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D
Darney, Blair - PhD
Biography
Dr. Darney has a secondary appointment in the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health as an Assistant Professor in the Health Systems Management and Policy programs, primarily Health Systems & Policy. In this role, Professor Darney’s work includes collaborating on research with primary SPH faculty members, mentoring or advising PhD students in HSP, may serve as preceptor, and participate in the School at large.
Dr. Darney is a reproductive health services researcher and has an OHSU primary faculty appointment as an Assistant Professor on the OHSU Dept of OB/Gyn, Family Planning Section. Her work focuses on obstetric outcomes, maternal mortality, contraception, and abortion. She primarily engages in secondary analyses of existing data but also has experience with intervention and feasibility studies. Her areas of expertise include working with survey, census, claims, and medical chart data, improving causal inference in non-randomized designs, measuring quality of care, and health insurance and financing.
Education, Degrees
B.A., Sarah Lawrence College, 1994
M.P.H., Yale University, 2002
Ph.D., University of Washington, 2012
Awards and Honors
- Outstanding Researcher in Training Award, Society of Family Planning, 2012
Dart, Alyssa - EdM
Biography
Alyssa Dart is an undergraduate academic and career advisor for the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health. Previously, she was a student advisor in the PSU College of Urban & Public Affairs, working with undergraduate students in the criminology and criminal justice and political science programs.
Dart has also worked for the dean’s office of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Willamette University and as an academic coordinator for Psychology and Anthropology departments at Washington State University in Vancouver.
Education, Degrees
B.A., Oregon State University, 2008
Ed.M., Washington State University, 2010
Davis, Melinda - MA, PhD
Biography
Melinda Davis is the director of community engaged research for the Oregon Rural Practice-based Research Network, research assistant professor in the OHSU School of Medicine’s Department of Family Medicine and assistant professor in the School of Public Health.
Davis, who was raised in the Columbia River Gorge, currently co-leads the Community Health Advocacy and Research Alliance, a community-academic collaboration based in the Gorge with a mission to “identify, develop, and conduct health research to answer questions that matter here.” She has over 10 years of experience working with patient, community and health system partners to identify and address health disparities in rural and underserved settings. She has a strong commitment to improving access to care and reducing rural health disparities.
Davis is currently conducting mixed-methods research to understand regional variation in colorectal cancer screening and to identify and implement evidence-based interventions to improve screening rates in rural and underserved settings.
Education, Degrees
B.A., Biology/Environmental Studies, Whitman College, 2002
M.A., Experimental Psychology, University of Vermont, 2006
Ph.D., Social-Developmental Experimental Psychology, University of Vermont, 2010
Awards and Honors
- 2016, Emerging Leader Award, Oregon Public Health Association
- 2009, George W. Albee Graduate Student Award in Community Psychology, University of Vermont Psychology Department
- 2002, Phi Beta Kappa, Whitman College
- 2002, Sigma Xi, Whitman College
Notes
- Participatory Research to Advance Colon Cancer Prevention (PI: Gloria Coronado). National Institute of Minority and Health Disparities, 10/1/2016 – 9/30/2021, Role: Co-Investigator/Site PI.
- Assessing the Potential for a State Medicaid Reform Model to Reduce Disparities (PI: K. John McConnell). National Institute of Minority and Health Disparities, 9/1/2016 – 8/31/2021, Role: Co-Investigator
- Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network (CPCRN) – Colorectal Cancer Screening Evidence-based Intervention Modeling Cross-Center Workgroup (PI: Stephanie Wheeler). Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 10/1/2015 – 09/29/2016, Role: Site-PI.
- Oregon Patient Centered Outcomes Research (PCOR) K12 Program (PI: Melinda M. Davis). Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 10/15/2014 – 7/31/2017.
- Evaluation of the Oregon Colorectal Cancer Screening Project (PI: Melinda Davis). Oregon Health Authority, DHS Department of Human Services, 11/1/2016 – 7/31/2020.
- Connecting Research and Real Life: Building a Network in the Columbia River Gorge Part III (PIs: Melinda Davis and Kristen Dillon). Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), 8/1/2016 – 7/31/2017.
[+]
- Sustainable Relationships for Community Health (SRCH) Evaluation (PIs: Melinda Davis and Adrienne Zell). Oregon Health Authority, DHS Department of Human Services, 7/1/2016 – 8/31/2017.
- Organized Approaches to Colorectal Cancer Screening (Melinda Davis and Gloria Coronado). Oregon Health Authority, DHS Department of Human Services, 4/1/2016 – 12/31/2016.
- Collaboration for Healthy Oregon Through Systematic Evaluation (CHOOSE). (PIs: John McConnell and Lyle J. Fagnan). Oregon Health Authority, DHS Department of Human Services, 2/10/2016 – 2/09/2018, Role: Co-Investigator (Qualitative and Stakeholder Engagement Lead).
- Disparities in CRC Screening: A Mixed-Methods Multi-Level Study of Oregon’s Medicaid Population (Melinda Davis and Cynthia Mojica). Knight Cancer Institute, 1/1/2016 – 12/31/2016.
Denny, Justin - MD, MPH
Biography
Dr. Justin Denny has a faculty appointment in the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health as an Assistant Professor in the Health Systems Management and Policy programs. He has also co-taught at least one course in the Public Health Practice programs. In this role, Dr. Denny’s work includes mentoring SPH students and collaborating on research with primary SPH faculty members.
