Editorial Board

Dr. Circe J. Gray Le Compte

Co-Editor-in-Chief, BCPHR
Co-CEO, BCPH
Chief Technical Officer, BCPH

Areas of Interest

• Sexual and Gender Minority Health
• Cognitive Health
• HIV and Infectious Disease
• Maternal and Child Health
• Racial Health and Racism
• Health Equity
• Biostatistics
• Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Community-Engaged Research
• Health Communication
• Editorial Strategy and Innovation
• Expedite Campaigns

Dr. Circe J. Gray Le Compte (she/her/hers) served on the 2014 founding board of BCPHR (formerly HPHR and the Harvard Public Health Review) at Harvard University, and after a brief tenure as deputy editor has led the journal as editor-in-chief or co-editor-in-chief for nearly a decade. She has guided its transition from a small student-led publication to a peer-reviewed journal publishing authors who address challenging health issues through the lenses of equity and justice, widening its editorial reach beyond Harvard to editors, reviewers, and contributors at universities and health organizations worldwide.

She led the expansion of the journal's online presence, integrating its submission system, social channels, and constituent database into a single platform, and has helped spearhead nearly 80 special editions, hundreds of authors, more than 500 articles, and the DOI system applied to all content. With Dr. Carpenter she built the editor and reviewer training that sets BCPHR's editorial and ethical standards, and she works on the journal's Expedite Campaigns, which shorten the path from submission to publication. Beyond the journal she is co-CEO of the Boston Congress of Public Health, Executive Producer of Great Health Debates, co-Producer of The Humor Scientist, and creator of Health History Mysteries.

Dr. Le Compte holds Master of Science and Doctor of Science degrees from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, with training in social and behavioral sciences theory, research methods, and biostatistics. Her research spans sexual and gender minority health, HIV and infectious disease, cognitive health, maternal and child health, and racial health and racism—several of the journal's standing topic areas—and has centered on innovative interventions such as soap operas and PhotoVoice to improve outcomes among medically underserved populations. Her doctoral dissertation examined how lived experience shapes the health conceptualizations and sexual harm reduction practices of Black and African-American gay and bisexual men and transwomen.

Her work has been published in JAMA Network Open and other peer-reviewed journals, including BCPHR. She is currently a postdoctoral scholar at Columbia University.

Dr. Candice Danielle Carpenter

Co-Editor-in-Chief, BCPHR
Co-CEO, BCPH
Chief of Strategy and Innovation, BCPH

Areas of Interest

• Editorial Strategy and Innovation
• Expedite Campaigns
• Health Entrepreneurship
• Surgical Medicine
• Health Equity
• Social Justice
• Thought Leadership Development
• Editor and Reviewer Training

Dr. Candice Carpenter is a surgical physician and Co-Editor-in-Chief of Strategy and Innovation at BCPHR. She joined the journal as an Associate Editor in August 2020, when it was the Harvard Public Health Review, progressed to Deputy Editor, and became Co-Editor-in-Chief in February 2021. She co-leads strategic planning, operations, marketing, branding, sponsorships, and partnerships, and has driven the journal's expansion from Harvard to a global author base drawn from all 50 states and more than 23 countries.

Under her leadership the journal has produced 45 public health special editions and over 300 academic manuscripts spanning 36 public health areas in three years. She created the BCPHR Expedite Campaign and Editorial Expedite Team, advocated for a revamped peer review process, and built successive cycles of editor and reviewer education—the infrastructure that lets the journal move equity and justice scholarship to publication quickly and to standard.

Her commitment to developing public health leaders runs through the HPHR Fellowship and BCPH Thought Leadership Program, whose international cohorts she has equipped through more than 15 retreats, bootcamps, and masterclasses in thought leadership and cultural responsiveness in academic publishing. She also led the journal's transition from HPHR Journal to the Boston Congress of Public Health Review.

Catherine Tsasis

Co-Editor-in-Chief, BCPHR
BCPH Research Scholars Program, Director

Areas of Interest

• Global Health
• Health Equity
• Social Justice
• Publication Ethics
• Research Integrity
• Research Mentorship
• Expedite Campaigns

Catherine Tsasis joined BCPHR in 2020 and served as intern, junior associate editor, associate editor, reviewer, managing editor, and deputy editor before becoming Co-Editor-in-Chief, a path that gives her an unusually complete view of how the journal works. Her interest in global health has helped establish health equity and social justice as the journal's primary focus.

She has been instrumental in developing journal policy on authorship and contributorship, complaints and appeals, post-publication discussion and correction, data sharing and reproducibility, ethical oversight, allegations of research misconduct and AI use, intellectual property, and copyright—the integrity infrastructure behind everything BCPHR publishes. She leads onboarding sessions for new members, teaches in the Editor Bootcamp and Editorial Fellowship, coordinates special edition leads, and has judged the BCPH Virtual Research Summit and edited the Best of HPHR edition.

As Director of the BCPH Research Scholars Program she gives aspiring scholars the training, mentorship, and opportunity to research, write, and publish on critical public health issues. She also leads editorial board meetings and works on the Expedite Campaign to shorten publication turnaround, while continuing to widen the journal's discourse on public health, health equity, and social justice through collaboration and disciplinary diversity.

