Samantha Filby, is an Economics PhD candidate at University of Cape Town (South Africa) and is sponsored by a Fulbright Scholarship to visit the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education. She serves as a member of the research team at the Research Unit on the Economics of Excisable Products, based at her home university.
Danielle Kabella, PhD received a doctorate in Human and Social Dimension of Science and Technology at Arizona State University's School for the Future of Innovation. Their doctoral research offers an ethnographic study that makes visible alternative strategies Chicanx communities use to articulate place-based drug recovery futures in New Mexico. They have co-developed and implemented ways of connecting their scholarship to broader and diverse audiences.
Andre Luiz Oliveira da Silva, PhD received his doctorate from Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública Sergio Arouca in 2019 with a specialization in public health. Dr. Oliveira da Silva joined the CTCRE in June 2022. As the Tobacco Center's first Briger Fellow, he anticipates spending one year in the Tobacco Control Research Fellowship both gaining from our faculty's expertise and sharing his rich experiences in tobacco control research from his homeland of Brazil. Dr. Oliveira da Silva will be mentored by Stella Bialous, DrPH, FAAN, also from Brazil.
Joshua Miller is a political scientist that focuses on the intersection of public health policy and vulnerable populations. Joshua received his Ph.D. from The Catholic University of America in Politics.
J. Alton Croker III, PhD, received his doctorate in Health Services & Policy focusing on cannabis policy, health outcomes, and health disparities. He graduated from the University of Iowa in 2021, where he served as a research investigator for the Cannabis and End-of-Life Study, along with research associate roles within the RUPRI Center. He previously worked in public affairs at GLAD (GLBTQ Advocates & Defenders), an impact litigation firm focusing on social equity for LGBTQ persons, people living with HIV/AIDS, and their families.
Poonam Rao, MD, graduated as a MBBS from Pt. B.D Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Rohtak, India in 2016. After graduation, she worked for some time as a General Physician in rural India. She moved to the United States in 2017 to pursue higher education as a physician-scientist, and complete clinical observerships in Jackson Health System, Miami, and Cleveland Clinic, Florida. As she wants to stay at the boundary between research and clinical practice in the long term, after some clinical training, she pivoted towards research.
Dr. Mock conducts collaborative action research examining how people’s cultural context shapes their patterns of tobacco, nicotine and cannabis use. As a health anthropologist, for over two decades, Dr. Mock has focused on examining how and why people’s lived experience of tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure is deeply rooted in culture. His research explores how cultural and political-economic change can influence tobacco use within a cultural group.
