Field(s): Medicine (MD), Pharmacy (PharmD)
Dr. Amala Soumyanath is Director of the NIH funded BENFRA Botanical Dietary Supplements Research Center at OHSU, and Co-Director of the NIH T32 Training Grant on CAM Research Training in Neuroscience and Stress. She has a Pharmacy degree and PhD, from the University of London. Her area of expertise is “Pharmacognosy,” the scientific study of medicinal plants. Prior to joining OHSU, Dr. Soumyanath (then Amala Raman) was a faculty member at the Department of Pharmacy, King's College London, UK. She joined the OHSU Neurology Department in 2003, through ORCCAMIND – the Oregon Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Neurological Diseases. She is currently also affiliated with the Layton Aging and Alzheimer's Disease Center at OHSU.
Research Interests
Dr Soumyanath's research has encompassed the characterization and quality control of botanicals, phytochemical isolation and analysis, preclinical and clinical evaluation of botanical extracts, and bioavailability and pharmacokinetic studies of botanical compounds. The goals of her research are to:
- Validate and understand the traditional use of botanicals through scientific study, and
- Investigate botanicals as a source of new treatments for disease.
Dr. Soumyanath is unable to host a student for the summer or academic year. As such, they will not be attending the CLC Fair. **new**
Fields: Public Health (MPH)
Dr. Anita Minh is an Assistant Professor of Health Equity at the School of Public Health. She joins SPH after completing postdoctoral training as a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Fellow at the University of Washington’s Department of Epidemiology and the University of British Columbia’s Department of Sociology.
Dr. Minh’s research tackles the deep-seated drivers of mental health inequities. Currently, her research focuses on how unequal access to workers’ rights and social protections fuels disparities by race and gender. She also evaluates policies and interventions in partnership with equity-deserving communities. A social epidemiologist, Dr. Minh uses advanced quantitative and community-based methods to make theoretical and methodological contributions to the field. Her work strives to shed light on the social and structural forces that can be harnessed to reduce mental health inequities from childhood through the working years.
Can't attend but can host an Intern. Email psuforward@pdx.edu if you are interested in working in this CLC.
Fields: Health psychology (PhD)
The ARPP Lab, founded by Dr. Anna Wilson and Dr. Amy Holley, conducts research aimed at both enhancing understandings of chronic pain development, and mitigating symptoms and impairment caused by pain for children and their families. In particular, investigators are studying the interrelationships of chronic pain, parenting, and psychological and behavioral factors with the goal of identifying targets for chronic pain prevention in children and adolescents.
Drs. Wilson and Holley have active research programs dedicated to learning more about how chronic pain evolves, and the risk and protective factors essential to the prevention of chronic pain development in children and adolescents. Drs. Wilson and Holley’s research is of an interdisciplinary nature as they work closely with colleagues in pediatric anesthesiology and psychiatry to examine the neurobiology of chronic pain, as well as pain management strategies utilized by youth and families. Current themes in their work include assessing how pain changes over time for youth with new-onset acute musculoskeletal pain, opioid pain management for youth with an acute pain problem, and the impact of maternal chronic pain on parenting and on children. Ultimately, results from these research programs will serve to enhance identification of youth at risk for developing chronic pain, and inform treatment approaches for youth with chronic pain and their families.
The ARPP Lab fosters a rich training environment, hosting post-doctoral scholars, psychology interns, graduate students, and undergraduate interns. Providing opportunities for mentorship, academic collaboration, and professional growth, the ARPP lab invests in aspiring researchers and clinicians at all levels of training.
More info here.
A representative will attend the CLC Fair.
Fields: Public Health (MPH), Medicine (MD)
I work in 2 areas--I direct the Pacific Northwest Evidence based Practice Center and I run original studies in primary care through Practice based research networks
More info here.
