Centers, Labs & Initiatives

NYU’s School of Global Public Health houses many dynamic centers, labs, initiatives and programs where you can immerse yourself in the public health topics that matter most to you – and to the world. Each is unique, offering mentorship, collaboration with faculty and a chance to hone your skills in innovative, action-based learning settings. Research and projects from GPH's centers, labs and initiatives can lead to many outcomes from new publications to policy change.

Type

Areas of research and study

Professional organizations

Centers

Center for Advancement and Dissemination of Intervention Optimization: Center Director: Linda M. Collins
Intervention optimization is an emerging scientific field. In this field ideas from behavioral science, engineering, public health, quantitative and qualitative methods, economics, and decision science are integrated to produce innovative approaches for empirical development and optimization of interventions.
All types of interventions can be optimized, including behavioral, biobehavioral, biomedical, social-structural, and educational interventions.
By intervention optimization, we mean the process of arriving at intervention EASE. Intervention EASE is a strategic balance of Effectiveness, Affordability, Scalability, and Efficiency. Intervention EASE is usually achieved via an approach called the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST).
Visit Website

Center for Anti-Racism, Social Justice & Public Health

Faculty Facilitator: Melody Goodman, PhD, Senior Executive Vice Dean of the School of Global Public Health and Associate Professor of Biostatistics

Racism is recognized as a public health crisis, and the ultimate social determinant of health, by both the American Public Health Association and the Centers for Disease Control. At GPH we affirm that health is a human right, and we're actively working to build an anti-racism culture using curriculum, labs and applied practice opportunities.

At heart of these efforts, the Center for Anti-Racism, Social Justice & Public Health strives to develop research, policies and model practices in a collaborative, scholarly environment. Our vision for the Center includes:

An anti-racism and social justice symposium
Quarterly seminars and training sessions
A Center Scholars program featuring NYU faculty
Pilot and supplemental grants
Pipeline programs to increase diversity in public health
A visiting faculty program
A pre-doctoral and post-doctoral fellows program
A summer internship program

Visit Website

Center for Bioethics: The NYU Center for Bioethics was launched in September 2007 with a Chair endowed by Dr. Arthur Zitrin, who for over 40 years was a prime mover in ethics education at the NYU Medical Center. Along with further support from the Faculty of Arts and Science, the Center was founded with the aim of offering an M.A. in Bioethics that combined medical and environmental ethics within a diverse academic and urban setting taught by faculty throughout the University, as well as to conduct research in the field and sponsor public activities throughout the community. The Center’s students are drawn from a multitude of different backgrounds, countries, and career paths.
The Center’s Master of Arts degree program, Bioethics: Life, Health, and Environment, promotes a broad conception of bioethics encompassing both medical and environmental ethics through conferences, workshops, public lectures, and graduate courses. Based in the School of Global Public Health, the MA Bioethics program at NYU draws upon courses, faculty affiliates and programs in the schools of Medicine, Law, Education, and Public Service, among others. Students may choose to follow a health track or an environment track, but in both cases receive training in an extensive range of bioethics theories and applications that pertain to today’s most challenging scientific and ethical issues. Students are each assigned an adviser who provides them with individual guidance throughout their time in the program.
Visit Website

Center for Drug Use and HIV/HCV Research (CDUHR): Faculty Facilitator: Holly Hagan, PhD
The Center for Drug Use and HIV/HCV Research (CDUHR) is an interdisciplinary research center that focuses on public health issues related to HIV, hepatitis C, and drug use. The are three institutions affiliated with CDUHR: New York University; Mount Sinai Health System; and John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY.
The mission of CDUHR is to end the HIV and HCV epidemics in drug using populations and their communities by conducting transdisciplinary research and disseminating its findings to inform programmatic, policy, and grassroots initiatives at the local, state, national and global levels.
CDUHR accomplishes this mission by contributing to knowledge about HIV and HCV epidemics; developing, implementing and evaluating interventions that have an impact on them; disseminating findings through multiple venues to inform evidence-based practices and policies; and training new researchers across scientific disciplines.
Visit Website

Center for Health Data Science: The Center for Health Data Science leverages data in combination with knowledge across disciplines and places, with the ultimate goal of addressing quality of life and other public health priorities. CHDS enhances interdisciplinary public health research, teaching and practice through leveraging and developing data science methods in conjunction with public health knowledge, frameworks and action as well as with other disciplines such as computer science, urban planning and sociology. CHDS values and promotes pluralistic knowledge discovery and action, such as through cross-border student and faculty exchanges based on long-term relationships, and by working directly with practitioners on the ground to help address community needs.
Visit Website

Global Center for Implementation Science: The Global Center for Implementation Science seeks to ensure that the most effective policies and evidence-based practices are disseminated and implemented to improve public health in the US and globally. The Center's mission is to train the next generation of global and policy experts in dissemination and implementation (D&I) research, advance the science of D&I, with a specific focus on policy D&I and the study of implementation in global contexts, and through these efforts, contribute to reducing the burden of non-communicable diseases globally and domestically. D&I science is a discipline that is dedicated to developing and evaluating strategies, methods, and techniques to promote the adoption, implementation, sustainment and scale up of evidence-based policies, practices and programs in the fields of public health and medicine.
The Global Center for Implementation Science thrives on collaboration. Contact them or learn more about joining our University Implementation Science Working Group.
Visit Website

