People

Dr. Cornman is the Associate Director of CHIP and a researcher in health behavior change. She has spent her career studying the dynamics of health behavior, and developing and evaluating theory-based behavior change interventions in the areas of medication adherence, sexual health, HIV/STI prevention, and gender-based violence prevention. She recently started the first eHealth/mHealth research group at the University of Connecticut (UConn), which is comprised of 119 researchers from UConn and other institutions who are interested in the use of mobile devices, social media, web-based interventions, sensors and other types of technology to assess and modify health behavior. In terms of her own research in this area, she played a key role in the development of an effective computer-based adherence promotion intervention for people living with HIV, created a web-based training program for infectious disease providers, and is currently working on the design of a smartphone app to help prevent binge eating among college students and a second app to support treatment adherence for those with depression. In addition to her work in the U.S., Dr. Cornman had conducted research in Ethiopia, India, Mozambique, South Africa, and Uganda; she is currently the PI on a DoD/DHAPP-funded country-wide project in Mozambique. She has trained hundreds of healthcare providers and peer educators worldwide, has numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals, has written a variety of training manuals and has given many presentations about her research.

The DiMaio laboratory is studying the molecular mechanisms of how human papillomaviruses enter cells, with a particular focus on identifying the cellular proteins that mediate virus entry and intracellular trafficking and determining their molecular mechanisms of action. In addition, it is using viral transmembrane proteins as a basis to develop a class of artificial small transmembrane proteins with a variety of biological activities, including the ability to form tumors and confer resistance to virus infection. Some of these proteins are the simplest proteins ever described and their study will reveal new features of protein action and the basis for specificity in protein-protein interactions.

Mr. Meek is the associate director of the Yale office of the Connecticut Emerging Infections Program, a joint effort between the State of Connecticut Department of Public Health, the Yale School of Public Health Department of Epidemiology and Public Health (EPH), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, GA. This CDC-funded program is one of twelve programs nationwide that seek to assess, through population-based surveillance, the public health impact of emerging infectious diseases and to evaluate methods for their prevention and control in the community. In the EIP, Mr. Meek has overseen the establishment and maintenance of regional and statewide population-based surveillance systems for multiple emerging infections (foodborne disease, tickborne disease, liver disease, HPV disease, fungal disease, respiratory disease) and, based on surveillance findings, implemented research studies (case-control, cohort, vaccine effectiveness) to identify risk factors and evaluate prevention programs. The Yale office of the Connecticut EIP has provided training in surveillance and applied public health to over 300 MPH/doctoral students through internships, practicum experiences and thesis projects.

Dr. Saral Mehra serves as Chief of the Section of Head and Neck Surgery, Director of the Head and Neck Tumor Board, and the Fellowship Director for our Internationally renowned Advanced Training Program in Head and Neck Oncologic and Reconstructive Surgery. He has received teaching and clinical accolades from within the Institution and beyond, including the 2023 Yale Cancer Center Award for Excellence in Clinical Care (awarded to only one-two physicians a year). He is proud to be part of an incredible Head and Neck Tumor Center of Excellence at Yale delivering cutting edge multi-disciplinary care to patients throughout Connecticut and beyond. Learn more about Dr. Mehra>> Dr. Mehra’s clinical practice focuses on treating patients with Head and Neck, Salivary, and Thyroid diseases, particularly tumor and cancer. His expertise also includes advanced reconstruction and rehabilitation. He sees patients with all stages of cancer, from early stage to far advanced and recurrent cancers of the head and neck. He makes use of the latest in minimally invasive techniques such as transoral laser and robotic surgery. He also has special interest in minimally invasive diagnosis and treatment of salivary disease with use of salivary endoscopy. His primary research interests are in measuring and improving the quality of life in patients being treated for head and neck cancers, as well as leveraging his Business education to perform Health Services research with the goal of measuring and thus improving the quality of care delivered to such patients. Dr. Mehra has over 100 peer-reviewed publications, a number of book chapters, and regularly presents original research at National and International meetings. He is an active Member of the American Head and Neck Society. Dr. Mehra earned his Medical Degree from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City, and a Masters in Business Administration from Columbia Business School. He then went on to a residency in Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery at New York Presbyterian Hospital / Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He completed his training at Mt Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center with a highly coveted Fellowship in Head and Neck and Thyroid Cancer surgery, with further sub-specialization in complex reconstructive surgery including the use of free tissue transfer through state-of the art microvascular surgical techniques. During training, Dr. Mehra was awarded the Department’s research award twice, the Department’s teaching award at his graduation, and the Distinguished House Staff award from New York Hospital.

Alison Moriarty Daley is jointly appointed between YSN and Yale-New Haven Health. She is the Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Specialty Coordinator and teaches Primary Care of the Adolescent and the clinical course Clinical Practice in the Primary Care of Adolescents. In her role as a PNP, she is the coordinator and clinician at the Hill-Regional Career School-Based Clinic, New Haven, CT. Dr. Moriarty Daley's publications and research focus on adolescent primary care, particularly reproductive care and health risk behaviors of adolescents.Founder and Co-facilitator, Memories, an art-therapy grief and bereavement group for high school students who have suffered the lost of a loved one.