Fields: Medicine (MD)
The overarching goal of the Agarwal lab is to identify novel drivers of disease initiation, progression, and drug resistance in leukemia and to ultimately translate these discoveries into treatments for leukemia patients. Specifically, our lab is interested in understanding the composite interplay of genetic events and the tumor microenvironment that are requisite for initiating the growth of preleukemic cells, disease evolution from preleukemic to leukemic stage, and conferring drug resistance. To identify novel pathways of disease initiation and drug resistance, we have developed various functional assays, which we employ in tandem with, single cell transcriptomic, genomic, and proteomic approaches. We take a multidisciplinary approach and utilize various state-of-art techniques to dissect the functional role and therapeutic relevance of identified pathways. Our goal is to use this knowledge to improve the understanding of disease pathobiology and inform the development of novel, molecularly targeted therapies for patients.
More info here.
Fields: Medicine (MD), Clinical Informatics, Pediatrics, Child Development, Health Equity, Health Services Research
I conduct quantitative and qualitative research in Pediatric Primary Care, Screening for Developmental Disabilities, Health Equity in Developmental Disabilities, and Electronic Health Records. Examples: a study measuring how long it takes parents to complete developmental screening forms at their child's routine well care visit, a study exploring why some parents express social needs on the Social Drivers of Health forms at clinic visits, but don't accept assistance with those needs, and a study interviewing Early Intervention agency staff about their intake process for infants and toddlers with developmental concerns.
Can't attend but can host an Intern. Email psuforward@pdx.edu if you are interested in working in this CLC.
Fields: Medicine (MD)
Dr. Bory Kea is the recipient of the Dr. Liz Hatfield-Keller Award for Dedication to Emergency Medicine. The Dr. Liz Hatfield-Keller Award for Dedication to Emergency Medicine is a recognition given each September to honor a faculty member who has demonstrated dedication to the specialty of emergency medicine through advocacy, research, teaching, clinical care, or leadership.
The OHSU Center for Policy and Research in Emergency Medicine's breakthrough research leads to new standards of care and a better understanding of important issues involving emergency medicine, disaster preparedness, and toxicology.
At the OHSU Center for Policy and Research in Emergency Medicine (CPR-EM), our mission consists of reducing inequities, including, but not limited to, those based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, immigration status, religion, and disability. In particular, we acknowledge the legacy of racism that is embedded in American society and institutions, and we are actively working to be catalysts of change to dismantle these harmful structures. Our commitment involves reflecting principles of equity across all functions of our organization, including in its culture, governance, hiring practices, salaries, research areas of focus, and the conduct of our research.
Read the full CPR-EM Equity Operating Guidelines Beliefs and Values Statement
More info here.
Fields: speech, language, and hearing sciences, psychology, linguistics
I am the director of the Child Language Learning Center (CLLC) and an Associate Professor in the Speech and Hearing Sciences department at Portland State University. I earned my undergraduate degree from Stanford University in 2004 and my Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 2010. I then conducted postdoctoral research at UC San Diego and the University of Arizona. I joined the faculty of PSU in 2016. More information on my work at PSU is available on my CV. Originally hailing from the Seattle area, I appreciate my newfound proximity to my hometown and am enjoying discovering all that Portland has to offer. My family and I have been enjoying spending a lot of time at the Waterfront Park.
My research employs a variety of methods (including eye-tracking, infant habituation, and category-learning/cue-weighting) with infants, preschoolers, and adults. These investigations are all in the service of addressing the central questions of how children learn the sound structure of language—or multiple languages—and how this might differ across age and between typically developing children and children with language disorders. My primary goals are to establish learning mechanisms in typical language development and apply them to better understand learning difficulties in adult second-language learning and childhood language impairment.
Building on my prior work on typical development, I propose that immaturity in infants’ explicit-learning abilities causes them to rely on implicit-learning mechanisms, with which they take in the structure of the linguistic input without filtering or distorting it. Another line of my research considers language acquisition and sound processing in bilinguals. Proficient bilinguals should, in principle, process acoustic dimensions differently in each language, because the languages’ sound categories differ.