Labs

Advancing In Respiratory Equity (AIRE) Lab: Faculty facilitator: Mari Armstrong-Hough,
The Advancing In Respiratory Equity (AIRE) Lab's research is focused on designing, implementing, and evaluating theory-informed interventions to improve the delivery of health services and reduce respiratory health disparities
Learn more about the Precipice Study: https://www.precipicestudy.org/
Visit Website

Agent-Based Modeling Lab: Agent-Based Models (ABMs) are artificial societies of software people (though agents can also be mosquitoes, viruses, vehicles, teams) who interact with one another to generate surprising and important social patterns of scientific and policy interest. Racial segregation, intergroup conflict, skewed distributions of wealth, pandemic spread, financial contagion, ancient civilizations, urban dynamics, social networks, and more have been generated “from the bottom up” in micro-worlds of agents. Like real people, these agents can be driven (often unaware) by powerful emotions; they may have poor information, and can make systematic errors interpreting it. The method of agents positions us to understand how the micro world of individuals generates the macro world of collective phenomena. Thus, the agent-based model is the principal scientific instrument in providing generative explanations for macro-patterns.
This Lab is NYU's hub for agent-based modeling, which encompasses affiliated from the entire University. Its mission is to advance interdisciplinary science, deepening the theoretical foundations, and expanding the humane applications, of agent-based modeling and complementary areas of mathematics across the social, behavioral, and health sciences.
Visit Website

Applied Innovative Methods to Prevent Child Maltreatment Lab: Principal Investigator: Kate Guastaferro, PhD MPH
The prevention of child maltreatment is a public health priority - affecting more than 600,000 children in the U.S. alone each year and has been associated with lifelong adverse biopsychosocial outcomes. This lab focuses on researching the development and optimization of interventions to prevent child maltreatment and the implementation of those interventions in applied community settings. Its members are committed to the prevention of child maltreatment with a perspective of inclusion, cultural sensitivity, representation, and health equity.
Visit Website

Attachment and Health Disparities Research Lab (ADHL): Faculty Facilitator: Stephanie Cook, Assistant Professor of Biostatistics
The Attachment and Health Disparities Lab seeks to understand health disparities observed among young sexual and racial/ethnic minorities through the lens of Dr. Cook’s integrated theory of adult attachment and minority stress. Though current theoretical paradigms of attachment indicate how individuals respond to stress, these theories do not adequately account for the unique impact of social stressors on individual health and well-being, which may be of critical importance in understanding the drivers of health in marginalized populations. The negative social valuation of a marginalized identity—such as a sexual minority identity or a racial minority identity—causes stress in persons with a marginalized social status beyond the level of stress that people generally experience; this excess stress has been named minority stress. However, many theories of minority stress are limited and inadequately delineate the associations between attachment orientation, stress, and subsequent health outcomes. Making these theoretical and empirical linkages is important for understanding how to address health disparities among disadvantaged individuals who are at heightened risk for experiencing minority stress compared to other individuals (e.g., African-American youth, sexual minority men). Therefore, one of the main objectives of Dr. Cook’s research is to understand the pathways and mechanisms located particularly at the intersection of marginalized identities that link attachment, minority stress, and health among disadvantaged individuals.
Visit Website

Biostatistics Consulting Lab: The biostatistics consulting lab (also known as GPH-GU 3235 Biostatistical Consulting when offered as a formal course), led by Dr. Rebecca Betensky, is an initiative in which students work to provide statistical support on real-world studies being performed throughout the NYU community, with our predominant partnerships taking place with researchers at the School of Medicine and GPH. In addition to experience working with real data, these partnerships can also lead to co-authorship and summer research opportunities.
Visit Website

Chunara Lab: Faculty Facilitator: Rumi Chunara, PhD (Health, Sciences and Technology)
The overarching goal of the Chunara Lab is to develop computational and statistical approaches for acquiring, integrating and using data to improve population-level public health. Considering health from a comprehensive, multi-level perspective means that the data we use comes from both inside and outside the clinic.
To achieve this goal, we make impact in computer science by addressing a range of technical questions inspired by the opportunity of new data sources in health. The main challenge is that the data are unstructured and the relevant features must be identified. Thus we develop computational methods across data mining, natural language processing, and machine learning to generate features and incorporate these into spatio-temporal population-level models to address public health priorities.
Visit Website

Climate Justice and Health Lab: Faculty facilitator:Alexis Merdjanoff, PhD
The climate crisis has been described as the greatest threat to global public health. Disproportionate impacts on socially vulnerable populations like children, older adults, racial
and ethnic minorities, low-income communities and disabled people are exacerbating existing health disparities. The challenge for public health researchers and practitioners is to learn how to best mitigate the health impacts of climate change while simultaneously promoting health equity and social justice.
Members of the Climate Justice & Health Lab (CJHL) will work together on research projects examining the long-term health impacts of acute disasters like Hurricanes Katrina, Sandy and Ian, as well as the California wildfires. We will also examine how communities grapple with risk perception and decision-making for slow onset climate disasters such as sea-level rise and coastal erosion. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, lab members will develop the skills needed to form a holistic approach to understanding the health impacts of climate change and disasters.
Goals of CJHL:
1. Use interdisciplinary research to advocate for communities impacted by climate change and disasters
2. Provide mentorship for students motivated to study the intersection of climate and health
3. Create a community of learning and knowledge sharing for GPH students who are interested in the climate emergency
4. Use a team-science approach to understand how to mitigate and adapt to the impact of climate and disasters on health
Visit Website

