2022 OHER Awards for Yale Research Excellence

Original health equity research articles were eligible if first-authored by Yale-affiliated early-stage investigators and published in 2022. Out of over 700 eligible papers, 27 finalists and 5 awardees were selected. Additionally, this year marked the first ever OHER Youth Award. This award was given in special recognition of a youth scientist engaging in health equity research. We hope the award helps to inspire other young researchers to get involved in this important work!

Moid Ali, MPH 
Social Determinants and COVID-19 in a Community Health Center Cohort 
Article 

Moid Ali is a Research Assistant at the Yale School of Public Health. Ali received an MPH in Health Policy and a concentration in Public Health Modeling from the Yale School of Public Health. Before Yale, Ali received a BA in Anthropology with a focus in Global Health and the Environment and minors in Health Policy and Healthcare Management from Washington University in St. Louis. Ali has also served as a fellow at the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School. Ali is focused on applying causal inference methods to estimate the health effects of social policy and is interested in issues regarding Medicaid waivers, housing, policing, substance use, and HIV.  

Bridget Basile Ibrahim, PhD, MA, RN, FNP-BC  
Inequities in Availability of Evidence-Based Birth Supports to Improve Perinatal Health for Socially Vulnerable Rural Residents 
Article 

Dr. Bridget Basile Ibrahim is a nurse-scientist with over a decade of clinical experience working as a family nurse practitioner providing primary care to underserved communities in urban and rural areas of the United States and Canada, and a registered nurse in inpatient pediatric oncology and stem cell transplant. She also has experience caring for women and their families as a doula and certified breastfeeding specialist. Prior to entering nursing, she worked as an anthropologist on international development projects funded by agencies such as the World Bank and USAID. Dr. Basile Ibrahim holds a PhD from Yale University, an MSN from the University of California Los Angeles, a BSN from The Johns Hopkins University, and a BA and MA in Anthropology from Boston University. She completed an NIH-funded Rural Health Equity Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. Dr. Basile Ibrahim’s research aims to improve birth outcomes for women and birthing people marginalized by intersections of race, socioeconomic status, and geography by improving the experience and quality of perinatal care and interactions with the health system. She employs qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches to conduct person-centered, health equity focused interdisciplinary research. Her research interests include: health equity, social determinants of health, respectful maternity care, maternal-child health, and physiologic birth. Dr. Basile Ibrahim’s program of research has been supported by the Association for Women’s Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses, the March of Dimes, the Heilbrunn Family Center for Research Nursing at the Rockefeller University, the Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Minnesota, and the Health Equity Research Working Group at University of Minnesota School of Public Health. 

Sarah Y. Michels, MPH 

Evaluating vaccination coverage and timeliness in American Indian/Alaska Native and non-Hispanic White children using state immunization information system data, 2015-2017 

Article 

Sarah Michels is currently an Epidemiology Specialist at the Center for Population Health Research at the University of Montana. Her research is focused on immunization services delivery, with a specific emphasis on equitable access in rural and under-resourced contexts. Michels graduated this past May for from the Yale School of Public Health with an MPH in Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases. During her time at Yale, Michels was a fellow at the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School. Additionally, while at YSPH Michels received a Wilbur Downs Fellowship which helps to fund global health experiences. Prior to Yale, Michels received a BA in Chemistry and a Concentration in Public Health from Williams College.

Yusuf Ransome, MPH, DrPH  
Is race-specific neighborhood social cohesion key to reducing racial disparities in late HIV diagnosis: A multiyear ecological study 
Article 

Dr. Ransome is an Associate Professor of Public Health in Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Yale School of Public Health. Dr. Ransome is an expert in spiritual and social connectedness, and social capital. His core purpose is to help underserved communities access holistic wellbeing (health, wealth, happiness). As an academic, Dr. Ransome does this through research that investigates how social connectedness, social capital, and spirituality can be leveraged to reduce racial/ethnic as well as geographic inequalities in multiple health outcomes. Dr. Ransome’s research has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the John Templeton Foundation.

Luke Sanford, PhD 
Disparate air pollution reductions during California’s COVID-19 economic shutdown 
Article 

Sanford is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Policy and Governance at Yale School of the Environment. He graduated in 2021 with a PhD in Political Science and International Affairs from the Political Science department and the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California, San Diego. His work focuses on environmental policymaking–especially how political institutions mediate the relationship between the environmental preferences of constituents and the incentives and actions of policymakers. Sanford also studies the distributional consequences over space and time of decisions about natural resources, and how those play into policymaking. He develops methods for using new sources of digital data, including text and satellite images, to measure individual and group preferences, and to observe outcomes on the ground. Sanford uses those to help understand preferences for different policies, and what the effects of those policies are. His work has appeared in Nature Sustainability Environmental Research Letters, Natural Resources Forum, Water Resources Development, and the American Journal of Political Science. 