Dr. Mothes studied chemistry (Diploma 1993) and received a Ph.D. in cell biology (Humboldt-University Berlin, 1998) for his studies on protein secretion and membrane protein integration at the endoplasmic reticulum under the mentorship of Dr. Tom Rapoport at Harvard Medical School. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. John Young and James Cunningham on retroviral entry before he started his own laboratory at Yale University in 2001. Dr. Mothes received Tenure in 2011, was promoted to Full Professor in 2016, and became the Paul B. Beeson Professor of Medicine in 2021.

Dr. Carlos Oliveira is an attending physician and specialist in pediatric infectious diseases at Yale New Haven Children's Hospital. He is Board Certified in General Pediatrics, Pediatric Infectious Diseases, and Clinical Informatics and serves on the faculty at both Yale School of Medicine and Yale School of Public Health as an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (Infectious Diseases & Global Health), of Biostatistics (Health Informatics), and of Biomedical Informatics & Data Science. Dr. Oliveira serves as the Director for Yale’s clinical programs in Pediatric HIV/AIDS, Congenital Infectious Diseases, and Pediatric COVID-19. Dr. Oliveira leads a research group that pursues quantitative, experimental, and field research centered around various aspects of vaccinology and epidemiology of perinatal/neonatal infections.

Dr. Shapiro received a B.A. with a major in English Literature from Yale College in 1970 and an M.D. from the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, in 1976.  He completed a residency in pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh in 1979 and a two-year fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh in 1981.  He completed another two-year fellowship in clinical epidemiology (Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program) at Yale in 1983.  He has been on the faculty at Yale since 1983, where he sees patients, teaches, and conducts research.  He is currently Professor of Pediatrics, of Epidemiology and of Investigative Medicine and is Vice Chair for Research of Yale’s Department of Pediatrics.  He is also Deputy Director of Yale’s PhD Program in Investigative Medicine, is Co-Director of Education and Director of Child Health Research for Yale’s Center for Clinical Investigation and is Director of Grant Writing and Evaluation for Yale's Office of Physician-Scientist and Scientist Development.  Dr. Shapiro is board certified in both Pediatrics (1980, unlimited) and Pediatric Infectious Diseases (1994, 2000, 2008).  He served a 6-year term (2 years as Chair) as a member of the Infectious Diseases sub-board of the American Board of Pediatrics.  This is the group that writes the questions for the certifying examination. Dr. Shapiro has more than 250 publications (more than 150 in peer-reviewed journals), most of which are studies related to vaccines. He has been the principal investigator of many clinical studies, a number of which have been funded by highly competitive R01 grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  He has also received funding from private foundations and from industry, including from Connaught, from Pasteur Merieux and from Merck Laboratories.  Dr. Shapiro has been a consultant to the World Health Organization (for both the Department of Vaccines and Biologicals and for the Acute Respiratory Infections Control Programme) and was Chair of the Advisory Group for the Epidemiology Branch of the National Institute of Health and Human Development. He also served as a Special Advisor to the Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccine Advisory Committee.  He has been either Chair or a member of the Data Safety and Monitoring Boards for numerous clinical trials, including clinical trials of the efficacy of vaccines, many of which were (or are currently) funded by the National Institutes of Health. He has served as a member of a permanent NIH study section for a 4-year term and has been an ad hoc reviewer for the NIH many times.  He has also served as a reviewer for grant proposals and/or awards for the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development, the Department of Health of the United Kingdom, the University of Amsterdam, the Czech Health Research Council and the Karolinska Institute. In 2014, Dr. Shapiro received the Stanley A. Plotkin Lectureship in Vaccinology Award for career achievement for research in vaccinology.  In 2017, he received the Pediatric Diseases Society Distinguished Physician Award for “an extensive and distinguished career in pediatric infectious diseases.”

As a member of the winning research team for Yale’s 2015 Excellence in Educational Innovation Prize, Dr. Sangini S. Sheth is equally at home caring for patients and mentoring young doctors. She serves as an associate professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at Yale School of Medicine. “I deeply enjoy the great breadth and depth of Ob/Gyn,” says Sheth. “Discussing preventative medicine in clinic one day and performing complex surgery with advanced technology the next.”A native of Connecticut, Dr. Sheth graduated cum laude from Yale University and returned to her alma mater in 2013 after receiving her MD and MPH from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health. In clinical practice, she is passionate about providing a full range of gynecologic services to women in all stages of life, from cervical cancer prevention and prenatal care to advanced treatments and surgery for conditions like fibroids and abnormal uterine bleeding. Her role as an educator and academic at Yale School of Medicine consistently informs the care she provides her patients. “There are several quickly changing areas within Ob/Gyn,” Dr. Sheth says. “I'm excited to be a frontline provider with a researcher's lens.”As part of her continuing commitment to improving women’s reproductive health worldwide, Dr. Sheth has partnered with colleagues in Nepal and Mexico on public health and implementation science studies to improve cervical cancer prevention programs. She is particularly sensitive to those who may feel marginalized by age, gender, race or ethnicity, and women living with HIV. “The field of women's reproductive health is inherently linked to social and political advocacy and addressing health inequities is central to my work,” Dr. Sheth says. An advocate of patient education, she believes in partnering with patients and encouraging women to become knowledgeable and active participants in all aspects of their reproductive health.Dr. Sheth is a member of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics, the Society for Academic Specialists in General Obstetrics and Gynecology and the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology.