Research Team
Itzhak Yanovitzky, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Itzhak Yanovitzky (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania) is Professor of Communication (primary appointment) and Public Health (secondary appointment) and Chair of the SC&I Health and Wellness Faculty Cluster at Rutgers University. He is an expert in the areas of behavior change communication, public policymaking, translational research, and program evaluation. Professor Yanovitzky’s program of research explores effective mechanisms for facilitating use of evidence in policy and practice and building the capacity of communities to apply communication strategies and tools to promote population health. He has an extensive experience partnering with collaborators across academic disciplines and sectors to address a range of public health problems, including most recently efforts to address the opioid epidemic and the rising toll of youth depression and suicide. Professor Yanovitzky is the immediate past chair of the Health Communication Division of the International Communication Association and a member of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s Standing Committee on Advancing Science Communication.
Charles Senteio, Ph.D.
Co-Principal Investigator
Dr. Charles Senteio’s research focuses on improving health outcomes and patient wellness for vulnerable, minority patients through technology-enabled solutions that facilitate health information flow. A mixed methods researcher, his insights from health informatics develop and enhance innovative, scalable approaches to care delivery, with an emphasis on community-based research. Dr. Senteio has more than two decades of experience in healthcare, serving as a strategic adviser to hospital systems across the U.S. and internationally interested in improving health outcomes and reducing the cost of care. His ongoing work describes ways to enhance the health information exchange between patients and providers. He has published investigations to explain how physicians perceive that patients disclose sensitive health information and how physicians use that information to make care decisions. He has also published work describing approaches for using technology to provide health information to medically underserved populations. Dr. Senteio’s extensive healthcare education, strategic evaluation and program execution skills, community-based research experience, and research using mixed methods, position him well to serve as a PI for the PH3D project.
Gretchen Stahlman, Ph.D.
Co-Principal Investigator
Gretchen Stahlman is an Assistant Professor in the School of Information at Florida State University. She previously served as Assistant Professor of Library & Information Science at Rutgers University. Gretchen earned her Ph.D. degree from the University of Arizona School of Information in 2020. Her current research interests broadly include scholarly and science communication, scientific information lifecycles, and the sociotechnical systems supporting research infrastructures, resources, and data management. The overall purpose of Gretchen’s present and future work is to inform open science and scholarly communication initiatives, as well as development of methods, services, and infrastructures for long-term information management and responsible data science. With more than 10 years of prior professional experience related to librarianship and information management, she has also worked in an academic library, and as a documentation specialist for the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope construction project.
Matthew Ackerman
Graduate Research Assistant
Matthew Ackerman is a fourth year Ph.D. Candidate at Rutgers University School of Communication and Information advised by Dr. Charles Senteio. Matthew earned a Master of Science in human centered systems at City University London and a Master of Information at Rutgers University in interaction design. His research interests broadly include the intersections of health information, technology design for health, and healthcare disparities. The overall purpose of Matthew’s work is to inform information technology design to meet health information needs, often addressing health disparities due to information poverty and marginalization. Matthew’s previous experiences in working with user experience design, and as an emergency medical technician help inform his current research works including the participatory design of electronic medical records for the collection of social determinants of health data.
Miriam Kim
Research Assistant
Miriam Kim is a Rutgers University-New Brunswick graduate with a Bachelor’s in Information Technology & Informatics and English. She has previously assisted Dr. Gretchen Stahlman with her work in examining how scientists use research data. She is currently working as a research assistant on this project, with Dr. Itzhak Yanovitzky as her supervisor.
Yehuda Perry
Graduate Research Assistant
Yehuda Perry (MSc Applied Data Science, Syracuse University) is a Ph.D. student at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, School of Communication and Information, Library and Information (LIS) Department. He is advised by Prof. Vivek Singh and Prof. Itzhak Yanovitzky. Yehuda Perry’s career as a software engineer and data scientist led him to his research interests in Information Science studies. Perry’s research sits at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HCAI), privacy, and user trust in the design and use of AI technology. Perry’s particularly interested in studying user experience challenges, and human-AI interaction-related risks including ethical, bias, fairness, privacy, and discrimination related risks. Perry designed and developed several Machine Learning systems and Artificial Intelligence-powered applications.
Justine Quow
Graduate Research Assistant
Jeongone (Joh) Seo is a Ph.D. student in Library and Information Science at Rutgers University, working as a research assistant for Professors Itzhak Yanovitzky and Gretchen Stahlman. With a background in social work, Joh explores the intersection of communication, technology, and community health. Her research uses digital tools to facilitate evidence-based practices in community healthcare settings. Joh is particularly interested in building community capacity to use communication strategies to promote population health. By combining social work, communication, and information science principles, she aims to develop innovative approaches to address public health challenges. Joh aims to contribute to effective, evidence-based solutions for healthier communities, aligning with translational research and program evaluation methodologies.
Jeongone (Joh) Seo
Research Assistant
Jeongone (Joh) Seo is a Ph.D. student in Library and Information Science at Rutgers University, working as a research assistant for Professors Itzhak Yanovitzky and Gretchen Stahlman. With a background in social work, Joh explores the intersection of communication, technology, and community health. Her research uses digital tools to facilitate evidence-based practices in community healthcare settings. Joh is particularly interested in building community capacity to use communication strategies to promote population health. By combining social work, communication, and information science principles, she aims to develop innovative approaches to address public health challenges. Joh aims to contribute to effective, evidence-based solutions for healthier communities, aligning with translational research and program evaluation methodologies.