Team

Dr. Karen Patricia Williams is a Nursing Distinguished Professor of Women’s Health at The Ohio State University College of Nursing and Director of the Martha S. Pitzer Center for Women, Children and Youth. She is also a member of the Cancer Control Program at the OSUCCC – James. Dr. Williams is the Director for the Research on Black Women’s Health Across the Diaspora where she focuses on conducting that builds on the assets of women in cancer prevention and control and cardiovascular disease prevention to promote health equity.

Awais joined the college in January 2009. Awais was formerly with the Ohio State Medical Center Information Technology department and has been a university employee since 2001. Awais is also an alumnus of Ohio State.

Awais plans, coordinates, directs, and designs all operational activities of the IT department, as well as provides direction and support for IT solutions that enhance mission-critical business operations. Awais works closely with decision makers in the college to identify, recommend, develop, implement, and support cost-effective technology solutions for all aspects of the organization.

Mr. Allen is a public health expert, lecturer, and health equity champion. He served as a public health administrator in Ohio working on such issues as HIV/AIDS, chronic diseases and contact tracing for sexually transmitted infections. He pioneered the combined use of market research data, GIS and analytic tools to address a variety of public health challenges at the state and national levels. He also served as the first Director of the Office of Health Equity at the Ohio Department of Health. He currently serves as a national health equity consultant.

Dr. Cindy Anderson’s research is focused on pregnancy and pregnancy-associated conditions including hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.  She is also interested in the effect that hypertensive disorders of pregnancy have on future heart disease risk and pregnancy risk in mothers and their children across the lifespan. 

Dr. Ashley Felix is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology in the College of Public Health at Ohio State University. She is a cancer epidemiologist focused on the etiologic, molecular, and prognostic heterogeneity of gynecologic tumors. Her work has specifically focused on women diagnosed with clinically aggressive endometrial tumors, which represent a diverse and understudied group of tumors, characterized by racial disparities. In her more recent research with the group, Dr. Felix has begun to explore novel risk factors, including stressful life events, resilience, John Henryism, and allostatic load, for cardiovascular disease development among Black women.

Dr. Gillespie’s program of research aims to optimize the health of mothers and infants by developing immune-based precision health approaches for the prediction and prevention of complications of pregnancy and postpartum. Special emphasis is placed on pathways linking psychosocial stress to health outcomes and clinical screening tool development. Dr. Gillespie’s work has been supported by funding agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, American Nurses Association, Council for the Advancement of Nursing Science, and Rockefeller University.

Cheryl L. Woods Giscombé, PhD, RN, PMHNP-BC, FAAN, is the Associate Dean of the PhD Division & Program and Levine Family Distinguished Scholar in Quality of Life, Health Promotion, and Wellness. Her program of research focuses on understanding and reducing stress-related health disparities among African Americans. Her research incorporates sociohistorical and biopsychosocial perspectives to investigate how stress and coping strategies contribute to stress-related psychological and physical health outcomes. Dr. Giscombé has a particular interest in the potential for integrative approaches to reduce mental health-related disparities among African Americans.

Dr. Hamilton is the Henry Cohen Professor of Economics and Urban Policy and the founding director of the Institute for the Study of Race, Stratification and Political Economy at The New School. Dr. Hamilton’s research focus is on the interdisciplinary orientation and commitment to the study of social structure and policies that concern economic empowerment, social, and political inclusion. A great deal of his research, teaching and service, has been directed towards the measurement of racial and ethnic inequality, the analysis of the causes, consequences and remedies associated with this inequality in economic and health outcomes. This includes an examination of the intersection of identity, racism, colorism, and socioeconomic outcomes.

Dr. Mohammed is a healthcare executive with over 20 years of clinical engagements and leadership experience. As the CEO of Heart of Ohio Family Health (HOFH), Dr. Mohammed is focused on the impact of health care delivery by improving operations, with emphasis on the patient experience and strengthening the workforce. He is also dedicated to improving the business model of the health center that includes communicating the health center’s strategic plan to the staff, board and the community-at-large.

Dr. Mohammed is a clinical consultant at the Management Strategists Consulting Group (MSCG) working as the U.S. Health and Human Services’ Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC) / Health Resources Services Administration’s (HRSA) Operational Site Visit reviewer.

Dr. Darryl Hood’s research focus is in continuing his innovation in discovery as co-architect of the Public Health Exposome framework focused on determining if there are associations between the built, natural, physical and social environment and the disparate health outcomes observed in high-risk and vulnerable populations.

Dr. Nolan is a nurse scientist developing interventions that promote self-management in the prevention and control of chronic conditions (i.e. breast cancer and cardiovascular disease). By identifying/understanding contextual factors of health and well-being, Dr. Nolan hopes to be better able to develop, implement and disseminate culturally-sensitive interventions for African Americans that will reduce health disparities and promote health equity.

Dr. Sakima Smith’s research program spans basic cardiovascular research to population health, diversity, and health outcomes.  Our basic science program is focused on the mechanisms underlying the targeting and regulation of βII-spectrin in human heart failure and translating those findings to other disease states and pathways using novel and cutting-edge methods and technologies.  Finally, our cardio-oncology program is designed to discover mechanistic pathways involved in cancer-therapy cardiotoxicity.

Jessica is currently an Ohio State Nursing PhD student building her program of research which will focus on HIV-related health disparities. Her dissertation work will focus on the pathophysiological effects of HIV stigma in women.

Charleta B. Tavares assumed the Chief Executive Officer of Columbus Neighborhood Health Center (CNHC), Inc., aka PrimaryOne Health, position in February 2015. The mission of the organization is to provide access to services that improve the health status of families including people experiencing financial, social, or cultural barriers to healthcare. Senator Tavares is a former member of the Ohio Senate where she represented the 15th District from 2011 to 2018. Senator Tavares has served at the local, state, and national levels as a trainer, policymaker, administrator, and/or elected official specializing in cultural competence, behavioral physical health, social services, child welfare, housing, and criminal justice issues.

Dr. Wright’s research focus is on the design and testing of culturally-informed interventions to address the complexity of chronic stress and hypertension self-care in African American women with the ultimate goal to prevent cardiovascular disease and cognitive decline.

https://insights.osu.edu/health/wright-minute-professor

Dr. Barbara Warren’s research focus is in the area of mental health, wellness, and illness in the context of cultural influences on persons, communities, and systems and organizations.