Mentor: Nick Dionne Odom, PhD, MSN, MA, RN, ACHPN, FPCN
Postdoc; Nursing
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Reed Bratches PhD is a postdoctoral fellow in the Division of Nursing at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), funded by the AHRQ T32. Reed received his PhD from Dartmouth College’s Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice in August 2022. His research primarily focuses on family caregivers, particularly how we communicate information from clinic visits to family caregivers. He has experience with the design and conduct of systematic reviews and meta analyses, surveys, and clinical trials. Reed received his Master of Public Health in 2019 and his MALS in Cultural Studies in 2018. Outside the office, Reed can be found biking, golfing, and chasing after his young son.

Mentor: Gareth Dutton, PhD
Predoc; Psychology
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Ms. Davis earned her BA in psychology from Rhodes College in Memphis, TN, and her MA in clinical psychology from Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, TN. She is a rising third-year student in the Medical/Clinical Psychology doctoral program. Broadly, her research interests are the development and refinement of behavioral weight management interventions. Her current research proposes a brief Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) intervention that aims to address psychological characteristics that have been demonstrated to hinder weight loss efforts, including presence of emotional eating, weight self-stigma, and negative body image.

Mentors: Smita Bhatia, MD, MPH, and Grant Williams, MD, MSPH
Postdoc; Hematology and Oncology
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Mackenzie E. Fowler, PhD, MPH is a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) funded by the HSOER T32 program. Dr. Fowler obtained her PhD in Epidemiology from UAB in addition to her MPH in Epidemiology and her BS in Biology. She has worked and trained in various roles in several departments across campus including the Department of Neurology, Division of Memory Disorders and Behavioral Neurology, and the Division of Gerontology, Geriatrics, and Palliative Care in the Department of Medicine. Each of these experiences served to inspire her career and research interests. Originally from Florence, Alabama, she is passionate about the health of older adults, particularly in the Deep South. Her research primarily focuses on cancer survivorship and how cancer affects the aging process, specifically as older adults continue to age and develop aging-related diseases and sequelae. To date, her research has primarily focused on cognition and cognitive disorders, but under the mentorship of Grant Williams, MD, MSPH, and specialized training through the T32 she is eager to expand her research pedigree to include assessments of functional impairment, multi-morbidity, and others. She also aims to evaluate geographic and racial disparities and train in translational sciences with the goal of applying her findings to interventions at the clinic, bench, and population levels in order to improve the health of older adult cancer survivors and alleviate health disparities. Long-term Dr. Fowler's goals are to be on faculty in the academic medicine setting and to secure her own well-funded research lab.

Mentor: Ellen Eaton, MD
Postdoc; Infectious Diseases
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Kelly Gagnon, PhD, MPH is a postdoctoral fellow in the Division of Infectious Disease at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB ). She received her PhD in Behavioral and Community Health Sciences from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. Her primary research interest is the implementation of screening and evidence-based practices to address the risk of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). To date, her research focused on contraction of HIV through risky sexual practices. As a postdoctoral fellow, she aims to expand her knowledge and methods to include the risk and management of HIV through intravenous drug use. Additionally, she is interested in exploring the role of stigma as a barrier to the use and advisement of harm reduction and prevention strategies among high-risk and HIV-positive populations in the Deep South.

Mentor: Burel Goodin, PhD
Predoc; Psychology
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, Joanna Hobson graduated from Lane College in 2019 with a BS in Biology. She currently serves as a graduate research assistant in Dr. Burel Goodin’s lab, where she assists in the HIPPI project (The Impact of Insomnia on Pain in HIV). Currently, her research interests are to elucidate the roles of socioeconomic strains, physical deficits, emotional distress, and insufficient sleep on adverse health outcomes in people living with HIV (PLWH). More specifically, her aims are to address the impact of insomnia on behavior patterns (e.g., substance use) and physiological systems (e.g., immune response) in PLWH.

Mentor: Daniel Chu, MD
Postdoc; Surgery
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Bayley Jones is a general surgery resident interested in health services research. Originally from Alabama, she attended UAB for medical school before completing three years of general surgery residency at the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas. She is returning to UAB to pursue a dedicated research fellowship in health services research under the mentorship of Dr. Daniel Chu. Her research focuses on enhanced recovery programs and health literacy in surgical populations.

