Current Trainees
Postdoctoral Fellows
Shaun Bhatia, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dr. Bhatia’s research has focused in the areas of program and policy evaluation, community violence prevention, and spatial econometrics. He earned his MS in Epidemiology from the University of Illinois and received his doctorate and MA in Community Psychology from DePaul University. Dr. Bhatia will be working closely with the CDC-funded Michigan Youth Violence Prevention Center based at U-M’s School of Public Health. The center partners with universities, economic development organizations, health departments, hospitals, police departments and community-based organizations to implement and evaluate strategies to prevent youth violence. Starting in September 2023, he will be working closely under the direction of Drs. Marc Zimmerman and Patrick Carter as faculty mentors.
Chiara Cooper, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dr. Cooper earned her PhD from the University of Edinburgh (UK) and her Master of Science from the London School of Economics. Her work is qualitative in nature and spans the disciplines of criminology, sociology and gender studies. Her past research has focused on intimate relationships, sexual consent, domestic violence, and coercive control. As a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention, Dr. Cooper will be studying the implementation and outcomes of domestic violence restraining order firearm restrictions.
Zainab Hans, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dr. Hans is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention. She earned her Ph.D. in Economics in 2022. Her previous research analyzed the impact of macro-economic factors on gender-based violence. She has worked closely with the Detroit Police Department, Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, Michigan Department of Corrections, and victim advocates to improve the civil and criminal justice system responses to intimate partner violence. Her research interests include intimate partner violence, homicide, child abuse, firearm violence, and forensic risk assessment and her work focuses on identifying legal, environmental, and macro-economic factors that protect against inter-personal violence.
Heather Hartman, MD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dr. Hartman is a general surgeon and pediatric surgical intensivist at the University of Michigan, providing special care for critically ill pediatric patients. Dr. Hartman is also a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention. She trained in general surgery in Philadelphia, where she cared for many gun violence victims. Her experiences treating patients has led her to focus her research and training on firearm injury prevention in youths. She is passionate about making the community safer for everyone while providing care for those who get injured.
Stephen Oliphant, PhD, MPP
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dr. Oliphant has a strong interest in policy analysis and firearm injury prevention research with recent publications in the field, analyzing the spatial dependence of shootings in Detroit and assessing the effect of Wisconsin’s handgun waiting period repeal on suicide. He earned his master’s in public policy and certificate in injury science from the University of Michigan and received his doctorate from the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University. As a graduate student he was a research assistant with the Firearm Safety Among Children and Teens Consortium. Starting in September 2023, Dr. Oliphant will be working closely under the direction of Drs. Justin Heinze and Patrick Carter as mentoring faculty during his fellowship.
Eugenio Weigend Vargas, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dr. Weigend Vargas is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention. His research has focused on preventing arms trafficking and gun violence in the United States and Mexico. Dr. Weigend Vargas has provided testimonies before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights as well as the Inter-American Convention Against Illicit Firearms Trafficking in the Americas and has been invited to speak at conferences at Oxford University, Georgetown University, Washington University, Colegio de Mexico, and Universidad Autonoma Nacional de México.
Prior to joining the University of Michigan, Dr. Weigend Vargas was the research director for gun violence prevention at the Center for American Progress, where he published numerous articles, books, reports, fact sheets, and issue briefs advocating for measures that strengthen gun laws in the United States at the state and federal levels. Dr. Weigend Vargas has been a visiting scholar at Georgetown University and the University of Texas in El Paso. He holds a master’s degree in public affairs from Brown University and a doctorate from Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey.
Interns
Samantha April
Research Assistant
Ms. Aprill is a research assistant at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention. Samantha is a second year master’s student at the School of Public Health in the General Epidemiology program. She recently graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in neuroscience. Therefore, her interests are focused on mental health and firearm violence disparities. She hopes to use this experience to gain insight on a career in research and to apply her knowledge and competencies learned at the School of Public Health.
Sloane Bennett
Research Assistant
Ms. Bennett is a research assistant at the UM Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention. She is currently a sophomore and is studying Communications and Media, which she hopes to combine with her current research after college. She is excited to be working in this realm, as she has always been inspired by her mother who works in the criminal justice field. She loves finding new restaurants in Ann Arbor and is a member of Sigma Delta Tau sorority.
Mary Byron
Research Assistant
Ms. Byron is a research assistant at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention. She is a first-year graduate student pursuing a dual master’s in Public Health with a concentration in Health Behavior and Health Education as well as a master’s in Urban and Regional Planning from Taubman College at the University of Michigan. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia in Cognitive Science with a concentration in Neuroscience, and minored in Urban and Environmental Planning. Her past research experience includes novel pharmacological interventions for substance use disorder and she is particularly interested in the therapeutic effects of nature on behavioral health in urban communities. She is excited to assist organizing with community partners and to collaborate on studies involving firearm violence and public art.
L. Esther Hibbs
Research Assistant
L. Esther Hibbs is a first-year MPH candidate in the Health Behavior Health Education concentration. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Arts Administration from Skidmore College. She is excited about implementing community development and system-based advocacy programs to create safe spaces in education, healthcare, and beyond.
