David Chae, Sc.D., M.A., is Professor in the Department of Social, Behavioral, and Population Sciences and director of the Society, Health, and Racial Equity (SHARE) Lab. His research focuses on social determinants of health inequities and the embodiment of racism. He studies racism as a social-environmental toxin that shapes the inequitable population-level distribution of disease.
Caryn Bell’s research focuses on the unique impacts of socioeconomic status (SES) and place on cardiovascular disease risk factors in Black Americans and racial disparities. Her work explores the nuanced ways in which SES is associated with obesity and related behaviors in Black women and men by examining the role of place and sociocultural factors. She uses varied techniques including spatial statistics and mapping approaches. She also examines how place shapes structural racism in the U.S. and the implications for Black health and racial health inequities.
As a social scientist and mixed methods researcher, the primary focus of Dr. Fleckman's work is the prevention of violence. Her current research interests include the evaluation of structural and community-level mechanisms for the prevention of gun violence, childhood adversity, and intimate partner violence. Much of her work contributes to how such mechanisms can be influenced to reduce risk for violence and promote health equity. Dr. Fleckman works collaboratively with local and national community-based groups and advocacy organizations.
Dr. Kendall, a medical anthropologist, is a former acting chair of the Department of Global Community Health and Behavioral Sciences and in the Department of International Health. He was an Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health where he founded the Center for International Community-Based Health Research. Dr. Kendall is a Fulbright Senior Fellow, CNPq Senior Researcher, and served on three Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences panels. He served on the governing council of the American Public Health Association. Dr.
Dr. Gretchen Clum's research has focused on exposure to stressful events, mental health, and health outcomes (e.g. sexual risk behavior, substance use) in women and adolescents. She has worked primarily with vulnerable populations, including women who have experienced violence and HIV positive adolescents. Her goal is to understand mechanisms linking stressful life events, mental health, and poor health outcomes in vulnerable populations in order to develop and test evidence-based interventions to ameliorate the negative health effects of stressful life events.
Mark J. VanLandingham, PhD, is Professor Emeritus at Tulane University.
His recent and ongoing research focuses on rural-to-urban migration within Southeast Asia; disaster recovery; and acculturation, health and well-being among Vietnamese immigrants in the United States. His recent book, Weathering Katrina, focuses on these latter two topics.
His office is in Suite 1500 Tidewater.
As a social epidemiologist, Theall's research focuses on reducing health inequities by understanding and altering built and social neighborhood environments and social policies for better health in vulnerable populations locally, nationally, and internationally and researching innovative methodologies to do so. She is actively involved in interventions and policies aimed at altering environments for better health in vulnerable populations. Dr. Theall has received funding from the CDC, NIH, HRSA and private foundations such as the Robert Wood Johnson and W.K.
Dr. Jylana L. Sheats is an Associate Professor and Course Director for Social Innovation Tools in the Social Behavioral and Population Sciences Department. Her research and practice span sectors, focusing on key themes of health equity and chronic disease prevention, technology-driven health interventions, citizen science and community engagement, interdisciplinary health and environmental solutions, and evidence-based systems-level change. Her work examines the structural and contextual determinants of chronic diseases, focusing on addressing racial and ethnic health disparities.
Dr. David Seal, professor, has extensive experience and expertise with the conduct of social behavioral formative and intervention research within a multicultural community-based participatory framework. He has been the PI on funded HIV prevention intervention studies with people who inject drugs, men who have sex with men, prison populations, and delinquent female adolescents.
Karis Schoellmann holds a joint appointment with Tulane and the Louisiana Department of Health, Office of Public Health, Bureau of Family Health (BFH). At the BFH she serves in a key leadership position as the Director of the Communications, Innovation and Action team, and is responsible for developing and managing the BFH's health communication/education activities, partnerships and community networks, best practice health promotion strategies, and system level actions.