Mentors: Patricia Drentea, PhD, David Warner, PhD, Verna Keith, PhD, Myles Moody, and Olivio Clay, PhD
Postdoc; Sociology
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Joshua C.J. Lewis is a doctoral student in the Medical Sociology program at UAB. Prior to his graduate studies, he finished his BA in Philosophy from Texas A&M University and worked as a federal U.S. health lobbyist and advocate for health workforce development, minority health, and the reduction of health disparities. As a social scientist, Joshua combines his experiences in health policy, background in ethics, and sociological training to elucidate the mechanisms and social factors that perpetuate American health inequities. His current research focuses on addressing health disparities across the life course with an emphasis on chronic stressors, psychosocial resources, social determinants of health, and cardiovascular disease.

Mentors: Herbert Chen, MD, and Kristy Broman, MD, MPH
Postdoc; Surgery
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Kelsey Montgomery is a UAB general surgery resident interested in surgical oncology and health services research. Originally from Texas, she attended the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston McGovern Medical School before coming to Birmingham for surgical residency. She will be pursuing a dedicated research fellowship in surgical oncology health services research under the mentorship of Dr. Kristy Broman and with the support of the AHRQ HSOER T32 program. Her research focuses include evaluating the quality of surgical cancer care within health systems, and nodal surveillance in cutaneous melanoma. During her research fellowship, she will also obtain an MSPH in Outcomes Research.

Mentors: Patricia A. Patrician, PhD, RN, FAAN, Wendy Landier, PhD, MSN, and Adelais Markaki, PhD, MSN, MA-Med Anthropology
Postdoc; Nursing
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Dr. Sullivan has worked with nurses internationally for nearly a decade implementing subspecialty education programs, multisite quality improvement projects, and measuring and advocating for nursing standards in mainly low-and middle-income countries. As a T-32 AHRQ HSOER postdoctoral scholar at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), Dr. Sullivan will build upon her dissertation research to establish a core set of nursing-sensitive quality indicators for international pediatric oncology nursing practice. She is also co-leading a participatory mixed methods research study, implementing nursing standards at a national cancer institute in Lima, Peru. She has published 12 peer-reviewed articles and presented in international, national, and local forums, including an interdisciplinary awards session presentation. Dr. Sullivan’s dissertation and predoctoral studies were funded by the American Cancer Society Doctoral Degree Scholarship in Cancer Nursing, Oncology Nursing Foundation Doctoral Scholarship, and UAB’s Colvin Fellowship and Jarman Lowder Scholarship. She has served in various leadership roles with and is an active member of the International Society of Pediatric Oncology, Association of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nurses, and the WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer.

Mentors: Smita Bhatia, MD, and Donna Murdaugh, PhD
Predoc; Psychology
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Tiffany is a doctoral student in the Medical/Clinical Psychology program. She is originally from Houston, TX, and attended Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA, graduating with a BS in Psychology. Before graduate school, Tiffany gained experience working in a variety of research labs assessing the neural correlates of pediatric brain tumor, autism, and substance abuse. She joined Dr. Donna Murdaugh’s Lab and began graduate school at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2019. Her research interest includes the neural mechanisms and neurocognitive correlates of executive function in pediatric patients across a variety of neurological conditions. Most recently, her work has focused on sleep quality measured by nighttime oxygenation and the neural and neurocognitive associations in pediatric sickle cells populations.

Mentors: Marie Bakitas, DNSc, BSN, and J. Michael Straughn Jr., MD
Postdoc; Nursing
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Jaclyn (Jackie) Wall completed her residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Duke University prior to her fellowship in Gynecologic Oncology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She was drawn to gynecologic oncology given its uniqueness in caring for patients throughout their entire cancer journey including diagnosis, systemic therapy, surgery, surveillance, and end-of-life care. Her primary research interest is examining the factors that most drive patients’ decision-making processes for making choices about their cancer care throughout their treatment in its various stages, how these decisions are impacted by their social circumstances, and how their healthcare team can consistently provide guidance and counseling that is in line with these motivating factors.