Center Leadership and Faculty

Meet our leadership and core faculty members who contribute to the important work of the Center.

Core Faculty

These full-time faculty of the Bloomberg School spend a sizable portion of their effort working on injury-related issues, and their disciplinary expertise well represents the diverse disciplines related to injury research, policy, and practice.

Mia Aassar, MPH ’23
Research Associate, Health Policy and Management. Ms. Aassar uses qualitative methods to implement and evaluate evidence-based programs and policies that reduce the burden of injury. Her research interests include firearm violence prevention, community-based participatory research, health communication and advocacy, and health equity, particularly among LGBTQ+ youth and people of color.

Kamila Alexander, PhD, MSN/MPH, RN
Associate Director, PhD and Postdoctoral Programs and Associate Professor, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. Dr. Alexander leads the Center’s Violence Initiative. Her research focuses on prevention of sexual health outcome disparities and the complex roles structural determinants such as intimate partner violence, societal gender expectations, and limited economic opportunities play in the experience of intimate human relationships.

Kiara Alvarez, PhD, EdM
Associate Professor, Health, Behavior and Society.

Luciana Assini-Meytin, PhD, MS
Associate Research Professor, Mental Health

Daniel J. Barnett, MD, MPH '01
Professor, Environmental Health and Engineering. Dr. Barnett's injury prevention research focuses on the application of the Haddon matrix as an injury epidemiology-based planning tool for public health emergency and disaster preparedness, response, and recovery.

Maria T. Bulzacchelli, PhD ’07
Assistant Research Professor, Health Policy and Management Director, Undergraduate Program in Public Health Studies. Dr. Bulzacchelli is the Director of the Undergraduate Program in Public Health Studies at the Johns Hopkins University. Her research interests are mainly in the area of injury prevention and control and focus on occupational injuries and safety-related behaviors, especially compliance with safety standards and worker behavior in some of the most hazardous industries in the United States.

Anthony Carlini, MS
Senior Research Associate, Health Policy and Management Director of Informatics and Project Director, Major Extremity Trauma and Rehabilitation Consortium (METRC). Mr. Carlini's research interests center on the costs and outcomes of injury, both in a clinical setting and at the system level, as well as the administration, organization and policies of trauma and emergency medical services systems. He currently serves as the director for Informatics and Biostatistics at METRC, a group of more than 80 hospitals conducting clinical trials in orthopedic trauma.

Renan Castillo, PhD ’08, MS ’97, BA ’93 
Professor, Health Policy and Management Director, Major Extremity Trauma and Rehabilitation Consortium (METRC). Dr. Castillo’s work in injury prevention focuses on trauma outcomes, pain, orthopedic trauma and health disparities. He is the director of the METRC Coordinating Center.

Theresa Chirles, PhD, MA
Assistant Scientist, Health Policy and Management

Cassandra Kercher Crifasi, PhD ’14, MPH 
Associate Professor, Health Policy and Management. Dr. Crifasi is an injury epidemiologist focused on policies, procedures and practices that improve safety and prevent injury. Her research interests include occupational injury epidemiology, violence prevention, firearm policies and evaluation of policy on public safety.

Michael R. Desjardins, PhD, MA
Assistant Research Professor, Epidemiology. Dr. Desjardins is a spatial epidemiologist who focuses on place-based disparities in gun violence, substance use, and suicide. With a particular interest in neighborhoods and local activity spaces, he applies and develops cutting edge spatial science methodologies to improve our understanding of the structural and social factors that influence risk, shape exposures and opportunities, and drive inequities.

Michelle Duren, PhD, MIPA
Assistant Scientist, Health Policy and Management. Dr. Duren's research includes driver licensing policies and emerging technologies for driver behavior change, drawing on telematics data and large-scale naturalistic driving studies to inform transportation safety policy. Her work integrates quantitative analysis, evaluation, and implementation science to translate findings into effective policy and practice.

Johnathon Ehsani, PhD, MPH 
Assistant Professor, Health Policy and Management. Dr. Ehsani's research interests include motor vehicle policies, road safety interventions, teenage drivers and technological innovation for injury prevention.

Shannon Frattaroli, PhD ’99, MPH ’94 
Center Director and Professor, Health Policy and Management Dr. Frattaroli has over 20 years of experience in the injury prevention and control field with contributions that span many injury prevention challenges. She is an expert in qualitative research methods, and is particularly interested in using research to inform policy and practice interventions, and to assure that interventions are effectively implemented once in place.

Danielle German, PhD, MPH
Associate Professor, Health Behavior and Society. Dr. German is a social and behavioral scientist who conducts applied mixed-methods research to understand and address social contexts of health behavior and well-being among marginalized populations. Her injury prevention research focuses on overdose and drug-related harms among people who use drugs — particularly in the context of increasing toxicity within the unregulated drug supply — as well as exposure to interpersonal and structural violence and related trauma.

