Shiny Epi People

Season 2 finale ends with a bang! Paris "AJ" Adkins-Jackson, PhD is a multidisciplinary health equity researcher and Assistant Professor in the Departments of Epidemiology and Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University. She tells me how her career path moved from anthropology to studying impact of structural determinants of health on historically marginalized groups. She tells me about the richness of her life outside of work, including finding a home in music from childhood to today, and kicking butt boxing, We chat about looking for a co-parent, singing our grant applications, and fonts we hate. Thank you for all of your support this season! 

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You will surely love today's episode with Fausto Bustos, PhD. Fausto is an infectious disease epidemiologist and an ORISE Data Science Fellow at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, where he provides data analytic expertise, computational and statistical assistance, and substantive scientific knowledge to advance their research mission. Fausto grew up crossing the southern border of the US for school every day, lived in poverty with his mother and brother, and found an escape in education. His story is stirring, but his combination of intellect, humor, and silliness makes his life so far a story of resilience.

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Rachel Hardeman, PhD is nothing short of a powerhouse. She is a reproductive health equity researcher, scholar, teacher, writer, speaker, and activist. Rachel is Associate Professor and the first Blue Cross Endowed Professor of Health and Racial Equity. Division of Health Policy & Management, University of Minnesota School of Public Health.  Her research links structural racism to health, identifies opportunities for intervention, and dismantles the systems, structures, and institutions that allow inequities to persist. Two of her most important roles are as PI and founder of the Measuring & Operationalizing Racism to Achieve Health Equity lab and director of the Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity. She has so many other roles and projects that I mention on this episode. Today, Rachel discusses what motivates her to keep doing the hard work in racial justice, what her biggest impact has been thus far in her career, and what she sees as the broader vision of her work. She also tells me about airplane snacks, Prosecco, her love of Prince (RIP), and advice for penguins. I am so very honored Rachel would find time to share with us!

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Steve Mooney, PhD, is an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington School of Public Health. He and I have been friends since 2017, and we met because we were both in the very early stages of our divorces. On the show, we talk about how our divorce has changed our feelings about our family structure. He tells me what it's like to be a cis American man deciding to go to therapy (in a culture that tells men to ignore their feelings) and how we try to muddle through the dating apps. 

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Today, my chat with the amazing Maria Glymour, ScD, Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California - San Francisco. Maria tells me about being lost after college and her winding road to epidemiology, growing up in rural Oklahoma, riding cows, the Beastie Boys, a dinner party with Jaws, and the 'flavor' red. I don't think I've ever laughed this hard during an interview. Enjoy!

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Tamarra James-Todd, PhD is an Associate Professor of Environmental Health at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. She tells me about the motivations for her research interests in environmental reproductive justice, dedicating her diabetes research to her late father, the value of peer mentorship, joy riding with her dad in his Mustang in the '70s, dinner with Hannibal Lecter and Molly Ringwald, and more! Laugh along with us!

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Chenoa Cassidy-Matthews is a rockstar PhD student in epidemiology at the University of British Columbia School of Population and Public Health.  She is a member of the Sachigo Lake First Nation, which is an Oji Cree First Nation band government in an area that colonizers now call Northwestern Ontario Canada. Chenoa  is an indigenous health researcher and epidemiologist. She studies the impacts of overdose and COVID-19 on urban Indigenous young people, and develop recommendations for a holistic, self-determined, Indigenous response. Chenoa talks with me about her Indigenous background and research and how they conflict with her current training and how she takes care of herself in a time when Indigenous Nations and Peoples’ human rights are violated. Chenoa and I discuss how she pushes back on academic norms, how she stays connected to her culture, and many of the enriching outside of work activities that make her a very whole person. You'll learn something here as I did! Enjoy!

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Today you hear from Whitney Robinson, PhD, social epidemiologist and all around brilliant, thoughtful, vulnerable woman. She is so well known in the public health community after her positions as a Robert Wood Johnson Health and Societies Scholar, assistant and then associate professor at UNC in the epidemiology department, and now as faculty epidemiologist in the Division of Women’s Community and Population Health in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Duke University School of Medicine. Whitney tells me about her recent transition to Duke, what she learned about changing jobs midcareer, how her personality matches her new job description, how male mentors shaped her training, and what makes for a good apology. Living in the pocket of a kangaroo, how she'd blow 5 grand, bad 90s fashion and more come up in our conversation. Enjoy!

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If you know my guest today, you probably know what a rock star researcher is, but you may not know much of anything personal about him. Today, Brandon Marshall, PhD, Associate Professor of Epidemiology at Brown University, gives me a glimpse into his life: acting, snowboarding, home decorating, caring for 2 pugs, and stubbornly refusing to leave Celsius back in Canada. Of course, Brandon shares how he successfully manages a very large research team, cross-training staff and letting them lead, and avoiding overwhelm. Enjoy!

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