Current Trainees
Postdoctoral Fellows
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.
Karissa Pelletier, PhD, MS
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dr. Karissa R. Pelletier is a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Firearm Safety Among Children and Teens (FACTS) Consortium and the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention. She earned her Ph.D. in Criminology and Criminal Justice in 2021. She holds additional degrees in Sociology, Psychology, and Philosophy. Her past research has focused on weapon choice, firearm homicide, and the covariates of firearm homicides among children and teens. She has been published in the following journals: Homicide Studies, Journal of Behavioral Medicine, The Journal of Primary Prevention, and Journal of Family Violence. Her research interests include violence, homicide, intimate partner violence and homicide, the prevention of firearm homicide among children and teens, and firearm laws. She has served as a project manager on two separate projects: the Preventing and Assessing IPH (Intimate Partner Homicide) Risk (PAIR) Studies, which aims to update IPH risk assessments, and the Monumentum Project, which aims to draw attention to the problem of firearm violence among children and teens through the use of Augmented Reality (AR) technology.
Laura Seewald, MD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dr. Seewald is an adult emergency medicine physician at the University of Michigan and current Postdoctoral Fellow with the Firearm Safety Among Children and Teens (FACTS) Consortium and the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention. The focus of her postdoctoral research and education is in the field of firearm injury prevention, with a specific interest in interventions for high-risk youth populations. Her current work aims to examine parental attitudes towards healthcare provider firearm safety counseling.
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
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.
Joseph Brown
Research Assistant
Joseph Brown is a research assistant at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention. He completed his undergraduate studies at Hope College and earned his Master of Science from the University of Michigan Rackham School of Graduate Studies. He works with assault injured adolescents in Detroit and as he applies to medical school hopes to take his knowledge of community violence into his future practice.
Skyla Chitwood
Research Assistant
Ms. Skyla Chitwood is a senior undergraduate student in Public Health and Foreign Service at Saint Louis University. She is a research intern with the future public health leadership program at the University of Michigan and is interning with the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention, she works on Projects IntERact and SafERteens under Senior Project Manager Ms. Lynn Massey. She is interested in gun violence prevention, legislation regarding firearm laws, and youth gang-related intervention programs.
Mackenzie Furnari
Research Assistant
Ms. Furnari is a second year Master of Public Health student in the Epidemiology program at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. She is working closely with Dr. Hsing-Fang Hsieh’s on a research project aiming to explore mental distress and firearm outcomes among Asian Americans relating to racism/discrimination. The objective of the study is to investigate multi-level risks and protective factors of firearm injury risks, identify correlates of neighborhood-level structural racism and discrimination, and understand the mechanisms between these factors and firearm outcomes.
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.
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.
Michael Strauss
Research Assistant
Mr. Strauss is a rising senior at the University of Michigan majoring in Business Administration with the intention of pursuing a career in clinical medicine. He is driven to help address systematic healthcare inefficiencies, specifically those within emergency medical care. As a research assistant at IFIP, he is working on Dr. Patrick Carter’s Project IntERact and Project SynERgy clinical trials.
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.
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.
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.
Samantha Aprill
Intern
Ms. Aprill is a summer intern at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention. Samantha is a rising 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. 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.
Jaymie Tibbits
Intern
Ms. Tibbits is currently pursuing a dual Master of Social Work and Master of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. Prior to her graduate studies, she supported various organizations that serve children in the child welfare system, survivors of domestic violence, and families experiencing homelessness. During her previous work, she observed the disproportionate impact gun violence devastatingly has on communities of color and low income families. Ms. Tibbits is passionate about policy solutions centered on equity and social justice. She is excited to work alongside Dr. Ewell Foster and her team, assisting with projects such as Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM) and research surrounding best practices for safe storage and firearm safety, specific to children in foster care.
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.
Eileen Spiegel
Intern
Ms. 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 states’ firearm violence. Ms. Spiegel is working with Dr. April Zeoli and her team to address the intersections of firearm policies and intimate partner violence.
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.
Mohamad Alhacham
Intern
Mr. Alhacham is a first generation Arab-American who is looking to build a legacy that will inspire people to challenge the systems that have negatively impacted society. Currently, he is pursuing an MPH at UM – Ann Arbor and expects to graduate in 2024. Following graduation, he wants to work with underserved and underrepresented populations to address social disparities that disproportionately affect these marginalized communities. As an intern, he assists with project management and research on the Institute’s grant-funded projects.