More info here.
Fields: Public Health (MPH), Medicine (MD), Epidemiology
I would like to see if any students are interested in working as part of this international green care project (I am leading the US work) https://greenme-project.eu/ there are many people involved from researchers, gov employees, practitioners, NGOs etc
GreenME is a Horizon Europe project that aims to identify ways in which effective nature-based therapy and a broader green care framework can be scaled-up to improve adult mental health and wellbeing equity while contributing to multiple socio-ecological co-benefits.
Green care is a three-scale continuum from nature-in-everyday-life (e.g., the existence of green and blue infrastructure for viewing and walks) to nature-based health promotion (the promotion of active interaction with nature such as gardening and conservation) to nature-based therapy (the provision of treatment for individual patients).
More info here.
Fields: Public Health (MPH)
I retired from the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health undergraduate faculty, and have continued to teach one class for them: Health Ed Instructional Strategies and Techniques (PHE 448). I also teach the School Health Ed/Physical Activity-Education Methods class for graduate students becoming teachers in public/private schools. I also supervise these students and mentor them. I have mentored 2 public health undergrad students in the PSU Honors Program and have served as their advisor in their thesis writing. I have been teaching online for the last ten years for the University of WI Oshkosh these 3 classes: Death & Dying, Emotional Abuse in the Workplace and Health Education Instructional Strategies and Techniques. All three of these classes I have developed and they serve Nursing, Human Resources and Education undergraduate majors.
Fields: Public Health (MPH), Medicine (MD)
My work focuses on the epidemiology and burden of chronic pulmonary disease (nontuberculous mycobacteria infections and bronchiectasis), patient-reported outcomes and measure development, and diagnostics/risk factors for disease.
Emily Henkle, Ph.D., M.P.H. – is an epidemiologist and clinical researcher. Her broad research interest is measuring health outcomes in chronic lung disease, primarily bronchiectasis and nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) infections, and more recently sickle cell disease. Prior and ongoing work, in collaboration with patients as research partners, has included natural history, patient-centered research priorities, comparative effectiveness, and validation studies to better understand and treat these conditions. She is currently supported by an NHLBI K01 and the FDA to develop and evaluate patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) for use in NTM clinical trials and patient-centered clinical care.
Will only be attending the fair from 4-5 pm **new**
Fields: Public Health (MPH)
I am a registered dietitian and public health nutrition researcher and my work uses social epidemiologic, mixed, and participatory methods as a means to better understand and dismantle the systemic barriers young people face in building healthy relationships with food and their bodies.
Currently, my research works alongside communities in Southeastern Michigan and the Twin Cities of Minnesota to explore how young people’s experiences of racism and anti-fatness intersect and impact inequities in chronic disease risk. I am currently building out a new research collaboration in Oregon focused on how provider bias impacts pre-diabetes care.
Fields: Medicine (MD)
Pediatrician, PI of Listos School Readiness Lab, engage Latino families is school readiness promotion through co-design and implementation of interventions in primary care.
A representative will attend the CLC Fair.
Fields: Public Health (MPH), Medicine (MD)
Summary: autism research, early childhood development, access to care, health equity
Dr. Katharine Zuckerman is a general pediatrician who cares for children with a wide variety of acute and chronic illnesses, and provides well-child care. She has special interests in child development, developmental conditions, autism spectrum disorder and feeding problems. She also has an interest in the multicultural aspects of health care and health services delivery.
More info here.
A representative will attend the CLC Fair.
Fields: Public Health (MPH)
Kathleen has a background in Public Health policy and implementation research and a strong passion for community-engaged research. She has worked with communities here in Oregon and internationally on a range of health and social justice projects. She is an adjunct professor at the University of Sydney and co-investigator on the Centre for Research Excellence in Strengthening Systems for Indigenous Health Care Equity (CRE-STRIDE), which places Indigenous people at the center of research processes to improve health care quality, access, and address social determinants that underlie health. She is a new mom to a 13-month-old and loves dogs and cats equally.