Complex Public Health Disasters Lab (CPHD): Faculty facilitators: Robyn Gershon, MHS, DrPH and Alexis Merdjanoff, PhD.
Two facts are clear regarding disaster events: (1) they are increasing in frequency and severity and (2) all large scale disasters are public health disasters. The increased intensity of disasters, coupled with the increased interconnectedness and complexity of critical mass infrastructure, is driving the need for highly skilled emergency managers. In recognition of the demand for public health professionals with advanced training in disaster management, GPH recently launched a new Advanced Certificate in Public Health Disaster Science, Policy and Practice.
This new Public Health Disasters Lab builds upon the momentum of the new Disaster Certificate Program and leverages the research of two GPH faculty members who are actively conducting public health disaster studies. The aim of the new Lab is to conduct cutting edge and applied research to meet the needs of (1) the public health and health care sector; (2) minimize risk and increase resilience in vulnerable populations, including, disabled, aged, marginalized and minority populations; and (3) improve our public health disasters preparedness capabilities in order to protect essential workers.
Current projects in the CPHD Lab include: Impact of COVID on NYC Transit Workers; Role of American with Disabilities Coordinators (ADA-C) and Offices of Emergency Management (OEM) on emergency management policies and practices for people with disabilities; Impact of multiple complex disaster events (WTC Disaster, Hurricane Sandy, and COVID-19) on disaster survivors; long term impact (across the lifespan) of the WTC attack on survivors, and other studies. The Lab includes MPH students who are working on thesis projects, applied practice projects or those with interest in gaining experience with publications and presentations. A new GPH Public Health Disaster Journal and webpage has recently been launched to provide a forum for students interesting in publishing some of their disaster-related work. Opportunities for gaining experience in managing and further developing the new Journal is also available to students affiliated with this new Lab.
Interested students should contact Dr. Robyn Gershon rg184@nyu.edu to discuss lab membership.
Visit Website

EMPOWER Lab (Women Survivors of Sexual Trauma): Faculty Facilitator: Dr. Veronica Ades, MD, MPH
The EMPOWER (Engage/Motivate/Protect/Organize/self Worth/Educate/Respect) Clinic was founded in February 2013 and is one of the few clinics nationwide designed to meet the gynecologic, medical, and mental health needs of survivors of sex trafficking and sexual violence. The EMPOWER Lab was developed to work in conjunction with the EMPOWER Clinic and is a student and faculty research group which explores topics like reproductive health needs within vulnerable populations, gender empowerment, sexual and gender-based violence, maternal morbidity and mortality, and other global women’s health issues.
The current lab is comprised of undergraduate, graduate public health and medical students with a variety of personal and academic backgrounds who collaborate on teams to conduct research and advocacy on the various lab projects under Dr. Ades’ mentorship and supervision.

Environmental Impact Analysis Lab (EVIA)

The Environmental Impact Analysis (EVIA) Lab at the NYU School of Global Public Health is dedicated to collaborating with the local government in investigating environmental risk factors of disease in order to enhance overall health and safety in New York City. The EVIA Lab is currently focused on the assessment of heavy metal concentration in soil near public schools and recreational parks in the Bronx and Queens in order to create a spatial distribution map to inform future research and public health policy aiming to address the community’s health. We aim to disseminate the research findings with academic and non-academic communities, to compose a public health policy report, and to emphasize the significant role of high heavy metal concentration in the blood as a hindrance to human development.

The EVIA Lab aims to:

To unite undergraduate and graduate public health students with diverse academic backgrounds to tackle complex urban environmental health problems, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration.
Provide a platform for interested students to learn state-of-the-art environmental health assessment methods.
Create a repository of environmental hazard databases for student and faculty scholarly use.
Develop partnerships with local governmental environmental and public health agencies.

Under the guidance of Dr. Caravanos and Dr. Ericson, a group of 5-10 GPH Masters students organized a student lab in July 2023. Since July they have collected and analyzed 500+ soil samples from The Bronx and Queens. The group meets biweekly at GPH. Future projects include: community air quality, noise pollution, solid waste management all within the context of environmental justice.

LEADERSHIP: Jack Caravanos (PhD), Bret Ericson (PhD), Prince Michael Amegbor (PhD), Ravi Kumar Chalhotra (MPH Candidate), and Rahul Kulkarni (MPH Candidate).

