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.
Anna Kareeva
Project Coordinator
Anna Kareeva graduated from Rutgers Business School with a master’s degree in Computer and Information Science and a concentration in User Experience Design. She has extensive experience as a Business Analyst and in other product-related roles. She will work with Gretchen Stahlman on this project and utilize her prior skills in user experience and design.
Natalia L. Herman
Research Assistant
Natalia Herman is a recent graduate of Rutgers’ Master in Communication and Media program, specializing in Strategic Organizational and Leadership Communication, acting as Research Assistant on this project for Professor Itzhak Yanovitzky. She also holds an MPH with a concentration in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention from Mt. Sinai School of Medicine and seeks to combine these skillsets with research interests at the intersection of knowledge brokerage, community, equity, and technology.
Justine Quow
Research Assistant
Justine Quow is in the fourth year of her Ph.D. program at Rutgers University School of Communication and Information. Justine is advised by Professor Itzhak Yanovitzky. Her research interests are health communication and community engagement. Specifically, her scholarship aims to bridge health systems and underserved communities through community engagement.
Rachel Horvath
Research Assistant
Rachel Horvath is a third-year Ph.D. Candidate at Rutgers University Department of Political Science advised by Dr. Katherine McCabe. Rachel earned her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Psychology at Lycoming College in Williamsport, PA. Her research interests include social media and politics, with specific interests in social media as a non-traditional news source and a venue for social movement activism. Utilizing quantitative and computational research methods, Rachel seeks to understand the diverse partisan media landscape on social media.
Adiva Khan
Research Assistant
Adiva Khan is in her third year at Rutgers University majoring in Political Science and double minoring in Economics and Critical Intelligence. She began conducting research through the Lloyd C Gardner Fellowship where she began working with Professor Charles Senteio on her project discussing how artificial intelligence is able to perpetuate racial bias in the healthcare sector. She is also working with Charles to investigate the feasibility of international research collaboration. Adiva’s interests in research stem from her active participation in IMUNA and IDIA- two Model United Nations nonprofit organizations- where she has been able to research pertinent global issues such as human and drug trafficking and collaborated with individuals to discuss and craft solutions. By combining her passions for diplomacy, public policy, and social equity, Adiva aims to advance approaches to addressing public health challenges with a nuanced approach.