meet the team

CEnTL Principal Investigator

Dr. Jeni Hebert-Beirne is a Professor of Community Health Sciences and a founder and faculty affiliate of the Collaboratory for Health Justice at UIC SPH. A community-based participatory researcher (CBPR), she emphasizes qualitative research to promote health equity and justice with an emphasis on Chicago community areas. Her community-engaged scholarship focuses on the lived experience of those most impacted by structural drivers of health inequities.

CEnTL Project Manager

Emily Etzkorn is a researcher at UIC SPH co-leading several different grant-funded projects, which sit at the intersection of structural change, health equity, community engagement, and public health education and workforce development. She is an alumni of the MPH program at UIC in the Community Health Sciences division, and received her BA in Sociology with a minor in Gender & Women's Studies from UIUC. Emily has experience with community engagement methods and project management, and is passionate about culturally humble health promotion and community-based participatory research, particularly in her hometown of Chicago.

CEnTL Evaluation Lead

Marjorie Kersten is a PhD Candidate in the Community Health Sciences Division at UIC SPH. She is also a Graduate Research Assistant for the Greater Lawndale Healthy Work Project and the Environmental Justice Ground-Truthing Project, and an Evaluation Consultant at Chicago Grows Food. Marjorie is passionate about promoting social justice, food sovereignty, and maternal and child health in Chicago and around the world.