Areas of research and study

Environmental Impact

Evidence to Global Impact (E2GI) Lab: Faculty Facilitator: Donna Shelley, MD MPH, Director, Global Center for Implementation Science, Vice Chair for Research, Dept of Public Health Policy and Management
The Evidence to Global Impact Lab (E2GI) is a student-run initiative that focuses on various projects around tobacco-related population health disparities in NYC and in low-and middle-income countries. Lab members collaborate with domestic and international partners, and work to translate evidence into health promotion, public policy, health systems change, and community development.
Our current projects include…
US-Focused
1. Advancing Tobacco Policy Implementation and Sustainability Through Advocacy
2. Smoking/Vaping Social Marketing Campaign Development and Implementation
Global-Focused
3. Implementing Tobacco Use Treatment in HIV Clinics in Vietnam (VQuit)
4. Integration of NCD Care in HIV Health Systems in LMICs
Follow us on LinkedIn for lab updates.
@NYU Evidence to Global Impact (E2GI) Lab
Questions? Contact our Lab Lead, Abby Briggs, at ab11024@nyu.edu
Visit Website

Feng Lab: Led by Dr. Yang Feng in the Department of Biostatistics at GPH, the Feng Lab seeks to develop and apply machine learning (ML) and big data methods to solve public health problems. In addition, Feng Lab is interested in high-dimensional data analysis and modeling, network models, nonparametric and semiparametric methods, and bioinformatics.
Feng Lab is actively looking for motivated talents at undergraduate, master and Ph.D. levels. If you are interested, please submit an application here.
Visit Website

Global Action for Urban Health Lab: Faculty Facilitators: Dr. Jo Ivey Boufford, Dr. Alexis Merdjanoff and Dr. Tom Kirchner
Lab Coordinator: Gina Gonzales, MPH
Urban health is an evolving area of research, education, practice, and policy making. Students are in a strong position to be part of these developing activities to advance the evidence base on research, implementation and evaluation in urban health. The Global Action for Urban Health Lab, co-developed by Dr. Jo Boufford and Dr. Alexis Merdjanoff, provides a space for students both within and outside of GPH to collaborate on various projects around urban health worldwide. The primary goals of this lab are for students: (1) to learn about the role of cities in global health and the role of urban governance in health, including policy approaches both across agencies and in public-private partnerships in the context of the SDGs and UN-Habitat’s New Urban Agenda (2) to develop a network of academic programs, faculty, and students across NYU focusing on urban health; (3) to engage with UN agencies and national/ municipal governments, international and domestic NGOs, urban health researchers, practitioners and policy makers worldwide (4) to develop skills for data collection, analysis and project implementation of priority urban health programs from collaborating organizations; and (5) to build on the platform of the International Society for Urban Health as a global network of researchers, educators, practitioners and policy makers committed to improving health and health equity in cities.
The Global Action for Urban Health Lab provides a platform for both individual and team activities with students from different disciplines and areas of interest from GPH and graduate students from across other NYU schools and programs (e.g., Wagner Urban Planning, Rudin Institute, Real Estate Institute, CUSP, Engineering, Marron Institute, Stern, Journalism, Institute for Public Knowledge, Furman Center, Geography, Department of Population Health at Langone, Tisch School of the Arts, etc.).
Projects for the lab will be proposed by faculty advisors and other faculty in partnership with participating local and global organizations, though individual and small groups of students may develop their own proposals. Each project will have a student lead to serve as the point of contact for the faculty advisor and “client” organization. Opportunities to potentially tie lab activities to student thesis projects or Applied Practice Experiences can be discussed with the faculty advisors.
The lab meets every two weeks and regularly brings in speakers and experts within and outside of NYU.. For more information or if you’re interested in joining the lab, please email urbanhealthlabnyu@gmail.com
Visit Website

Health Economics Learning Lab (HELLab)

Faculty Facilitator:Yesim Tozan, PhD

Under the supervision of Dr. Yesim Tozan, the Health Economics Learning Lab (HELLab) conducts research in the fields of health economics, systems thinking, and decision science to design more equitable and efficient health policies and programs. Our geographic focus is on the tropical and sub-tropical areas of the developing world, which bears a disproportionate share of the global burden of disease. The Lab’s work is directed at costing and cost-effectiveness analyses, and at epidemiological and economic modeling, with the aim of generating actionable evidence for health policy-making. Our multidisciplinary projects provide a platform for Lab members to engage in applied health economics and policy research. The primary focus is on infectious disease prevention and control, with an emphasis on vector-borne diseases, and on improving health and mental health outcomes of vulnerable populations in resource-poor settings.

Dr. Tozan is currently leading a variety of health economic studies in several research projects. Currently, these studies include:

a multi-country costing study on dengue, Zika, chikungunya, and malaria to evaluate out-of-pockets costs of travel-acquired infections in international travelers (CHIZIDEMA project)
a cost-effectiveness analysis alongside a clinical trial to evaluate the effectiveness of an innovative economic empowerment intervention to reduce the risk and incidence of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases in adolescent girls (Suubi4Her project) in southern Uganda
a cost-effectiveness analysis alongside a quasi-experimental study to evaluate the effectiveness of a village-based intervention for malaria prevention through mass screening and treatment in poorly accessible areas (DAMAN project) in Odhisha, India and an epidemiologic modeling study to evaluate the impact on malaria transmission dynamics of a mix of commonly used and new interventions towards successful and efficient control of the disease in the same setting
a cost-effectiveness analysis alongside a clinical trial to evaluate the effectiveness of a combination intervention that adds economic empowerment to traditional HIV risk reduction sessions to reduce the incidence of sexually transmitted infections and HIV among female sex workers (Kyaterekera project) in the greater Masaka region, Uganda
a cost-effectiveness analysis alongside a longitudinal experimental study to evaluate the effectiveness of an evidence-based multiple group family strengthening intervention to improve the behavioral outcomes of children (SMART Africa project) in southern Uganda
an economic modeling study in the context of a multi-institutional research project aimed at improving global arbovirus risk models to enhance outbreak preparedness and response for Aedes-borne diseases (ARBO-PREVENT project)

Fun fact about Dr. Tozan: She served as a Senior Task Force Associate for the UN Millennium Project’s Task Force on HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis and Access to Essential Medicines.

