Alumni

Haeyoon Chang, MPH

Haeyoon received her MPH in Chronic Disease Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, and a Bachelor's degree in Biology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After obtaining her master's degree, she served in the Peace Corps Tonga 2013-2015, where she collaborated with local medical providers on developing accessible skill-building materials on nutrition to combat local obesity issues. She developed an appreciation for global health research through experiences such as investigating challenges to cardiometabolic management in rural Uganda and examining cardiometabolic disparities among American Indian elders using a mixed-methodological approach at Partnerships for Native Health in Seattle, WA. Haeyoon joined the research group as a PhD student, successfully defending her dissertation in summer 2024.

Chihua Li, PhD

Chihua earned his Bachelor's degree in Biotechnology from the Beijing Institute of Technology, then moved on to Columbia University, where he earned both his MPH and PhD. After graduating with his PhD, he joined the SEGA Research Group as a Postdoctoral Fellow, studying the development and management of chronic diseases among elderly populations. Chihua is now an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences and State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine at the University of Macau.

Xuexin Yu, MSc

Xuexin earned a bachelor's degree in Biology and a master's degree in Hospital Management and Health Policy, both from Sichuan University, China. She worked as a Research Associate at West China Hospital, Sichuan University, for two years before joining the SEGA Research Group to pursue her PhD in Epidemiologic Science. During her PhD, she studied long-term exposure to economic and psychosocial factors and their association with cognitive aging among older adults. After successfully defending her dissertation, Xuexin began working as a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the Department of Epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, where she continues to work today.

Chen Chen, MMed

Chen received her bachelor's degree from China Medical University in 2017 and her Master of Medicine from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 2020. While a PhD student in the SEGA Research Group, she studied cardiovascular disease and health inequity. Having successfully defended her dissertation, Chen is now a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

Brendan O'Shea, MPH

Brendan completed his MPH in Epidemiology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He worked with Dr. Kobayashi during his MPH, examining the impact of adverse childhood experiences on the rate of memory decline in mid-to-later life. He later joined the SEGA Research Group following graduation and took part in launching the COVID-19 Coping Study, serving as the main data analyst for the study and for cross-national harmonized analyses of cognitive aging. Brendan is currently an Epidemiological Analyst at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health on the Genomic Epidemiology team.

Mansi Verma, MPH

Mansi completed her MPH in Epidemiology at the University of Michigan. She graduated with a B.S. in Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience and an additional B.S. in Psychology, with minors in Bioethics and Cognitive Science, from Michigan State University in 2019. Her research interests focus on psychiatric epidemiology and the social determinants of health that impact neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders. She worked with Dr. Kobayashi for her MPH capstone project, using data from the HAALSI study to explore the relationship between depression and household expenditures within an older population. Mansi is currently a PhD student in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of South Carolina.

Maya Sabbagh, MPH

Maya completed her MPH in Epidemiology at the University of Michigan. She graduated with her B.S. in Public Health from the University of South Carolina in 2018 and worked in clinical research before starting her master's program. Her research interests include social epidemiology as well as cognitive decline and the aging population. She worked with Dr. Kobayashi using the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) dataset to examine the relationship between the timing of reported depressive symptoms after experiencing a maternal death as an older adult.

Sarah Gao, MPH

Sarah completed her MPH in Epidemiology at the University of Michigan after receiving a Bachelor's degree in History and the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality from Rice University. She worked with the SEGA Research Group for her MPH capstone project, which used HAALSI data to explore the relationship between distance to adult children and cognitive health. She is interested in social and spatial epidemiology, as well as the impact of structural inequalities on health across the life course. Sarah is currently a Research Assistant at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.

Carly Joseph, MPH

Carly completed her MPH in Epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health in 2021. For her MPH capstone project, she investigated the relationship between social isolation and mental health in older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic, and she continued work with the research group centered around isolation and mental health throughout the aging trajectory. Her research and clinical interests include social determinants of health in geriatrics, oncology, and rural medicine. Carly is now a fourth-year medical student at Central Michigan University.

Megan Mullins, PhD, MPH

Megan completed her MPH and PhD at the University of Michigan School of Public Health in the Department of Epidemiology. Her dissertation focused on racial disparities in ovarian cancer care, and her postdoctoral work focused on identifying gaps in the quality of cancer care among cognitively impaired older adults and understanding functional aging trajectories among cancer patients. She is passionate about care for gynecologic cancers, with a focus on disparities among racial and sexual/gender minorities. Megan is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Population and Data Sciences at the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern.

Jasdeep Kler, MPH

Jasdeep graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a B.S. in Neurobiology, Psychology, and Political Science, and from the University of Michigan with an MPH in Global Health Epidemiology in 2020. He joined the SEGA Research Group as a Research Associate, with interests surrounding racial-ethnic cancer disparities, the impact of health and social policies on racial-ethnic health disparities, and the influence of neighborhoods and communities on health outcomes. Jasdeep is now a medical student at the University of Michigan School of Medicine.

Marcus L. McKay, Jr., MPH

Marcus completed his MPH in Epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health in 2021. His research interests involve quantifying sociodemographic information within health systems in order to better understand patient populations. After graduation, Marcus joined Kaiser Permanente Northern California as a Healthcare Data Analyst.

Marisa Eastman, MPH

Marisa completed her MPH in Global Health Epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and joined the SEGA Research Group as a Research Associate in 2020. Her research interests include emergency medical care in sub-Saharan Africa, traumatic brain injury in the Ashanti region of Ghana, and racial disparities among older US adults in the coordinated care experience. Marisa is now a Public Health Analyst working on Innovation Economics with RTI International, a contract research firm based in Durham, North Carolina, where she leads evaluation of an NIH-funded biomedical translational science program.

Ashly Westrick, PhD

Ashly earned a B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, an MPH in Epidemiology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and a Ph.D. in Epidemiology from the University of Miami. She joined the SEGA Research Group as a Research Investigator, where her research interests included epidemiological methods, health inequalities in cancer, social determinants of health, and the influence of the neighborhood environment on health outcomes.

Rebecca Milan, MPH

Rebecca holds a Bachelor of Science in Health Science, a Master of Public Health, and a certificate in epidemiological research from Oakland University. She was a graduate research assistant while pursuing her master's degree, studying social determinants of health and chronic disease epidemiology in Detroit, Michigan. As a Research Associate with the SEGA Research Group, her research interests included cardiovascular diseases, substance use, and epidemiologic research methods. She plans to pursue a PhD in Epidemiologic Science and work as a biostatistician or research scientist at a research institute.

Nasya Tan, MPH

Nasya received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Azusa Pacific University in 2011 and her MPH from Claremont Graduate University in 2013. From 2013 to 2019, she worked as a data manager and analyst on several NIH-funded research projects at universities including Claremont Graduate University and the University of California, Irvine. She entered the University of Michigan's PhD in Epidemiologic Science program in 2019. Her research interests include social determinants of health and health disparities experienced by individuals with hearing loss, including D/deaf and hard-of-hearing populations.