The Heller School for Social Policy and Management
Doctor of Philosophy in Social Policy

Health Concentration

Priya Agarwal-Harding

Priya Agarwal-Harding

Priya Agarwal-Harding is a PhD candidate with a concentration in Global Health. She completed her MA in Human Rights from University College London School of Public Policy, with her dissertation focusing on governance for social inclusion of indigenous communities in Papua, Indonesia. She received her BA from Wellesley College, where she majored in Peace and Justice studies and English Literature. Prior to coming to Heller, she worked in Cambodia as a consultant for the World Bank Health, Nutrition, and Population Program. Priya’s research interests are in the social determinants of health, social accountability in health governance, and more broadly, in promoting health equity for vulnerable and marginalized communities. 
Natalie Chong

Natalie Chong

Natalie Chong is a doctoral candidate at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management where she studies health policy and health services research. Her research interests include access to and quality of end-of-life care, as well as aging and health policy issues that impact older adults. She is also an analyst in RTI International’s Quality Measurement and Health Policy Program, where she works to develop performance measures for federal quality reporting programs in post-acute care settings.

Elad Daniels

Elad Daniels is a doctoral candidate, a NIDILRR Switzer Doctoral Fellow, and a SSA Retirement and Disability Research Consortium Fellow. His dissertation work concerns psychotropic medication utilization in Medicaid home and community-based services (HCBS) among people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. At Heller, Elad is a data analyst at the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy, where he works on multiple research projects on disability and community living. Elad is also a faculty member at Heller, teaching International Health Economics at the M.S. Program; he is also an academic instructor at the School of Social Work of Boston College.

Elad received his MA in Economics (2018) and his BA in Economics and International Relations (2013) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and his Master's in European Economic Policy from the College of Europe (2014).  His previous work in Israel includes analyst and researcher positions at the Israel Ministry of Finance and the Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute for applied social research. Elad has published works on health care innovation financing and HIV health policy.

Paul Dismukes

Paul Dismukes is a PhD candidate who received an MPA with a concentration in healthcare management services (2015) from Roosevelt University and a BA in political science with a concentration in international relations (2002) from the University of Illinois at Chicago. His research interests include the inner workings of public healthcare organizations and how their administrative decision-making impact service delivery, particularly in vulnerable communities. His dissertation will explore nonpecuniary barriers to service delivery in the inner city and how the culture within a public healthcare organization could either complement or contradict policy legislation such as the ACA. Current work also includes a practical application for communities of practice (CoPs) to influence broad health system change, exploration into the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement (BPCI) initiative, and a collaborative study on a self-diagnosed, self-referred PTSD tool compared to a researcher-administered tool given to vulnerable populations that visit the ED.
Lindsay Garito

Lindsay Garito

Lindsay Garito, MPH is a PhD student and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Training Fellow studying consumer health-related decision making and insurance benefit design. She received her Master of Public Health degree in Health Management and Policy from the Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Communications & Rhetoric from the University at Albany, State University of New York.  Her research is focused on improving the value of health services by examining how consumers of health and behavioral health services use health insurance benefits (or lack thereof) to obtain care from health care providers, and when and how insurance benefit designs contribute to out-of-pocket spending.
Casey Heely

Casey Heely

Casey Heely, MHS, RN, BSN, is a PhD student in Social Policy with a Health Policy concentration. She received a Master of Health Science degree from Clark University with a concentration in Health Equity. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree and a minor in English Journalism from Fairfield University. Following her undergraduate studies, she became a Registered Nurse and worked in Pediatric Intensive Care Units until transitioning to work for a telehealth start-up focused on diagnostic testing in the home. Her research interests include the healthcare workforce, health equity, social determinants of health, and evaluating access to primary and preventative care, especially for underserved populations, within the framework of healthcare and health policy in the United States.
Gabrielle Katz

Gabrielle Katz

Gabrielle Katz is a PhD candidate studying health policy. She received a Masters of Public Policy in Health Policy (2015) from the Heller School of Social Policy & Management and her B.S. in Health, Science, Society, and Policy (2012) from Brandeis University. Her research interests include access and quality of long-term support services for older adults and adults with disabilities in the U.S. Her current work includes assessing a Medicaid MLTSS and integrated Medicare-Medicaid Plan (MMP) for person-centeredness at the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy, co-managing and building content for the annual Princeton Conference, and evaluating a hospice tool for Deaf older adults. Her dissertation will likely center on improving the quality of long-term support services for older adults. 

