Trainees

Our Trainees are undergraduate, Masters' and Ph.D. level students and postdoctoral fellows who actively participate in the conduct of health services research under the mentorship of CHEAR faculty. These learners come from academic disciplines that include clinical psychology, epidemiology, health informatics, health administration, medicine, and public health. They participate in all facets of CHEAR research including participant recruitment, data collection, management and analysis, literature review, manuscript preparation and the application of machine learning and data mining techniques to advance the CHEAR mission.

Research Fellows

Joanne Constantin, PhD, MPH
Pediatric Health Services Research Fellow

Dr. Constantin received her Ph.D. in Health Services and Policy, with a focal area in Health Economics from the University of Iowa. She also holds a Master of Public Health degree from the American University of Beirut. Her research focuses on the intersection of health policies, access to care, health outcomes, and social determinants of health. Joanne works on projects related to sickle cell disease, Medicaid policy, and health equity, and she employs quasi-experimental research designs and econometric methods focused on causal inference.

Melinda Rushing, PhD
Pediatric Health Services Research Fellow

Dr. Rushing received her Ph.D. in Health Promotion and Behavioral Science and a Data Science Certificate from the School of Public Health at the University of Texas Health Science Center. She also holds a Master’s in Social Work. Melinda began her fellowship at CHEAR on July 1, 2021. Her research focuses on improving access and quality of care among sickle cell patients as well as the application of various data science techniques to evaluate patient outcomes among sickle cell patients. 

Student Interns

Christopher Cadham
Graduate Student Research Assistants
Janamarie Perroud
Graduate Student Research Assistants