To get involved in the Health Economics Learning Lab, please email our coordinator Ariadna Capasso (ac7113@nyu.edu).

HealthRight International Student Lab: Faculty Facilitator: Peter Navario, PhD (Economics), MPH
HealthRight International is a global health and human rights organization that partners with NYU’s GPH with the aim of building lasting access to health for excluded communities, employing a human rights-based approach and working closely with community partners to improve local capacity and advance the inclusivity of health systems. HealthRight interns assist Dr. Navario and the program directors with all tasks associated with developing and implementing programs, including identifying grant opportunities, drafting and submitting new grant proposals, reporting on current grants, collecting and analyzing data, promoting HealthRight’s mission and achievements, advocating for the rights of marginalized communities, and assisting with special projects.

Interventions to Reduce Disparities in Addictions Research Program (IDEAS Lab): Principal Investigators:
Omar El Shahawy MD, MPH, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Population Health, Section on Tobacco, Alcohol and Drug Use at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and Assistant Professor at GPH
Erin Rogers DrPH, MPH, Assistant Professor in the Department of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine
About the Lab:
The IDEAS Lab is based within NYU’s School of Global Public Health (SGPH) and concentrates on areas of study relate to tobacco, alcohol, and drug addiction and corresponding health disparities. Some of our research projects include investigating the impact of e-cigarette marketing strategies’ on youth use, researching e-cigarettes as a harm reduction strategies in smokers diagnosed with alcohol use disorder, opioid use disorder, and people living with HIV/AIDS. These research projects will help inform future tobacco and drug policies and will enhance our understanding of the health disparities experienced by vulnerable populations.
Our Lab Mission is to create an engaging environment for both graduate and undergraduate students where they can learn quantitative and qualitative research and developing valuable research skills, such as writing and publishing manuscripts, conducting literature reviews, grant writing, and collecting and analyzing data.
Getting Involved:
We are currently recruiting undergraduate and graduate students to become lab members in addition to two leadership positions (below). Please an email to meghan.durr@nyulangone.org for application details. The lab’s website of the lab is currently being developed on SGPH domain.

ISEE Lab

Faculty Facilitator/Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Emmanuel Peprah

Implementing Sustainable Evidence-based interventions through Engagement Lab (ISEE) is focused on assessing factors that are essential to scale up of evidence-based intervention (EBI) to achieve optimal health outcomes by engaging communities in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Our research areas include:

Implementing interventions to improve the lives of people living with Sickle Cell Disease
Establishing the connections between comorbidities, HIV/AIDS Syndemic, and health outcomes; determine targets for implementation of EBI for people living with HIV/AIDS and comorbidities
Assessing and implementing interventions to improve outcomes for Obstetric Hemorrhage and Maternal Health
Advancing the science of implementation research via instrument development

ISEE strives to understand the why, where, and how evidence-based interventions are adopted and maintained by some communities and not others in LMIC. Because context is important to consider in global health, approaching interventions with cultural sensitivity and collaborating with in-country partners is essential to engagement. Our research is based on well-studied implementation research principles, theories, and frameworks.

Visit Website

Measurement, Learning, & Evaluation Lab: Principal Investigator: Melody S. Goodman, PhD
Measurement, Learning, & Evaluation (MLE) lab director Melody Goodman and the multidisciplinary team members are committed to developing, implementing, and evaluating specific solutions to address measurement gaps in research and practice to address health disparities. As a biostatistician and health disparities methodologist, Dr. Goodman challenges her team members to work collaboratively with community health stakeholders to address pressing issues affecting the health of minority and medically underserved communities. The MLE lab conducts mixed-methods (qualitative/quantitative) community-engaged research focused on rigorous measurement, engages in scientific learning using data-driven approaches, and implements comprehensive (formative, summative, impact) evaluation.
MLE has two primary research tracks: 1) an applied methods track with an emphasis on survey research and a strong focus on measurement/measure development, and (2) a community-engaged research track with a focus on enhancing the infrastructure for community-engaged research through academic-community collaborations and through the development, implementation, and evaluation of community-engaged research projects and programs to reduce health disparities. In addition, MLE conducts collaborative work to support research teams/community-academic partnerships with study design, survey instrument development, data management, statistical analysis, and program/project evaluation.
Visit Website