Benjamin Koethe

Benjamin Koethe is a PhD student studying health policy. He received a Master of Public Health in Biostatistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Gillings School of Global Public Health and a Bachelor of Arts in Quantitative Economics from Tufts University. His research interests include aging and long term-term care, as well as leveraging large administrative databases for health policy and health services research. Since 2017, he has worked as a statistician in the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at Tufts Medical Center, and prior to that he worked as a research analyst at RTI International. 

Yiqun Luan

Yiqun Luan

Yiqun Luan is a Ph.D. candidate in health policy with a research focus on global health. His work explores early childhood and adolescent development in international contexts, the impact of foreign aid on child nutrition and education, and the effects of HIV/AIDS aid on health and socioeconomic development in low- and middle-income countries. Yiqun has extensive experience in designing, applying, and teaching advanced econometric methods for causal inference, particularly in health and education topics. Before pursuing his doctoral studies, Yiqun worked as an investment banker in China, specializing in equity financing projects. He holds an M.Sc. in Economics from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, an M.H.S. in Health Economics from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a B.A. in Finance from Zhongnan University of Economics and Law.

Tozoe Marton

Tozoe Marton

Tozoe Marton is an accomplished professional in global health policy, research, and academia. She holds an MA in Social Policy and an MS in Global Health Policy and Management from Brandeis University, along with a BA in Sociology and International Relations from Simmons University. She serves as an adjunct faculty member at Simmons University, where she educates undergraduate students on global health and the societal impacts of health. She is currently pursuing a PhD focused on addressing maternal mortality challenges in sub-Saharan Africa, specifically examining the influence of professional midwifery on maternal health outcomes and how working environments affect midwives' ability to provide adequate care. Her research includes an internship with the Population Council in Kenya, where she investigates midwifery training environments and their impact on midwives' preparedness and performance in health facilities.
Jenna McElroy

Jenna McElroy

Jenna McElroy, MPH, is a PhD student and Schneider Fellow in the Social Policy program, with a Health Policy concentration. Before coming to Brandeis, McElroy earned their first MA degree in Gender/Cultural Studies from Simmons University, their second MA degree in Sociology from DePaul University, and their MPH from Northeastern University. In tandem with their academic experience, McElroy has years of experience working at larger healthcare networks, nonprofits, and community health centers focusing on Medicare/Medicaid, Health Equity, and ACO related initiatives for underserved and historically marginalized populations. McElroy’s research interests include LGBTQIA+ and TGNC affirming care, health equity, the social determinants of health, and how these topics intersect with health policy at federal and state levels within the U.S.
Nick Mirin

Nicholas Mirin

Nicholas (Nick) Mirin is a population health researcher focused on how models of coordinated care delivery and digital health initiatives interact with systemic inequities to impact access to care, as well as mental and bodily health outcomes, particularly for vulnerable and marginalized groups. He has been engaged in social science research since 2016 when he helped launch the Institute for Technology in Psychiatry at McLean Hospital as its first program coordinator. After receiving his Master of Public Health from New York University in 2021, Nick joined the NYU School of Medicine to focus on Alzheimer’s and dementia as a population health issue. 