Akhil Paleru
Intern
Mr. Paleru will be a junior pursuing a B.S. in Public Health Sciences and a minor in Crime and Justice at the University of Michigan. He is passionate about urban health and aims to build evidence for community-guided, equitable solutions to gun violence through his research with the Institute. As an intern, he is working under Lynn Massey on Dr. Patrick Carter’s Project IntERact and Project SynERgy clinical trials which aim to reduce risky firearm behaviors among young people.
Abigail Peacock
Research Assistant
Ms. Peacock is a senior undergraduate student at the University of Michigan, majoring in Philosophy with minors in Political Science and Italian. She is passionate about the roles of public policy and mental health interventions in preventing gun violence. As a research assistant at the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention, she is working under Policy, Implementation, and Evaluation Project Manager Michael Holtz on his project building Extreme Risk Protection Order implementation resources for the State of Michigan.
Julia Plawker
Intern
Ms. Plawker just graduated with a B.S. in Biopsychology, Cognition, and Neuroscience with Honors. In the fall of 2023 she will begin a Master of Public Health in the Health Behavior and Health Education Department at the University of Michigan. Ms. Plawker will be working with Dr. Hsing-Fang Hsieh on her project, Moving Upstream: Understanding Racism, Firearm Injury Risks, and Resiliency Among Asian Americans, to help run focus groups, develop a national survey of Asian Americans, and review the literature.
Philip Quansah
Research Assistant
Mr. Quansah is a research assistant at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention and works on the SafERteens program which aims to prevent and reduce youth violence. He is a sophomore at the University of Michigan, majoring in cognitive sciences. He hopes to use his collegiate research experiences to either end up working in research in the future, or find various ways to make a difference in this world. Other than research, Philip is a part of many clubs at the university and is also a supervisor for Michigan Recreational Sports. In his freshman year, Philip also played for the University of Michigan Football Team as a walk-on.
Audrey Ruhana
Research Assistant
Ms. Ruhana is a first-year MPH student studying Epidemiology. She earned a Bachelors of Science from the University of Michigan majoring in Life Science Informatics and minoring in History. She is interested in studying ways to lessen the burden of gun-violence and improve the overall health in underserved communities.
Shreya Sampath
Research Assistant
Ms. Sampath is a rising junior at U-M studying Architecture, with intended minors in UX design and music. As a design student, she is passionate about creating unique, innovative, and inclusive projects that sparks conversation. At U-M, she is a part of the professional architecture fraternity Alpha Rho Chi and is publicity manager of Maize Mirchi A Cappella. She also currently works as a design lead at optiMize, and she hopes to continue pursuing her professional interests in architecture and design development and research. As a research assistant at the Institute, she is working on the U-M NEA Research Lab focused on the intersection of firearm violence and public art.
Esther Shon
Research Assistant
Ms. Shon is a research assistant at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention. She is a sophomore pursuing a B.S. in Biology, Health, and Society. She aspires to embark on a pre-medical or pre-dental path, and believes that her interest and research assistance in public health, particularly in the domain of firearms, will help her provide the utmost care, patience, and understanding to any future patients.
Alex Swirsky
Research Assistant
Ms. Swirsky is a research assistant at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention. She is a rising junior studying Sociology on the Law, Justice, and Social Change track, after which she hopes to pursue a joint JD/MPP degree. She aims to eventually build upon her research experience to apply a sociological lens to the policy sector in order to help build a society that will empower and support its citizens.
Elizabeth Stout
Intern
Ms. Stout is a summer intern with the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention at the University of Michigan working on multiple projects. She is a rising second-year student in the Masters of Public Health Health Behavior and Health Education Program at the University of Michigan, and received undergraduate degrees in biology and music from Albion College. She is interested in youth health promotion and support, including through violence prevention, and participates in programs with Michigan Children’s Special Health Care Services, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and other organizations.
Eileen Spiegel
Intern
Ms. Eileen Spiegel is a senior undergraduate student in Public Policy at the University of Michigan’s Ford School, and she is minoring in the university’s environmental program. At the Ford School, she is able to research how different policies can affect varying state-level gun violence. She is a research assistant with the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention and works under Dr. Zeoli to address the intersections of firearm policies and domestic violence.
Mildred Wallace
Intern
Ms. Wallace is a rising second-year master’s student at the School of Public Health with a concentration in Epidemiology at the University of Michigan. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois in Medical Laboratory Science, and uses her medical and healthcare knowledge to launch her into the field of public health. Her research experience includes taking on the role of a research assistant with the Epidemiology Department, working alongside colleagues regarding the IVY Surveillance of Respiratory Viruses and Vaccine Effectiveness. She is excited to contribute to the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention, and work with colleagues on studies involving firearm violence and climate.
Ava Zarewych
Research Assistant
Ms. Zarewych is a junior undergraduate student majoring in Biology, Health, and Society with a minor in Gender and Health at the University of Michigan. As an pre medical student, she is passionate about the intersection of clinical medicine and public health. In her role as a research assistant at the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention, she is working on Dr. Patrick Carter’s Project IntERact and Project SynERgy, which aim to reduce youth firearm violence in urban settings.