mHealth Lab: Faculty Facilitator: Tom Kirchner, PhD, MS
NYU mHealth is a research group within the NYU School of Global Public Health. NYU mHealth works to leverage the power of cellphones to collect data about neighborhoods and experiences, including exposure to different risk and protective factors such as tobacco point-of-sale. Furthermore, the team also works to understand health behaviors as they occur within residents’ day-to-day routine. This data and analysis are used to understand decision-making about the pros and cons of certain behaviors, attitudes about the built environment, and ultimately the way outcomes are affected by the neighborhoods in which people live or spend a substantial amount of their time.
The NYU mHealth group is comprised of a transdisciplinary, highly collaborative team that includes experts in applied public health research, geographic information systems, mobile data collection, and computationally intensive (“big”) data analytics, among other topics. Members of the lab are working with a wide range of datasets from open platforms, as well as geolocation mobility data, ecological momentary assessment (EMA) data, and very large photographic imagery data from street-level collection systems and smart wearable cameras.
In the Lab, researchers and students apply mHealth tools to explore geospatial systems, technology, research, and community advocacy. Students at all levels are encouraged to contact us about opportunities, as well as check out the student-led NYU Youthmappers club. Dr. Kirchner is accepting doctoral students for the fall. For more information please email him at tomkirchner@nyu.edu.
Visit Website

NYU GPH Nutrition Lab

Co-Led by the Nutritional Epidemiology Faculty:

Joyce O’Connor, DrPH, MA, RD, Director of Public Health Nutrition
Niyati Parekh, PhD
Andrea Deierlein, PhD, MPH

Description:

The Nutrition Lab at the NYU School of Global Public Health is composed of various working groups exploring aspects of nutritional epidemiology, clinical nutrition, nutrition and lifestyle behavior, use of technology to support dietary patterns and food security, and nutrition-related policy implications and initiatives. The primary goals of this lab are for students to...

learn about the role of nutrition in public health and non-communicable diseases;
develop a network of students, faculty, and programs across New York University and the greater New York City area to better implement and innovate programs to support the community;
expand and define the methodology of nutrition research through an integrative epidemiologic and social behavioral approach to optimize policy initiatives; and
collaborate with nutrition researchers and registered dietitians to better understand the role and opportunities of nutrition professionals in developing and delivering nutrition research to the greater population.

The Nutrition Lab will combine the work and expertise of nutrition faculty, doctoral students, and interested MPH and undergraduate combined major students across departments to better engage GPH in research efforts to combat nutrition-related disease outcomes, reduce health disparities among vulnerable populations, and support efforts to better inform policies at the national and international level.

Some examples of current working groups in the Nutrition Lab include:

South Asian Health and Research (SAHaRa) group led by Dr. Niyati Parekh with Drs. Ralph DiClemente and Joyce O’Connor
Nutrition Literacy and Food Security among College Students research project co-lead by Drs. Andrea Deierlein and Niyati Parekh in collaboration with Dr. Jessica Bihuniak at NYU Steinhardt’s Department of Nutrition and Food Studies
Nutrition Technology group, led by Dr. Joyce O’Connor in collaboration with Dr. Marina Thomatos.
Nutrition and Dietetics Journal Club: Targeted at students interested in the joint MPH/DPD program to become a registered dietitian, Dr. Joyce O’Connor and Bridget Murphy (who are both RDs) co-lead this group for RDs-to-be.

Interested in joining the Nutrition Lab?

Please email Supriya Lal at ssl444@nyu.edu for more information.

Opioids and Police Safety: Faculty Facilitator/Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Janie Simmons
By harmonizing public health and policing initiatives, we aim to remove barriers to productive and life- saving police engagement with PWUO/PWID. This 2-arm pragmatic trial will address the hazards experienced by police when working with illicit opioids and promote strategies that focus both on the safety of law enforcement and evidence- based and best-practices for working with persons at risk of an opioid overdose.
To get involved, please email Dr. Simmons at js8822@nyu.edu.

Public Health Policy Research Lab: Lab Facilitators: Jennifer Pomeranz, JD, MPH, and Diana Silver, PhD, MPH
Research initiatives focus on informing policy to support public health. Specific issues we will address include public health policy related to products that cause harm (e.g., tobacco, alcohol, food, firearms), social justice-related public health issues, and creating a living environment that supports public health. Our objective is to provide policymakers and organizations in the U.S. and global community with empirically supported guidance on policies that aim to improve public health.

Researching Inequity in Society Ecologically (RISE): This lab is conducted under the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.
Faculty Facilitator/Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Shabnam Javdani, Dr. Erin Godfrey
The Researching Inequity in Society Ecologically (RISE) Team at NYU is directed by Dr. Shabnam Javdani, Assistant Professor in the Applied Psychology Department. The team’s research and activities serve traditionally marginalized populations, focusing on health and mental health disparities in women and youth who are involved, or at risk of involvement, with the justice system. As such, the RISE Team takes a contextual, multi-level and interdisciplinary approach to systems change and implementing evidence-based practices promoting health and well-being, working closely with community partners to bridge the gap between research and practice.
For more information, visit the RISE website or email project coordinator Josh Adler at joshua.adler@nyu.edu.
Visit Website

Section for Global Health at NYU School of Medicine

This lab is conducted under NYU Langone Health.