This project will provide context and additional information to understand the factors influencing/determining the most commonly observed pathways from homelessness to housing identified in prior studies. In alignment with our commitment to advancing racial equity, this project will prioritize racial, ethnic and cultural communities who are overrepresented among people experiencing homelessness and underrepresented among persons receiving homelessness services/obtaining stable housing.
Within this research area, JOHS staff and leadership have identified the following topics and questions as high priority and of special relevance to policy and programming development:
Identifying some of the distinctive challenges facing people who connect with our system as a result of camping removal (sweeps).
Exploring in more depth the concept of a “successful/positive housing outcome” for people who are unsheltered and people in emergency shelter. Determining whether people experiencing homelessness in different contexts have different short-term, medium-term and long-term housing goals.
Documenting and describing the process of clients’ transitions between programs/service providers (e.g. clients working with an outreach worker and then transitioning to working with staff at a shelter). Ideally, this analysis could explore the impact of clients’ access to a case worker who stays with them through their pathway to housing.
The project will consist of 2 phases and employ a mixed methods research approach. Conducted in Year 1, the first phase involves quantitative surveys and qualitative focus groups to answer questions 1 and 2 above. The intention is to gather feedback from a diverse, broad sample of people experiencing homelessness. Phase 2 builds on this work to explore questions 2 and 3 (above) in more detail using in-depth narratives, journey mapping, and community workshops. Working with people who have lived experience of homelessness is central to providing input to and guidance for the project. People with lived experience will be involved in providing feedback and input in both phases.
More info here.
Fileds: Oregon Rural Practice based research network
The Oregon Rural Practice-based Research Network- Research Arm has an opportunity for student involvement in a pediatric dermatology study called PARADE. The study is out of OHSU Dermatology, PI Eric Simpson. The intern could help producing monthly newsletters to participating health care clinics and work on study recruitment outreach materials. Looking for someone who enjoys writing, design and interested in learning producing simple data visualizations.
Dr. Ferrara is unable to host a student for the summer or academic year. As such, they will not be attending the CLC Fair. **new**
Fields: Public Health (MPH), Population health research
Lindsey Smith is an assistant professor in the School of Public Health and an affiliate of the PSU Institute on Aging.
Dr. Smith collaborates on multiple research initiatives that involve connecting health service financing and regulatory mechanisms to Medicare claims via health service settings to identify and address inequities in access to quality long-term services and supports impacting older adults and their communities. Across the multiple collaborative studies she is engaged with, Dr. Smith provides regulatory and methodological expertise in collecting and analyzing regulatory data as a component of mixed-methods studies.
Current study topics include the first study of the impact of private equity funding on resident outcomes in assisted living and the impact of regulations in assisted living communities.
Our team works on long-term care policy and systems research. We currently have funded multi-institutional mixed methods studies looking at private equity funding in assisted living and a national study of what constitutes quality memory care in assisted living. Both of these involved qualitative, observational components as well as policy and claims-based data analyses.
I am currently in the process of starting a study of independent living communities. This work will involve visiting individual independent living communities to learn about how these settings work and common challenges. This qualitative work will then inform a national study using claims data to improve our understanding of health services for older adults in independent living.
Up to 2 students could be involved in data collection and analysis, involving visiting and analyzing data from memory care and independent living settings.
Additionally, I am a co-investigator for the Oregon Center of Excellence for Behavioral Health and Aging. https://ocebha.org/ We are just over a year old. We are currently working on growing our workforce support, particularly for the network of behavioral health specialists, peer support, and community health workers.
We could involve a student in the coalition-building part of this work. They would have contact/interact with behavioral health organizations and aging services throughout Oregon, helping to collect information and make connections to improve collaboration, supports, and community learning across organizations. I could mentor this student or they could be mentored by another involved faculty member at the PSU Institute on Aging or in OHSU Neurology. It's a very collaborative group!
