Our Fellows

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. Her work focuses on the economics of tobacco control in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs), with special interest in the price responsiveness and affordability of tobacco products, and the impact of different types of tobacco tax structures on price distributions and public health outcomes, in the LMIC-setting. As a Visiting Scholar, Samantha's time at the Center will be spent conducting her PhD research and supporting other faculty and fellows at the Center in their various activities geared toward producing high-quality outcomes that promote public health.

Deanna M. Halliday, PhD, received her doctorate in Psychological Sciences (Health Psychology) from the University of California, Merced under the mentorship of UCSF alumna Dr. Anna Song. Prior to joining the CTCRE, she was awarded a TRDRP pre-doctoral fellowship for her dissertation work on tobacco and cannabis co-use. Her work examines the multi-level factors that contribute to tobacco and cannabis use spanning from internal psychological factors to social and community-level factors. Dr. Halliday hopes to further explore the phenomena of co-use in under-resourced, rural, or otherwise vulnerable communities.

Mark Hawes, MSW, PhD, received his doctorate in Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis, Brown School of Social Work where he was funded by the NIMH as a T32 Pre-Doctoral Fellow. During his time at the Brown School, he was affiliated with the Center for Mental Health Services Research, worked on projects aiming to reduce health inequities among people with serious mental illness, and co-taught a gradate course on behavioral health policy and services. Mark’s recent work focused on understanding how tobacco smoking and substance use impacted outcomes in a healthy lifestyle intervention among people living in supportive housing. He wants to continue working to eliminate health inequities among people experiencing homelessness and those living in supportive housing by integrating health care services and increasing access and quality of tobacco and substance use treatment services. Mark’s research interests stem from his experience working as a hospital social worker on inpatient medical and psychiatric units, as well as in the emergency department. Mark holds Bachelor and Master of Social Work degrees and is a licensed clinical social worker.

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. Their work was featured on The Dirt Podcast and has been recognized by the ASU Social Justice Spotlight Award. During their time at ASU, they co-taught courses on Substance Abuse and Addictive Behaviors, Decolonized Collaborative Online International Learning (DCOIL), and Sociology. They were a DEI Inclusive Teaching Fellow where they helped to adapt DCOIL tools for graduate Global Technology and Development courses. 

As a member of the STS Borderlands Laboratory, Dr. Kabella has carried out experimental multimedia archival and digital ethnography to investigate border technologies in the Mexican Borderlands. At the Mind Research Network, Kabella worked on an interdisciplinary project that developed a framework to understand neurodevelopmental and social effects of substance use and pregnancy. 

As a Opioid Industry Documents Archive (OIDA) postdoctoral fellow, Kabella plans to conduct research that enables scrutiny and analysis of the manifestation of place and race in the wider context of corporate and regulatory practice. Taking seriously the methodological approach of archiving as a human right, they will explore community-led knowledge production strategies in leveraging OIDA.  Dr. Kabella is an advocate for fellow survivors and families directly impacted by punitive drug policies and is deeply committed to reducing harm and achieving racial and health equity.

Karla Llanes, PhD, received her doctorate in Health Psychology at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). During her PhD training, she worked for A Smoke Free Paso del Norte, a west Texas, southern New Mexico, and Juarez, Mexico regional initiative targeting tobacco control in adolescents and adults. She has also taught several Statistics courses and Motivation and Emotion courses at the University of Texas at El Paso. Her research interests are in judgment and decision-making processes in the context of health-related decisions (e.g., vaccination decisions, driving under the influence of alcohol, marijuana use, and novel tobacco use). Her goal is to identify judgment biases that distort risk communications and risk perceptions and, eventually, impact individuals' decisions to engage in health-threatening and health-promoting behaviors. She currently studies individual’s motivation for initiating and continuing drug use.

As a postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Llanes plans on continuing her research investigating predictors of drug use, drug use initiation, and cessation. She is particularly interested in investigating risk factors associated with tobacco use, novel tobacco use, and co-use (e.g., e-cigarette and alcohol use). Specifically, she would like to identify why individuals make harmful health decisions. By understanding what leads to harmful real-life decisions, then she can help develop interventions that may help people change for the better.

Mehrdad Mohammadi, MD, MPH, MA in Law and Diplomacy received his credentials in medicine, public health, law and development economics from Tehran University, Tufts University and Harvard University. He has been an adjunct professor at the School of Public Health at Tehran University teaching Justice and Public Health Law. Working with the WHO, Dr. Mohammadi has advised the Ministry of Health on International Health Regulations and the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). This includes projects on tobacco content and emission regulation (FCTC Articles 9 and 10), tobacco products plain packaging (FCTC Articles 11 and 13), NGO advocacy (FCTC Articles 4.7 and 12.e), smoke-free cities and campuses (Article 8), liability of the tobacco industry (FCTC Article 19), and participation in COP9 in 2021. He has founded the NGO titled An Iran Immune to Tobacco (IMAD).

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. Both researchers have worked for a long time with the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and tobacco control polices.