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.
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.
Briana Scott, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dr. Scott’s research is on comprehensive school safety, youth violence, and firearm injury prevention with a focus on equity and social justice in K-12 education. She earned her PhD in Education and Psychology and her Master of Science in Psychology from the University of Michigan. Dr. Scott has been working in partnership with the Prevention Research Collaborative, National Center for School Safety, and Sandy Hook Promise Foundation since 2019. Starting July 2024, Dr. Scott will be working under the direction of Drs. Justin Heinze and Hsing-Fang Hsieh as faculty mentors.
Dorothy Stearns, MD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dr. Stearns research has focused in areas of injury prevention, exposure control, health disparities. and epidemiology. She earned her MD from the University of Colorado School of Medicine and her Masters in Public Health from Emory University. Dr. Stearns completed two years of general surgery residency at Ohio State University prior to joining the University of Michigan Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention. Starting July 2024, Dr. Stearns will be working under the direction of Drs. Doug Wiebe, Rebeccah Sokol and Erika Newman as a faculty mentoring team.
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
Tazkira Ahad
Intern
Ms. Ahad is an incoming 1st-year in the Health Behavior Health Education Masters program through the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan. She graduated in May 2024 with a BA in Community and Global Public Health from the University of Michigan. She minored in Community Action and Social Change. Her interests lie in improving healthcare access and reducing death and injury, particularly in underrepresented communities.
Sloane Bennett
Research Assistant
Ms. Bennett is a research assistant at the UM Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention. She 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.
Sarah Brandstadt
Intern
Ms. Brandstadt graduated with a B.S. in Public Health Sciences from the University of Michigan in December. In the fall of 2024, she will begin a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology. She has a strong passion for researching community-based interventions to help decrease the rates of firearm violence in the community. As an intern, Ms. Brandstadt will be working with Dr. Hsing-Fang Hsieh on multiple firearm violence prevention studies.
Lisa Dai
Research Assistant
Lisa Dai is a research assistant at the U-M NEA Research Lab focusing on the relationship between public art and youth firearm injury prevention. They are a rising senior pursuing a degree in Computer Science with a minor in Art and Design. They are passionate about how art and technology can create real life change: whether through activism, forging community, widening perspectives, or simply improving wellbeing. At the University of Michigan, they are a graphic artist for Michigan in Color, Vice President of Warp, a creative organization centering queer People of Color, and an illustrator for arts, ink., a blog under Arts at Michigan. As a research assistant at the Institute, they work on the U-M NEA Research Lab focused on the intersection of firearm violence and public art.
Imani Elliot, MD, MPH
Research Assistant
Ms. Elliott is a dual degree MD/MPH student at the University of Michigan, originally from Detroit Michigan, she obtained her Bachelor of Science from Howard University. During her time at the University of Michigan she has been active as the co-president for the Association of Women Surgeons, A member of the Black Medical Association, and Wolverine Street Medicine. She is passionate about health advocacy, increasing access to care, and caring for minority populations. After medical school Imani plans to pursue a career as a surgeon. In her role as a research assistant, Ms. Elliott is working on Dr. Laura Seewald’s secondary data analysis project.
L. Esther Hibbs
Intern
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.
Janaye Jones
Intern
Ms. Jones is a summer intern with the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention at the University of Michigan. She is a rising third-year dual MPH student studying Health Behavior Health Education, and Epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. She has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan in Sociology. Her research interests include firearm injury disparities, improving safety in schools and communities, preventing community-level violence, and racial health disparities. Her research experience has ranged from Alzheimer’s and aging to COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy. She aspires to become a Physician Assistant, working to make healthcare more equitable for everyone.
Roman Kalaczinski
Intern
Mr. Kalaczinski is a rising Junior studying Public Health and applying for a minor in Public Policy. He is interested in pursuing a career as a physician and is passionate about the intersection between medicine and public health.
Megan McKee
Intern
Megan McKee is a senior undergraduate student pursuing a B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science. She is interested in the role of public policy and community-based solutions in firearm injury prevention. As an intern at the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention, she is assisting the Policy Core with the development of implementation resources for Emergency Risk Protection Orders and other legislation.
Ezekiel Medina
Intern
Mr. Medina is a rising second-year dual-master degree student in the School of Public Health and School of Social Work. He is working towards his Master of Public Health in Health Behavior and Health Education and Master of Social Work in Interpersonal Practice. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Public Health and Latino and Caribbean Studies from Rutgers University. He is interested in community violence intervention work and firearm injury prevention. He worked as a violence intervention specialist in a hospital violence intervention program immediately following graduation. Mr. Medina is an alumnus of the Fulbright program in Argentina.
Akhil Paleru
Research Assistant
Zaida Pearson
Research Assistant
Julia Plawker
Research Assistant
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.
Huanyu Ren
Research Assistant
Mr. Ren is a research assistant at the UM Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention. He is currently a dual degree candidate in the School of Information and the School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. He is interested in data-driven evaluation of public policy programs. He is currently assisting Dr. Sokol in a policy evaluation effort.This natural experiment will evaluate the effect of Pathways to Potential (P2P) on youth violence outcomes using administrative data sources and surveys of key program staff.
Sam Riordan
Intern
Ms. Riordan is a summer intern with the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention. Sam is a rising senior pursuing a B.S. in Public Health Sciences within the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan. She is passionate in studying policy interventions on firearm violence and analyzing the root problems contributing to an increase in firearm injuries in the United States. Her interest in firearm violence sparked after attending Michigan State University for two years, where she was heavily impacted by the February 2023 shooting. In her role as an intern, she is working under Brent Miller for the National Center for School Safety to identify best practices and evidence-based resources for the school safety community. Sam has also been involved with IFIP through an independent study and CURIS- Public Health Advocacy.
Audrey Ruhana
Intern
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.
Melia Schliebe
Research Assistant
Melia Schliebe is a research assistant at the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention. She earned her MPH at Boston University School of Public Health and her BS at the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology. She previously worked as a research assistant for the School of Kinesiology’s Childhood Disparities Research Lab. She is interested in school and community safety for children, teachers, and their families.
Esther Shon
Research Assistant
Ms. Shon is a research assistant at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention. She is a junior pursuing a B.S. in Public Health. She aspires to be a physician assistant (PA), 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.
Eileen Spiegel
Research Assistant
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.
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.
Hailey Weiss
Research Assistant
Ms. Weiss is a first-year MPH candidate at the University of Michigan with a concentration in Health Behavior and Health Education and a certificate in Injury Science. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology with a focus in Global Health and Environment from Washington University in St. Louis. She is passionate about the intersection of medicine and public health and is seeking to ultimately reduce preventable injuries among youth. As a research assistant, she is working under Lynn Massey on Dr. Partick Carter’s Project IntERact, Project SynERgy, and SafERteens studies aimed at reducing firearm violence among youth and young adults.
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.
Emilie Ziebarth
Research Assistant
Emilie Ziebarth is a first year Master of Public Health Student at the University of Michigan in the epidemiology track. With a background in community health and neighborhood organizing initiatives, Emilie is interested in environmental influencers of health, including the impact of the built environment and neighborhoods on community well-being, and in community-informed interventions. She will be working with the UM-NEA research lab investigating the impact of public art on firearm violence in Detroit.