May arrive to the CLC between 3-4 pm **new**
Fields: Public Health (MPH)
Current research studies:
- Shared housing among His panic/Latinx immigrant families in the Portland Metro area (qualitative study with a survey, some data analysis work)
- Culturally specific permanent supportive housing among Black people with prior experience of homelessness (qualitative interview study with some data analysis work)
More info here.
Can't attend but can host an Intern. Email psuforward@pdx.edu if you are interested in working in this CLC. **NEW**
Fields: Medicine (MD)
Asthma Lab applies rigorous scientific approaches to understand how inflammatory cells and peripheral sensory and autonomic nerves influence each other under physiological conditions, and how alterations in these interactions lead to disease. Our goal is to make a lasting impact on neurobiology and chronic inflammatory disease, especially asthma. Achieving this goal requires collaboration, a supportive environment, open and honest communication and a commitment of time, energy and enthusiasm to our team.
Each of us brings different expertise to our group. We work as a team. If you meet with one of us, decisions and outcomes from that meeting will be communicated amongst the leadership group. An advantage of having four faculty leaders is that one of us is almost always available for impromptu meetings. We each maintain an open-door policy - feel free to walk in. For urgent feedback, text us at any time. If there are any concerns about the lab, please speak to one of us. We have committed over 30 years to this lab and care deeply about all its current and former members. We appreciate open and honest exchanges and will work through any challenges to help you achieve your goals.
There are no right and wrong pathways in science, and as the track record of our former mentees shows, we support all career paths of our trainees. We will ensure the lab has funding and that you get the resources you need to test your hypothesis. We will teach you how to think like a scientist.
Our mentorship is a career-long commitment. We will help you prepare for personal milestones, including exams, interviews, grant submissions, and promotions. W,e will nominate you for awards and write letters of support. We will celebrate your success, listen to your frustrations, and help you problem-solve when you need it. You can count on us to advocate for your happiness, your science, and your future.
Fields: PhD
We conduct behavioral neuroscience work to determine how disruptions of the circadian clock affect metabolic and reproductive health in mice. Separately, I am part of a group that studies pain and PTSD in U.S. veterans.
Disruptions of our internal body clocks and sleep, as often encountered by shift workers, increase the risk of disease. Our goals in this laboratory are to understand how endogenous clocks in the body are synchronized and how these regulate physiology and behavior. Our methods of inquiry include neuroendocrinology and behavior studies in mouse models and prospective and cross-sectional cohort studies to inform our approaches.
More info here.
A representative will attend the CLC Fair.
Fields: Medicine (MD), Research
Dr. Rebekah Huber is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Center for Mental Health Innovation at Oregon Health & Science University. As a licensed psychologist, her research program focuses on informing evidence-based care and suicide prevention in youth with mood disorders. Dr. Huber’s research utilizes digital mobile technologies (e.g., actigraphy and ecological momentary assessment) and neuroimaging to identify cognitive and neurobiological risk factors for suicide in youth with bipolar disorder. Specifically, she investigates sleep, cognitive control, and functional connectivity to identify proximal and modifiable factors that can be targeted through interventions to reduce suicide risk and improve long-term outcomes. Dr. Huber is also a Co-Investigator on a large-scale study of adolescent brain development (NIH-funded Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study).
Dr. Huber is passionate about fostering the growth and development of students, trainees, and early career faculty to train the next generation of scientists. She co-chairs the Early- and Mid-Career Committee for the International Society for Bipolar Disorders and leads initiatives to support career development for early and mid-career researchers and clinicians in the field of bipolar disorders.
A representative will attend the CLC Fair.
Fields: Longitudinal Human Subject Research using Biotech
ORCATECH uses and develops technologies that can assess everyday home-based activities, providing millions of hours of real-world and real-time data. We focus on translating that data into actionable health and wellness outcomes, improving the aging experience.
More info here.