H. Awo Osei-Anto

H. Awo Osei-Anto is a PhD candidate whose current research interests include promoting patient centeredness in cancer care; specifically, researching patient-centered care for patients with limited English proficiency and foreign-born patients. She received an MPP with a focus on health policy and a certificate in Health Administration and Policy from the University of Chicago and a BA in economics, international studies and French from Illinois Wesleyan University. She is also interested in global applications of best practices for health care financing, patient safety and care delivery. Current work also includes a study analyzing the types of information minority elderly and their families seek in choosing nursing homes with the goal of stratifying national nursing home measures by race.
Sabbir Pervez

Sabbir Pervez

Sabbir Pervez is a PhD student with a concentration in Health Policy. His research interest includes behavioral health research and policy development, health disparities in reproductive health outcomes, and gender differences in health care and service settings. Before coming to Brandeis, Mr. Sabbir worked as an adjunct faculty at the Department of Public Health and Informatics and Institute of Bangabandhu literature and Comparative Culture at Jahangirnagar University and the Department of Public Health, ASA University Bangladesh. In addition to his teaching experience, Mr. Sabbir has worked with and for a wide range of adolescent-focused national and international organizations, including USAID, Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders, and ICDDR, B since 2012. He received a Master’s in Applied Statistics and Data Science (ASDS) from Jahangirnagar University (JU).
Kumba Sennaar

Kumba Sennaar

Kumba Sennaar is a PhD candidate in the Health Concentration focusing on maternal health with research interests in Ethical AI. She earned her M.S. in Biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University and her B.S. with honors from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, majoring in Science, Technology & Society (STS). Sennaar has served as the Director for an HIV/AIDS prevention and education initiative for a medical nonprofit organization, working in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). As a scientist with interdisciplinary training, Sennaar employs qualitative and quantitative methods with the goal of generating research insights to inform theory, medical education training and public policy. Organizations including the National Academy of Medicine, Deloitte, McKinsey Global Institute and the World Economic Forum have cited Sennaar’s research. Her articles on AI for business audiences have been cited by journals including the Boston University Law Review, Fordham Urban Law Journal and the Harvard Data Science Review. Sennaar proposed policy recommendations published in collaboration with the Federation of American Scientists to better understand AI’s role in addressing maternal health disparities. At a roundtable hosted by The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the United Nations Population Fund, Sennaar discussed the role of digitalization and AI in maternal health outcomes. Her TEDx talk, Reducing Algorithmic Bias in AI, was released in 2024. She currently serves as a Subject Matter Expert member of the Brookings Institution Health Equity and AI Working Group.
Masami Kelly

Masami Tabata-Kelly

Masami Tabata-Kelly is a doctoral candidate in the Health concentration. She has served as the senior project manager at the Center for Surgery and Public Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. As senior project manager, she worked with an interdisciplinary team of clinician scientists to conduct health services research projects to improve surgical outcomes for older adults with serious illness. Her research interests include social determinants of health, health equity, and the innovative use of patient-generated data to inform policy and decision-making in healthcare. Kelly earned her MBA from Quantic School of Business and Technology, her MA in medical anthropology from Boston University School of Medicine, and her BA in cultural anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Mike Vetter

Michael Vetter

Michael (Mike) Vetter is a doctoral candidate in the Health concentration. Prior to joining the doctoral program, Vetter worked as a project specialist in Mass General Brigham’s Population Health Management department.
Most recently, his research experience focused on healthcare utilization outcomes and measures of strain and distress for persons living with dementia and their familial caregivers. Vetter plans to expand on this work by examining mental health utilization among Medicare beneficiaries through healthcare delivery evaluation. He completed a Master of Public Health degree at Tufts University in 2018 and a Master of Arts in sociocultural anthropology at Brandeis University in 2011.
Manning Zhang

Manning Zhang

Manning Zhang is a doctoral student in the Health concentration at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management. Her commitment to the joint PhD program in Social Policy and Sociology, allows her research to mainly focus on the intersection of culture and health. Zhang is interested in evaluating health policies and the corresponding health outcomes across different countries. Her recent research and publications feature eating disorder treatment in China and the psychological intervention towards Chinese first-responders in the COVID-19 crisis. Zhang received a Bachelor of Laws in sociology from Fudan University, China.