Researchers
Allison Aiello, PhD, Principal Investigator
Dr Aiello is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Pubic Health. Dr Aiello has expertise in psychoneuroimmunology and has experience in organizing biological sample collection and storage, conducting immunoassay testing, and supervising laboratory technicians in immunological techniques. Dr. Aiello is a co-investigator in the Sacramento Area Latino Study of Aging (SALSA) and the M-FLU study. [Research Website] [Faculty Website] [M-FLU Website] [eX-FLU Website]
Sandro Galea, MD, MPH, DrPH.
Dr Galea is Gelman Professor of Epidemiology and Chair, Department of Epidemiology at Columbia University in New York. Dr Galea is primarily interested in the social and economic production of health, particularly drug use, mental health, and behavior in urban settings and has extensive experience in research concerning the determinants of mental health and health behavior. His work has utilized the techniques involved in this study including telephone and in-person based interviews.
Monica Uddin, PhD
Dr. Uddin is an Assistant Professor in the Center for Molecular Medicine and Genomics at Wayne State University School of Medicine. Her research interests include gene by social environment interactions in commonly occurring mood-anxiety disorders, social context and the epigenetics of posttraumatic stress disorder, genomic and physiologic phenotypes of mental illness in community-based settings, and developmental perspectives on mental illness. Dr. Uddin is a co-Investigator on DNHS and on the related ARRA-funded Challenge grant, “Candidate Epigenetic Biomarkers for PTSD: Insights from Detroit.”
Jorge Delva, PhD
Dr Delva is a Professor in the School of Social Work and is Co-Director of the “Vivian A. and James L. Curtis School of Social Work Research and Training Center”, a Center at the University of Michigan that aims to conduct multidisciplinary research to understand and eliminate health disparities. He also holds the positions of Faculty Associate at the Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research and Affiliate Faculty with the Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health, School of Public Health, University of Michigan. Additionally Dr Delva is Associate Faculty with the NIMH Research Training Center on Poverty, Risk, and Mental Health, a member of the Executive Committee of the University of Michigan Substance Abuse Research Center (UMSARC) and of the U-M Tobacco Research Network (UNTRN). He has spearheaded several large population-based studies (in the US and Latin America) as well as community-based projects (Detroit) that involve primary data collection aimed at reducing health disparities.
Sandra Momper, PhD
Dr. Momper is Assistant Professor of Social Work at the University of Michigan. Her research interests include the study of gambling, substance abuse, PTSD, mental health, and health disparities among rural and urban American Indians. She brings to the study her work of 20 years of direct practice experience with African American families and children in urban settings, as well as extensive experience in community organizing. Dr. Momper is a board member of the American Indian Health and Family Services of Detroit.
Trivellore Raghunathan, PhD
Dr Raghunathan is a Professor of Biostatistics and a Research Professor at the Institute for Social Research. He is the Director of Biostatistics Collaborative and Methodology Research Core (BCMRC), a research unit designed to foster collaborative and methodological research with the researchers in other departments in the University of Michigan School of Public Health and other allied schools. He is an Associate Director of the Center for Research on Ethnicity, Culture and Health (CRECH). He is a faculty member at the Center of Social Epidemiology and Population Health (CSEPH) where he works closely with Dr Galea. He is also affiliated with the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI). Dr Raghunathan brings to this project unique expertise in statistical analysis of survey data.
Derek Wildman, PhD
Dr. Wildman is an Assistant Professor in the Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan. His laboratory uses molecular evolutionary and comparative genomic approaches to understand genetic change during human evolution. Current research in their laboratory has two directions: 1- to elucidate the evolutionary history of birth and labor, and 2- to study the evolution of mammals in general and primates in particular. Technologies they use include DNA sequencing, microarrays, and quantitative PCR (QPCR). They are also developing high-throughput computational methods for evolutionary genomic analysis. Dr. Wildman’s lab performs the initial processing of all DNHS biological specimens as well as the genetic analyses.
Karestan Koenan, PhD
Dr. Koenen is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. Dr. Koenen is a licensed clinical psychologist with expertise and experience in developmental psychology and psychiatric epidemiology. She is currently PI of an NIMH funded Career Development (K08) Award that uses a developmental epidemiologic approach to examining the joint action of genotype and childhood environment in the etiology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other stress-related mental disorders. Her work has focused on understanding the role of genetic and environmental risk factors in the development of PTSD and its comorbidity with psychiatric and substance use disorders.