Program Teams

Meet the HKMRS Teams

Program
Health Knowledge Monitoring and Response System Pilot Program
Topic(s)
Health Knowledge Monitoring

HKMRS Pilot Sites

Colorado (CO) CEAL

The CO CEAL team is a partnership among the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Servicios de la Raza, the Trailhead Institute, Denver Public Health, UCHealth, 2040 Partners for Health, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, and other community-based organizations.

Principal Investigator

  • Donald E. Nease, Jr., M.D.

Team Members

  • Montelle M. Taméz, Co-Director
  • Meredith Warman, Project Manager
  • Allison R. Sands, Project Coordinator
  • Kate Oviatt, Ph.D., Survey Management
  • Curtis Kline, Ph.D., Survey Distribution
  • Charlene Barrientos Ortiz, Dissemination and Training Support/Community Engagement Manager

Website

District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia (DMV) CEAL

The DMV CEAL team is a partnership among Johns Hopkins University, The George Washington University, Morgan State University, Howard University, and the University of Maryland Baltimore. Johns Hopkins University leads the iHeard DMV project and partners with R.I.C.H. Foundation, SONS of Phoenix, New Lebanon Calvary Baptist Church, Young Successful Leaders Inc, and Medi.

Principal Investigator

  • Cheryl Himmelfarb, Ph.D., R.N., M.S.N.

Team Members

  • Cyd Lacanienta, M.S.W., Associate Director
  • Donald Young, Community Outreach Engagement Specialist
  • India Kutcherman, Project Coordinator
  • Joy Chepkorir, R.N., M.Sc., Project Coordinator

Website

Texas (TX) CEAL

The TX CEAL team is a partnership among the University of North Texas Health Science Center, the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, CAN DO Houston, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, the University of Houston, and Baylor College of Medicine. These partners implement the CEAL mission across the TX counties of Bexar, Dallas, Harris, Hidalgo, and Tarrant.

Principal Investigator

  • Jamboor Vishwanatha, Ph.D.

Team Members

  • Nitasha Siddique, Project Coordinator
  • Palak Desai, M.P.H., C.P.H., Project Coordinator
  • Justin Luningham, Ph.D., Biostatistician

Coordinating Center

Missouri (MO) CEAL

The MO CEAL team serves as the HKMRS Pilot Coordinating Center. The MO CEAL team is a partnership among the City of St. Louis Department of Health, the St. Louis County Department of Public Health, the St. Louis COVID-19 Regional Response Team, and the Health Communication Research Laboratory at Washington University in St. Louis.

Principal Investigator

  • Matthew Kreuter, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Team Members

  • Alexis Marsh, L.M.S.W., Program Manager
  • Mikayla Johnson, Project Coordinator
  • Rachel Garg, Ph.D., Evaluation Lead
  • Blakley Stretch, Evaluation Project Coordinator
  • Victoria De La Vega, M.P.H., C.P.H., Survey Coordinator
  • Kim Johnson, Ph.D., M.P.H., Data Lead
  • Balaji Golla, M.S., Web Developer
  • Penina Acayo Laker, M.F.A., Design Director
  • Christine Watridge, Design Coordinator
  • Alex Koehl, UX/UI Designer
  • Michaela Kroner, Graphic Designer
  • Ayo Olagoke, Ph.D., M.P.H., Content Writer
  • Charlene Caburnay, Ph.D., Editor
  • Lauren Grimes, M.P.H., Environmental Scan Coordinator
  • Enguday Teshome, M.P.H., Environmental Scan Coder

Website

Social Media

Blue Ribbon Panel

The HKMRS Blue Ribbon Panel guides CEAL teams and the Community Engagement Technical Assistance Center on the scientific rigor of the Pilot, ensuring that evidence-based health communication science methodologies are used in evaluating the possibility of expanding the HKMRS to a broader—if not national—health information, monitoring, and response system.

Evaluation Support

Lacreisha Ejike-King, Ph.D.,M.S., CHES 
Evaluator & Health Scientist 
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Tesfa Alexander, Ph.D. 
Department Manager, Public Health Systems Innovation and Transformation 
The MITRE Corporation

Thomas Chapel, M.A., M.B.A. 
Guest Researcher/Senior Evaluation Fellow, former Chief Evaluation Officer 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Tony Foleno, M.A. 
Senior Vice President, Strategy & Evaluation 
The Advertising Council

Inaccurate Health Information Mitigation Support

Seema Yasmin, M.D. 
Clinical Assistant Professor 
Stanford University

Yonaira Rivera, Ph.D., M.P.H. 
Assistant Professor 
Rutgers University–New Brunswick