Mary Beth Howard, MD, MSc
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Renee M. Johnson, PhD, MPH
Director of Training & Education and Professor, Mental Health. Dr. Johnson has expertise in injury prevention, including firearm injury, unintentional home injury, youth violence, dating violence and suicide. Her research addresses the health of adolescents and emerging adults, with a focus on substance use and violence. She is particularly interested in vulnerable youth, including low-income urban youth, LGBT youth, immigrants and those exposed to trauma and violence.

Vanya Jones, PhD ’06, MPH
Associate Professor, Health, Behavior and Society. Dr. Jones’ research explores psychosocial and environmental factors related to injury in vulnerable populations including children, adolescents, and older adults. She designs interventions to reduce the burden of injury on high-risk populations.

Elizabeth J. Letourneau, PhD 
Professor, Mental Health Director, Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse. Dr. Letourneau’s research interests intersect around the prevention of child sexual abuse victimization and perpetration. These areas include the evaluation of sex offender public policy effects, the development and evaluation of assessment instruments and clinical interventions addressing youth and adult sex offending behaviors, and the development and evaluation of interventions addressing youth sexual risk behaviors.

Alex McCourt, JD, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor, Health Policy and Management. Dr. McCourt is a public health lawyer who combines legal research with quantitative methods to study instances in which law plays a role in shaping the public’s health. His research interests include violence prevention, firearm policy, opioid policy, and road safety.

Eileen McDonald, MS 
Senior Scientist, Health, Behavior and Society Program Director, Children’s Safety Centers.

Jeff Michael, EdD
Distinguished Scholar, Health Policy and Management. Dr. Michael is an accomplished national and international leader with demonstrated leadership in analysis, development, and implementation of programs to improve road safety — both in the United States and in other nations.

Nicholas Meyerson, PhD `24, MA
Assistant Professor, Health Policy and Management. Dr. Meyerson is a health equity researcher who seeks to improve community wellbeing through violence prevention. His research focuses on firearm violence prevention, reactions to police violence in impacted communities and the legal system, and youth in detention.

Mallory O'Brien, PhD
Associate Scientist, Health Policy and Management

Elise Omaki, MHS ’11 
Director of Outreach and Senior Research Associate, Health Policy and Management. Ms. Omaki studies injury and violence prevention using epidemiologic and data science methods. Her research interests include understanding the role of policies and programs in preventing injury, especially among children and other vulnerable populations.

Keshia Pollack Porter, PhD ’06, MPH 
Dean, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Professor, Health Policy and Management. Dr. Pollack Porter’s research interests include injury epidemiology, health impact assessment, and mixed methods to advance policies that create safe and healthy environments where people live, work, play, and travel. Her focus is on identifying policy solutions to prevent injuries related to work, obesity, sports and recreation, physical activity, transportation, and the built environment, address social determinants of health, reduce disparities, and advance health equity.

Terri Powell, PhD MA
Vice Chair of Inclusion Diversity, Anti-Racism and Equity (IDARE) and Associate Professor, Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health.

Leticia Ryan, MD, MPH 
Director of Research, Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine Associate Professor, Pediatrics Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Olivia Sugarman, PhD, MPH
Assistant Scientist, Health Policy and Management

Wendy Shields, PhD, MPH ’96 
Associate Director and Senior Scientist, Health Policy and Management. Dr. Shields is an expert in home injury prevention and has extensive experience using national data to understand the epidemiology of scald injury, home fires, and falls prevention. She is an active member of the healthy housing community and partners with tribal communities on injury and violence prevention initiatives nationwide.

Barry Solomon, MD MPH
Assistant Dean for Medical Student Affairs and Professor of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Mudia Uzzi, PhD ’22, MSc
Bloomberg Assistant Professor of American Health, Health Policy and Management. His research investigates the underlying structural drivers of intentional and unintentional injury, including firearm violence, drug overdose, and suicide. Dr. Uzzi leads research and advocates for policies and programs that promote safer and healthier communities. 

Jon Vernick, JD, MPH ’94 
Professor, Health Policy and Management Co-Director, Center for Law and the Public’s Health Director of Training and Education.

Daniel Webster, ScD ’91, MPH
Bloomberg Professor of American Health Professor, Health Policy and Management. Dr. Webster’s expertise is in firearm policy and the prevention of youth violence and intimate partner violence. Policy evaluation research is an area of special focus for Dr. Webster.

Stephen T. Wegener, PhD
Associate Professor, Health Policy and Management Professor, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Wegener’s research focuses on the application of theory to programs that improve function and reduce disability for persons with chronic illness and impairments, especially those caused by trauma.

Holly Wilcox, PhD ’03, MA 
Professor, Mental Health. Dr. Wilcox is an expert in psychiatric epidemiology whose work concentrates on suicide prevention. Her research focuses on conducting evidence-based and sustainable community-based universal suicide prevention strategies, intervention trials and translational research to disseminate interventions.

Zhiqing Albert Zhou, PhD, MA
Associate Professor, Mental Health. Dr. Zhou's research in injury prevention focuses on workplace violence prevention, worker safety promotion, and how workplace experiences shape worker injury risk and substance use.