He is also Director of OHSU Global in Southeast Asia which has partnered with Mahidol University and Mae Fah Luang University (MFU) in Thailand in order to help all institutions expand learning and research opportunities. As a result, Mahidol University and OHSU faculty are investigating innovative approaches to the prevention and treatment of HIV, TB and Dengue Fever, and MFU and OHSU faculty are researching the effect of a Thai whole grain rice on the microbiome, cognition and biometric outcomes among school children. These initiatives have afforded OHSU students and faculty access to new colleagues who work at the forefront in these fields as well as the sharing of clinical specimens and information fromrobust databases to further research efforts in Oregon. Thai researchers are benefiting from access to learning from innovators at OHSU and are receiving support with pursing grant opportunities. Now that seed funding for these researchers has been secured, grants are being pursued in order to make this research collaboration more robust and inclusive over time and SPH students are beginning to spend time working alongside OHSU faculty members on these projects.
Education, Degrees
B.S., University of Virginia, 1993
M.D., Eastern Virginia Medical School, 1998
Residency, Family Medicine, OHSU, 2001
Residency, Preventive Medicine, OHSU, 2002
M.P.H., OHSU, 2002
Desilets, Michelle - MLIS
DeVoe, Jennifer - MD, DPhil
Biography
Dr. DeVoe holds a secondary faculty appointment in the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health as a Professor in the Health Systems Management and Policy programs, primarily Health Systems & Policy. In this role, Professor DeVoe’s work includes collaborating other SPH primary faculty members for research and mentoring or advising SPH students.
Professor DeVoe is the Chair of the OHSU School of Medicine’s Department of Family Medicine where her primary faculty appointment resides, and is Chief Research Officer at OCHIN.
Education, Degrees
B.S., Montana State University, 1993
M.D., Harvard Medical School, 1999
D.Phil, University of Oxford, 2001
Dieckmann, Nathan - PhD
Biography
Dr. Nathan Dieckmann has a secondary faculty appointment in the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health as an Associate Professor in the Biostatistics programs. In this role, his work includes mentoring students, teaching statistics courses, and collaborating on research with primary faculty.
In addition to his work in the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health (SPH), Dr. Dieckmann is an Associate Professor and Director of the Statistics Core in the OHSU School of Nursing. He is also core faculty in the Clinical Psychology program in the department of Psychiatry. His primary statistical expertise is in structural equation modeling (SEM) and psychometrics/survey design and he regularly teaches courses in these areas that are open to students from the SPH.
Dr. Dieckmann also conducts basic and applied research in the decision sciences and risk communication, primarily with colleagues at OHSU and Decision Research in Eugene, OR. His current work is focused on the development of decision aids and identifying methods for the effective presentation of uncertainty in a variety of domains. Other areas of interest include examining public perceptions of conflicting health information, expert disagreement, and trust in science more generally.
Education
B.A., San Francisco State University, 2001
M.S., University of Oregon, 2004
Ph.D., University of Oregon, 2007
Dinno, Alexis - MPH, MEM, ScD
Biography
Alexis Dinno is an associate professor of Community Health at the School of Public Health. She teaches graduate courses in epidemiology, social epidemiology, environmental health and biostatistics, among others. Her broad areas of interest include social epidemiology, social ecology and quantitative modeling.
Dinno’s doctoral dissertation research unpacked relationships between urban residential property abandonment and elderly experiences of depression in New Haven, Conn., using both multilevel modeling techniques and loop analyses of causal feedback. Before coming to PSU, Dinno was an adjunct professor at California State University East Bay, where she taught epidemiology to graduate and undergraduate students and developed new methods in applied multivariate statistics.
In addition to her work in community health, Dinno is an avid practitioner of Capoeira, a Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance, acrobatics and music.
Education, Degrees
B.A., University of California at Berkeley, 1996
M.P.H., Yale School of Public Health, 2000
M.E.M., Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, 2000
Sc.D., Harvard School of Public Health
Notes
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Evaluating media messaging on childhood obesity to inform advocacy on a Culture of Health (Collaborator—statistician; Project Directors Lawrence Wallack and Liana Winett). Award: $309,090. Awarded (Summer 2014)
- Kaiser Permanente, Northwest Region Community Partnership Support. Dignity Village/Right 2 Dream Too Respiratory Health Study. (PI; Peter Geissert Co-Investigator). Award: $1,830. Awarded (Summer 2014)
- United States Forest Service: Grant. Healthy Trees, Healthy People (Co-PI, with Vivek Shandas, Linda George and Todd Rosenstiel). Award: $250,000. Awarded (Summer, 2011)
- Oregon Department of Environmental Quality: Contract. Oregon Chemicals Policy and Management White Paper (Co-PI, with Professor Jennifer H. Allen). Award: $20,000. Awarded (Spring, 2011).
- NIH Loan Repayment Program Grant for Health Disparities Research. Vulnerabilities in Tobacco Control Policy.
Downing, Jae M. - PhD
Biography
Jae Downing joins the School of Public Health as an Assistant Professor in January 2019 from the University of South Carolina. Their research interests focus on social and economic stressors on health and birth outcomes; health inequalities; and sexual and gender minority health.
Professor Downing’s work explores how policies and social safety nets shape access to and quality of healthcare for GSM and other minority populations.
Education, Degrees
B.S., University of Maryland, 2006
M.S., University of California, San Francisco, 2011
Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 2015
