2023-24 Research Scholars Cohort 3

The Research Scholars Program is aligned with national priorities for research diversity, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation (FIRST) program goal of creating cultures of inclusive excellence at NIH-funded institutions by implementing well-integrated, evidence-based strategies and evaluating their impact on metrics of institutional culture, inclusive excellence and diversity.

Deirdre Dlugonski

College of Health Sciences
Research interests: Community-based approaches for designing effective, sustainable, and scalable interventions to increase physical activity among women, children, and families that improve health equity

Yasminka Jakubek

College of Medicine
Research interests: Etiology of acquired mutations in cancer and non-cancer tissues and the utility of mutational profiles for improved disease risk stratification in cancer and other chronic diseases

Anel Jaramillo

College of Pharmacy
Research interests: Dissecting neuronal pathways driving alcohol use disorder, anxiety and the interactions between these domains

Jayani Jayawardhana

College of Public Health
Research interests: Substance use policy research, health disparities, large secondary data analyses

Courtney Perry

College of Medicine
Research interests: Disparities in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) outcomes, Appalachian Health

Rosana Zenil-Ferguson

College of Arts & Sciences
Research interests: Evolutionary biology, speciation and extinction of land plants, phylogenetic comparative models for trait evolution and diversification