Congratulations to our alumni on their accomplishments!

Spring 2022

Cortni Borgerson (BA 2005) was featured in an article by The Montclarion, titled “Montclair State Professor and National Geographic Explorer Shares her Passion for Madagascar.” You can read the article here.

Ariel Cascio (PhD 2015) received a Post-Ph.D. Research Grant from Wenner-Gren for a project, “Meanings of autism and work: Autistic and non-autistic people navigating shared spaces and conflicting conceptualizations.”

Meghan Halley (PhD 2012; MPH 2009) has been awarded a K01 Career Development Award from the National Human Genome Research Institute for her project titled, “Surfacing values in the economic evaluation of genome sequencing for diagnosis of children with rare diseases.” This five-year award will support additional training for Dr. Halley in bioethics, health economics, and genetics, as well as ethnographic research exploring how diverse stakeholder values intersect in shaping health policy around new genomic technologies. Dr. Halley is currently a Research Scholar in the Center for Biomedical Ethics at Stanford University.

Carlos Lewis-Miller (MA 2020) was a panelist for the Mary Ann Swetland Center for Environmental Health Series: Pipeline to Practice: Uncovering the Pathways to a Career in Environmental Health, held on May 25, 2021. The discussion featured current and past Environmental Health Research trainees of the Swetland Center and included conversations about the panelists’ journeys through their training experience, current and future career goals, and how they harness their passion for the field of environmental health.

Stephanie McClure (PhD 2013) spoke with the Human Biology Association on the topic of “Bringing Anthropology to Public Health.” Dr. McClure is currently and Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alabama. You can listen to the interview here or here.

Danrui Song (IGS 2016) moved back to China in 2021 and accepted an offer at AstraZeneca Global R&D Center, Shanghai as a Business Planning & Operations Manager.

Spring 2021

Ben Jiao (PhD 2001) just published his second book, titled “Zoujin Naqu: A guide to Naqu” with Dondrup Lhagyal. Chengdu: Sichuan Nationalities Publishing House, 2020. Ben Jiao’s new book is about Tibetan nomadic culture, history and the livelihood in the Northern Tibet region (Nagchu) with over 230 new photos.

Megan Schmidt-Sane (PhD 2020) is working for the Social Science in Humanitarian Action Platform at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex where her efforts include co-authoring two briefs:

Rapid Review: Vaccine Hesitancy and Building Confidence in COVID-19 Vaccination

and

Key Considerations: Emerging Evidence on Shielding Vulnerable Groups During COVID-19

Yan Zhang (PhD 2020) was awarded the Margaret Clark Award for Student Papers sponsored by the Association for Anthropology, Gerontology, and the Life Course for her paper: “Cinderella Men”: Husband- and Son-Caregivers for Elders with Dementia in Shanghai. The paper, based on her dissertation research, will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal, Anthropology and Aging.

Yan has also recently accepted a postdoctoral position at the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical Center. She will be working with Dr. Hongtu Chen, Dr. Arthur Kleinman, and Dr. Fawwaz Habbal on a program named “Social Technology for Global Aging Research Initiative.” Congratulations!

Winter 2020

Kristine Camper (MA 2019) is a CDC public health associate in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is working for a tribal epidemiology center called Albuquerque Area Southwest Tribal Epidemiology Center (AASTEC). With them she works on diabetes prevention and management for tribal peoples in the southwest. She is also being trained on database creation and implementation to work to create tribal ownership of their data, as part of a movement called data sovereignty to give ownership of data back to native people. She is also working on projects that help with suicide prevention, substance abuse, and maternal health.

Yunzhu (June) Chen (Ph.D. 2019) is assistant professor in Southwest Minzu University in China where she is teaching medical anthropology.

Dr. Lillian Emmons (Ph.D. 1989) was awarded the “Notable Woman of the Year” award from the Flora Stone Mather Center for Women at CWRU in October 2019. Dr. Emmons was honored for her various achievements, including her role on the Community Advisory Board of the Center.

Waluma Fofung (MA 2019) is currently an AmeriCorps Service Member working with the Community Impact, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (CEDI) Department at University Hospitals in Cleveland. In this position, she assists in the implementation of projects and initiatives geared towards maintaining an inclusive, equitable, and diverse environment that provides culturally relevant patient care. Among those, she does project development for the University Hospitals Health Scholars Program (UHHSP), which is a pipeline program designed to recruit underrepresented minority Cleveland-area students who are interested in a career in medicine. Additionally, she participates as a Health Professional Affinity Community (HPAC) Team Leader at Cleveland School of Science and Medicine, working with students in implementing health projects in their local communities. She coaches them along their process of problem identification, project development, establishing partnerships and resources, assessing the target demographic and impact, and then presenting their project at the HPAC Scholars Day Conference.

Kathyrn Oths (Ph.D. 1991) retired from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa where she is now Professor Emeritus.

Alison Schlosser (PhD 2018) is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Bioethics at CWRU. Her recent publications include:

Schlosser AV, Joshi K, Smith S, Thornton A, Bolen SD, Trapl ES 2019 “The coupons and stuff just made it possible”: economic constraints and patient experiences of a produce prescription program. Transl Behav Med. 2019 Oct 1; 9 (5):875-883.

Schlosser AV, Smith S, Joshi K, Thornton A, Trapl ES, Bolen S. “You Guys Really Care About Me…”: a Qualitative Exploration of a Produce Prescription Program in Safety Net Clinics. J Gen Intern Med. 2019 Nov; 34(11):2567-2574.

Jennifer Shaw (Ph.D. 2013) is a senior researcher at the Southcentral Foundation in Anchorage, AK. Her recent publications include:

Lillie KM, Dirks LG, Curtis JR, Candrian C, Kutner JS, Shaw JL. 2019 Culturally Adapting an Advance Care Planning Communication Intervention With American Indi-an and Alaska Native People in Primary Care Journal of Transcultural, July 1: 1-10.

Shaw JL, Beans JA, Comtois KA, Hiratsuka VY 2019 Lived Experiences of Suicide Risk and Resilience among Alaska Native and American Indian People. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 Oct 17;16 (20).

Last updated: April 14, 2022