Terri Lewinson, PhD, MSW
Terri’s research focuses on housing experiences as social determinants of health, such as the experience of home environments for marginalized people—whether that may be in an extended-stay hotel, assisted-living facilities, or senior housing. This work includes determining the impacts of environmental factors—such as exposure to toxins in non-traditional home environments on health and well-being. Current projects explore housing pathways among extended-stay hotel residents and medical social workers’ scope of practice during the pandemic.
Wesley Marrero, PhD, MA, MS
Each lab within HEAL works to improve health equity and advocacy. One of our labs is the Dartmouth’s Data, Statistics, and Optimization (D2SO) research group, led by Dr. Wesley Marrero. Wesley and his team aim to develop decision-support tools that consider the challenges associated with their implementation in practice, such as inequity, irrational behavior, lack of interpretability, and need for flexibility. To this end, they design and apply techniques from operations research, statistics, and algorithmic fairness, with an emphasis on simulation and optimization. Some of their current work focuses on measuring and mitigating the effects of bias and inequity through statistical and optimization methods. Through this research, D2SO addresses various application areas, including mental health, cancer, neonatology, substance use disorder, cardiovascular disease, and organ transplantation
Alka Dev, DrPH, MHS
Alka’s focus is on maternal health equity. She studies why and to what degree socioeconomic, political, and geographic vulnerability is associated with adverse birth outcomes. What happens during a woman’s pregnancy impacts that individual’s and her children’s health over their life spans. Preventing adverse birth outcomes by focusing on the root causes of inequity and studying their impact is one way in which Alka will build evidence to address harmful exposures for pregnant women—especially those arising from racist, patriarchal, and colonial structures.
Christine Gunn, PhD, MA
Christine’s community-engaged research program is focused on cancer communication, decision-making, and the utilization of evidence-based care. She has conducted a range of studies on how patients and providers negotiate the experience of being at risk for cancer—in particular, breast and prostate cancer—and its impact on the utilization of health services.
Research Staff
Laura Beidler, MPH
Laura was born and raised in Vermont. She graduated from Eastern Mennonite University with her BS in Biology. After spending a year in Nepal working with a rural public health agency, Laura earned her Masters in Public Health from Dartmouth College. She is interested in health literacy and the intersection of health care and social well-being. Laura enjoys cooking, baking, knitting, traveling, and spending time with her two Australian Shepherds, Tulsi and Quince.
Sophia Allen, MPH
Sophia Allen is from Massachusetts and completed her undergraduate degree in Neuroscience at Middlebury College in Vermont. She graduated from the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice with her Master’s in Public Health. Sophia’s research interests include strengthening policies and systems to improve maternal health equity, specifically the provision of affordable, high-quality, patient-centered reproductive health and family planning services. Sophia loves being outside and has climbed the 46 highest mountains in New York.
Sophia Pérez, MPH
Sophia Pérez is the Lab Coordinator for HEAL and a Research Assistant in the MATRIX Co-Lab at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice. She studied at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, earning her Master of Public Health in 2022. Currently, Sophia researches maternal health equity in the MATRIX CoLAB, particularly gender-based equity, postpartum mental health, social determinants of health, and disability. Outside of work, Sophia enjoys reading, baking, and spending time with family and friends.
Kedryn Berrian, MPH, MA
Kedryn is a Research Assistant pursuing a Health Equity Research Fellowship at TDI. She is from the Metropolitan DC area, specifically Northern Virginia. Kedryn completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology at Marymount University. She then went on to receive a master’s degree in Sustainable International Development at Brandeis University, before attaining her MPH at Dartmouth College. Kedryn is interested in mental health outcomes and disparities of POC LGBTQIA+ communities. She is an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer alum and received the President’s Volunteer Service Award in 2017. Outside of work, Kedryn enjoys reading romance novels and hiking in the New Hampshire area
Mia St. Angelo, MPH
Mia St. Angelo is a research assistant at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. Her research work is primarily focused on health behavior, particularly among cancer patients and survivors. She is also interested in the intersection between environmental health and cancer. She is passionate about health equity and strives to promote equitable solutions to healthcare problems through her work.
Mia obtained her MPH from The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. Mia also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and Communication Studies from Northeastern University. In her free time, Mia enjoys hiking around the Upper Valley and spending time at the beach with her family.
Abhirupa Dasgupta, MPH
Abhirupa is a DocPath fellow in Dr. Terri Lewinson’s lab this year. She holds bachelor’s degrees in neuroscience and biochemistry from UT Austin and a master of public health degree from The Dartmouth Institute. After taking Dr. Karen Schifferdecker’s class in qualitative methods and Dr. Lewinson’s class about housing inequities, Abhirupa became interested in qualitative research methods and their ability to center unique human experiences within the scientific inquiry process. She is passionate about medicine and utilizing healthcare as a tool for social change, and is especially interested in healthcare access and medical outcomes for aging immigrant populations in the United States.