OHER Youth Award Winner: 

Sarah Galvani-Townsend  
Is life expectancy higher in countries and territories with publicly funded health care? Global analysis of health care access and the social determinants of health 
Article 

Sarah is a sophomore at Hopkins School in New Haven, Connecticut and works with the Center for Infectious Disease Modeling and Analysis (CIDMA) at Yale School of Public Heatlh. Sarah has been involved throughout her life in advocacy and research in public health. Sarah has written and been interviewed for the Science Journal for Kids and Teens as well as been interviewed by Tumble Science Podcast for Kids. We want to extend a special congratulations to our youngest winner! 

Finalists:

César Caraballo, MD 

Evaluation of Temporal Trends in Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Sleep Duration Among US Adults, 2004-2018  

Grace F. Chao, MD  

Understanding Racially Diverse Community Member Views of Obesity Stigma and Bariatric Surgery  

Chen Chen, MSPH 

Do temporal trends of associations between short-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and risk of hospitalizations differ by sub-populations and urbanicity—a study of 968 U.S. counties and the Medicare population  

Evan M Chen, MD  

Socioeconomic and Demographic Disparities in the Use of Telemedicine for Ophthalmic Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic  

Hillary Chisholm, MPH  

A Realist Evaluation Analysis of a Novel Multi-Faceted Inpatient Patient Navigation Program 

Geena Chiumento, MPH 

Persistence of racial/ethnic and socioeconomic status disparities among non-institutionalized patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in Connecticut, July to December 2020  

Matthew J Drago, MD, MBE 

Does Maternal Incarceration Impact Infants with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome?  

Linda L. Fan, MD, FACOG  

Pilot Implementation of a Health Equity Checklist to Improve the Identification of Equity-Related Adverse Events 

Eugenia C Greig, MD 

Racial, Ethnic, and Socioeconomic Disparities Drive Appointment No-Show in Patients with Chronic Eye Disease  

Georgina M. Gross, PhD  

Racial Disparities in Clinical Outcomes of Veterans Affairs Residential PTSD Treatment Between Black and White Veterans 

Rachel Hennein  
"They Wanted to Talk to a 'Real Doctor'": Predictors, Perpetrators, and Experiences of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination Among Healthcare Workers  

Pamela Hu, MD 

Changes in Weight-Related Health Behaviors and Social Determinants of Health among Youth with Overweight/Obesity during the COVID-19 Pandemic  

Ka I Ip, PhD 

Associations among Household and Neighborhood Socioeconomic Disadvantages, Resting-state Frontoamygdala Connectivity, and Internalizing Symptoms in Youth  

Skyler D Jackson, PhD 

A pilot test of a treatment to address intersectional stigma, mental health, and HIV risk among gay and bisexual men of color 

Kelly Johnson, DrPH 
Centering Health Equity Within COVID-19 Contact Tracing: Connecticut's Community Outreach Specialist Program 
 

Juhan Lee, PhD 
Intersectionality of Sexual Orientation With Race and Ethnicity and Associations With E-Cigarette Use Status Among U.S. Youth  

Eric K Layland, PhD, MS 

Intersecting racism and homonegativism among sexual minority men of color: Latent class analysis of multidimensional stigma with subgroup differences in health and sociostructural burdens 

Yuan Lu, ScD 

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Financial Barriers Among Overweight and Obese Adults Eligible for Semaglutide in the United States 

Victoria Marks  

Acceptance of Simulated Adult Patients With Medicaid Insurance Seeking Care in a Cancer Hospital for a New Cancer Diagnosis  

Renee Mehra, MPhil, MS  
“Police shootings, now that seems to be the main issue” – Black pregnant women’s anticipation of police brutality towards their children 

Emmanuella Ngozi Asabor, MPhil 

Racial/Ethnic Segregation and Access to COVID-19 Testing: Spatial Distribution of COVID-19 Testing Sites in the Four Largest Highly Segregated Cities in the United States 

Mytien Nguyen, MSc 

Variation in Research Experiences and Publications During Medical School by Sex and Race and Ethnicity  

James Nie, MD, MBA  

Access to Urological Care for Medicaid-Insured Patients at Urology Practices Acquired by Private Equity Firms 

Connor J. Peck, MD, MPH 
Sex, Race, Insurance, and Pain: Do Patient Sociodemographics Influence Postoperative Opioid Prescriptions Among Hand Surgeons? 

Julia Rosenberg, MD, MHS, FAAP 

Pilot Wellness Program With Adapted Social–Emotional Learning and COVID-19 Curriculum for Refugee Youth 

Alexandra Savinkina, MSPH 

Estimating deaths averted and cost per life saved by scaling up mRNA COVID-19 vaccination in low-income and lower-middle-income countries in the COVID-19 Omicron variant era: a modelling study 

Emma Zang, PhD, MA, MPhil 

Racial/Ethnic and Educational Disparities in the Impact of Diabetes on Population Health Among the U.S.-Born Population