The Vedanthan research group, led by Rajesh Vedanthan, MD, MPH, at NYU Langone’s Section for Global Health in the Department of Population Health is focused on the improvement of global cardiovascular health with particular focus on low-resource settings. To do this, we bring together various academic disciplines to conduct implementation research and help optimize cardiovascular care delivery. We also work with policymakers and program implementers around the world to improve population health and reduce disease burden across the entire life course.

Ongoing projects include:

Bridging Income Generation with Group Integrated Care (BIGPIC): This study utilizes a transdisciplinary implementation research approach to address the challenge of reducing CVD risk in low-resource settings. Our hypothesis is that group medical visits integrated into microfinance groups will be effective and cost-effective in reducing CVD risk among individuals who have or are at increased risk of diabetes in western Kenya and that the key modifiable CVD risk factor to be addressed is blood pressure. We hypothesize that group medical visits and microfinance may each reduce CVD risk, but the integration of group medical visits and microfinance will yield the largest gains. We further hypothesize that changes in social network characteristics may mediate the impact of interventions on the primary outcome and that baseline social network characteristics may moderate the impact of interventions.
Strengthening Referral Networks for Management of Hypertension Across the Health System (STRENGTHS): The objective of this study is to utilize the PRECEDE-PROCEED framework, a widely applied planning model, to conduct transdisciplinary, translational implementation research focused on strengthening referral networks for hypertension control in western Kenya. The central hypothesis is that health information technology (HIT) integrated with peer support will be effective and cost-effective in strengthening referral networks, improving blood pressure control, and reducing CVD risk among patients with hypertension in western Kenya. We hypothesize that HIT and peer support will synergistically address barriers to hypertension control at the patient, provider, and health system levels. We further hypothesize that changes in referral network characteristics may mediate the impact of the intervention on the primary outcome and that baseline referral network characteristics may moderate the impact of the intervention.

For more information, visit the website or email program manager Dr. Meredith Hasenoehrl at meredith.hasenoehrl@nyulangone.org and research coordinator Julia Dickhaus at julia.dickhaus@nyulangone.org.

Visit Website

Technology-Enhanced Education Lab: Faculty Facilitators: Marina Thomatos
The Technology-Enhanced Education Lab engages with graduate and undergraduate student interns to work collaboratively with the GPH Director of Advanced Certificate in Public Health and GPH’s Instructional Technologists and faculty to develop and adapting courses, programs and research projects to utilize digital resources to support the educational goals of GPH and NYU. Successful applicants gain practical, real-world public health experience in curriculum development, planning and implementation of pedagogical strategies and hand-on application of instructional resources that utilize contemporary technologies and data sets to enhance teaching and learning; letter of recommendation, potential publications, and recognition for their efforts. Students will work with faculty and staff to develop, and effectively use digital content, tools, or related processes and procedures to help foster a high quality digital educational experience at NYU. They gain hands on experience using NYU’s LMS system (NYU Classes), and become familiar with best practices for applying instructional technologies to curriculum design for global public health.
This includes curriculum development; best practices in student-focused learning methodologies; knowledge of web accessibility; software development; website and graphic design; implementation of educational technology tools; communication and writing skills; enhanced knowledge in epidemiology, biostatistics, health economics, community health and research and data management.

Tobacco Research Lab

Faculty Facilitators: Cheryl Healton, DrPH, Donna Shelley, MD, MPH, Scott Sherman, MD,MPH, and Michael Weitzman, MD

Students involved with the Tobacco Research Lab engage in a variety of projects and study multiple aspects of tobacco use, including epidemiology, interventions, and marketing, as well as learn crucial research skills, such as grant writing, literature reviews, and analysis strategies. As this lab has multiple PIs, students have the opportunity to learn about a large range of topics, which the lab facilitates by hosting weekly presentations where PIs or students discuss their research and share their experiences.

Ongoing projects include:

Dr. Michael Weitzman’s work to evaluate the smoking habits and knowledge of alternative tobacco products among dental students, dental hygiene students, and post-graduate dental students at the NYU College of Dentistry.

Visit Website

TRIAL Lab: Tobacco and Nicotine Research: Interventions, Analysis and Longitudinal Studies: Faculty facilitator:Jennifer Cantrell, DrPH
Dr. Cantrell’s lab conducts tobacco and nicotine research with a primary focus on use of cigarettes, cigars and cigarillos, e-cigarettes and emerging products. Projects in the lab include interventions and epidemiological studies. Interventions focus on optimizing clinical treatment and messaging interventions to reduce tobacco use. Epidemiological studies identify evolving product use patterns and examine the impact of media, marketing and policy on perceptions and use. All research in the lab seeks to reduce the most harmful forms of tobacco use among socially and economically disadvantaged groups, strengthen scientific knowledge with innovative methods and provide practical evidence to inform cessation interventions, surveillance, countermarketing campaigns, regulation and policy.
Examples of studies in the lab include MOST QUITS, a National Cancer Institute-funded grant aimed at optimizing novel interventions for quitting cigarette smoking among people living with HIV in clinical care using Multiphase Optimization STrategy (MOST), implementation science and decision analysis. Other research involves analyzing national datasets to examine patterns of tobacco use over time among youth, young adults, adults and marginalized groups. Communications studies focus on examining digital tobacco marketing and countermarketing and the mechanisms that underlie its impact on behavior.
Graduate and undergraduate students are engaged in research activities such as setting up data collection and tracking systems for complex randomized clinical trials, recruiting and interviewing study participants, analyzing national datasets, conducting qualitative data coding and analysis, writing literature reviews and participating in the development of scientific manuscripts and presentations.

