on health. She takes an interdisciplinary approach to health communication, drawing from the communication, psychology, health behavior and public health disciplines. She is especially interested in conducting research that has a positive impact on participants and the community. She has collaborated on a number of projects that have effectively used theory to benefit the health of adolescents and young adults. For such work, she has received awards including the Science Matters award from the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of North Carolina (now SHIFT NC) and the Graduate Education Advancement Board Impact Award from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Her two research tracks focus on: (1) the potential for communication strategies to improve adolescent and young adult health, and (2) the processes through which media impacts health outcomes as a precursor to intervention. She is experienced in quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research. She was a member of the National Academies committee that authored the report Sexually Transmitted Infections: Adopting a Sexual Health Paradigm.

 

Questions?

If you have any questions about the hackathon, please post on the discussion forum.