Urban Epidemiology Lab (UEL)

Faculty facilitators: Danielle Ompad, PhD and Emily Goldmann, PhD, MPH

In 2007, the world achieved a major milestone: 50% of the world’s population was living in urban settings and the proportion of people living in urban settings is expected to increase to 68% by 2050 (United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision). Given this reality, the Urban Epidemiology Lab (UEL) engages primarily in research that aims to:

Understand and improve the health of people living in urban settings, and
Help us conceptualize urban settings as “exposures” that may improve or detract from the health of urban dwellers.

The UEL’s primary focus is on substance use, mental health, and infectious diseases such as HIV, Hepatitis B and C, sexually transmitted infections, and malaria. The UEL includes undergraduate students, graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows from NYU and beyond. Opportunities exist for collaboration with other students, other NYU faculty, and faculty from outside of NYU.

Visit Website

Xu Quantitative Lab: Faculty Facilitator/Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Shu Xu
The Xu Quantitative lab led by Dr. Shu Xu focuses on the application and evaluation of innovative quantitative methods to social science and public health research. Our mission is to reinvent the public health paradigm by inspiring innovative scholarship, practice and leadership across boundaries. The primary research track of this lab is (but not limited to) tobacco use and health behavior change using Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) data; and is centered on various aspects of latent growth models, missing data methods, causal inference models, and developing statistical methods for longitudinal data analysis. We work to understand and address the health effects of tobacco use; assess the effects of tobacco use patterns on various health outcomes; tobacco cessation and control strategies; effects of tobacco on various population groups; assess and evaluate the tobacco campaigns and policies.
For more information, please contact Dr. Shu Xu at sx5@nyu.edu.

Initiatives

Applied Global Public Health Initiative: Faculty Facilitator: Chris Dickey, DrPH, MBA
The Applied Global Public Health Initiative (AGPHI) is a student run, service-based initiative working to create better health circumstances in New York City and beyond through collaborating with outside organizations to find innovative solutions to public health problems. Composed of undergraduate and graduate students, this lab is overseen by Dr. Chris Dickey and focuses on project-based global public health research in partnership with industry sponsors and frequently hosts renowned guest speakers to discuss creative solutions to public health issues around the world. By working with small, up-and-coming NGOs to ministries of health to larger UN agencies, the lab seeks to develop and nurture applicable, thoughtful and practical skills for our future careers. In doing so, we work to expand our understanding of what it means to be public health practitioners. Overarching research initiatives focus on global public health challenges that require an applied approach to problem solving. During our all-lab weekly meetings, we exchange ideas, discuss current events through a global health lens, and share opportunities for growth on our various projects.
Visit Website

Global Mental Health and Stigma Program: The focus of the Global Mental Health and Stigma Program is to demonstrate how mental health is integral to public health, and to improve global mental health through research, training and implementation. The program's transdisciplinary team generates evidence to identify the burdens, determinants and consequences of mental health globally, including in low and middle-income countries (LMIC); provides training in global mental health at NYU and its partner institutions; and disseminates and implements mental health evidence, interventions and best practices in the U.S. and international communities.

Visit Website

Population Impact, Recovery, and Resilience (PiR2) Program: Faculty Facilitator: Dr. David Abramson
The premise underlying Dr. Abramson’s research program - PiR² - is the application of social science theory and methodology to complex population health issues associated with disaster-related or stressor-related recovery and resiliency.
His Data Lab leverages the power of a number of his disaster studies: the NIH-funded longitudinal Gulf Coast Child and Family Health (G-CAFH) study of Katrina survivors; the Women’s and Their Children’s Health (WaTCH) study, an NIEHS-funded study exploring the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on children’s health in the Gulf Coast region; the Gulf Coast Population Impact Project, a foundation-funded effort exploring the individual and social impact of collective disaster stressors on children and families; and the longitudinal 1,000-household Sandy Child and Family Health Study, a representative population study of the hurricane’s effect on the population of New Jersey.
Visit Website

SocioEconomic Evaluation of Dietary Decisions (SEED) Program: Faculty Facilitator: Dr. Marie Bragg, PhD
As Director of the Socio-Economic Evaluation of Dietary Decisions Program (SeedProgram), Dr. Bragg conducts research on environmental and social factors associated with obesity, food marketing, food policy, and health disparities. According to Dr. Bragg, researchers have demonstrated that food companies create a “health halo” around foods that might otherwise be perceived as unhealthy.
The Seed Program has conducted web-based studies that examine how people react to products based on what information or health claims are placed on the package; how adolescents perceive racially/ethnically-targeted food and non-alcoholic beverage marketing; the effects of food and beverages endorsed by celebrities and athletes; and studies that examine the nutritional quality of food and beverages endorsed by popular music celebrities and athletes. The implications of Dr. Bragg’s research have been used to support public policy such as the Healthy Happy Meals Bill and the Sodium Warning Label.
Visit Website