Dr. Vaughan Rees

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health · Director, Center for Global Tobacco Control

Areas of Interest

• Tobacco Control
• Substance Use
• Health Policy
• Community-Engaged Research
• Environmental Determinants of Health
• Psychosocial Determinants of Health

Dr. Vaughan Rees is Director of the Center for Global Tobacco Control at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, United States, where he leads the Tobacco Research Laboratory. His research evaluates the design and dependence potential of conventional and novel tobacco products—including e-cigarettes, hookah, and smokeless tobacco—to inform tobacco control policy and interventions, work that speaks directly to BCPHR's interest in translating evidence into program and policy decisions.

He also leads NIH-funded work using community-based participatory research to reduce secondhand smoke exposure among children from low-income and racially and ethnically diverse communities, an environmental-justice question at the center of the journal's equity mission. Trained in health psychology at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre in Sydney and through the National Institute on Drug Abuse, he studies substance use and dependence and the role of product design in shaping consumer behavior. His scholarship has been cited nearly 4,000 times.

Dr. Azizur Molla, PhD, MPH

Grand Valley State University · Professor, Master of Public Health

Areas of Interest

• Environmental Determinants of Health
• Water Security
• Global Health
• Health Equity
• Health Policy
• Community-Engaged Research

Dr. Azizur Molla, PhD, MPH, is a Professor in the Master of Public Health program within the School of Interdisciplinary Health at Grand Valley State University, United States. He holds dual PhDs in medical anthropology and demography from the Pennsylvania State University and an MPH from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

His research spans climate change and water security, environmental and community health, program evaluation, and health disparities—the environmental determinants of health that anchor the journal's environmental justice and global health editions. He has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Bangladesh, the United States, and Haiti, and worked with USAID on reproductive and public health programs in South Asia. He is currently authoring the Springer Nature textbook Climate Change, Drinking Water Security, and Public Health.

Dr. Paul D'Avanzo, PhD, MS

Rutgers School of Public Health · Assistant Professor, Health Behavior, Society and Policy

Areas of Interest

• Infectious Disease and HIV
• Sexual and Gender Minority Health
• Implementation Science
• Health Policy
• Knowledge Translation
• Psychosocial Determinants of Health

Dr. Paul D'Avanzo, PhD, MS, is a behavioral scientist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Behavior, Society and Policy at the Rutgers School of Public Health, United States, and a research affiliate of the Rutgers Center for Health, Identity, Behavior and Prevention Studies. His research addresses implementation challenges in screening and treatment for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, applying social and behavioral theory to strengthen healthcare providers' adherence to clinical guidelines.

He develops provider-targeted behavioral interventions to help clinicians better meet the needs of their sexual and gender minority patients and patients living with HIV, connecting his work to the journal's sexual and gender minority health edition and its focus on psychosocial determinants of health. He serves as senior associate editor of Annals of LGBTQ Public and Population Health, and earned his PhD in Social and Behavioral Health Sciences from Temple University and a master's in mental health counseling from the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Hannah Nazri

Secretary, BCPH Board of Directors · Harvard University (MPH, Health Policy)

Areas of Interest

• Women's Health
• Reproductive Health
• Global Health
• Health Policy
• Social Justice
• Maternal and Child Health

Dr. Hannah Nazri is a clinician scientist, entrepreneur, and women's health advocate, and Secretary of the BCPH Board of Directors. Trained in medicine at the University of Bristol with an MSc in Clinical Embryology and a DPhil from the University of Oxford, she is an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at Monash University Malaysia and will begin a Master of Public Health in Health Policy at Harvard University in 2026.

Her work focuses on neglected conditions such as endometriosis and on ending harmful practices including FGM/C, integrating clinical care, research, advocacy, and global health policy—an example of the knowledge-into-action pathway BCPHR seeks in submissions. She holds leadership roles with Malaysian Doctors for Women & Children, UNFPA Malaysia, the Asia Network to End FGM/C, and the World Endometriosis Society.

Dr. Alvin Tran

University of New Haven · Chair, Department of Population Health & Leadership; Associate Professor

Areas of Interest

• Health Equity
• Sexual and Gender Minority Health
• Food Insecurity
• Health Policy
• Community-Engaged Research
• Disordered Eating

Dr. Alvin Tran is Chair of the Department of Population Health and Leadership and an Associate Professor at the University of New Haven, United States, where he directs the WeEmbody (WE) Lab. His research explores body image, disordered eating, food insecurity, health policy, and the health disparities affecting racial and sexual minority populations through community-engaged and participatory methods such as photovoice, spanning three of the journal's topic areas: food insecurity, sexual and gender minority health, and health equity.

A former health care reporter for Kaiser Health News and a Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where he supported the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), he has been recognized as one of Connecticut Magazine's 40 Under 40 and has received the Society for Public Health Education's Karen Denard Goldman Health Education Mentor Award.

Dr. Caitlin Laughney

Columbia University · Postdoctoral Research Fellow, HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies

Areas of Interest

• Infectious Disease and HIV
• Sexual and Gender Minority Health
• Trauma-Informed Care
• Global Health
• Social Justice

Dr. Caitlin Laughney, PhD, MSW, is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies at Columbia University, United States. Her work examines the long-term health implications of consensual and non-consensual sexual experiences during childhood and adolescence among global populations of men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender individuals at elevated risk of HIV infection.

She is particularly interested in developing trauma-informed interventions within the HIV care continuum to better support individuals who experience complex and intersecting forms of marginalization, stigma, and violence across the life course, work that sits at the intersection of the journal's sexual and gender minority health and intergenerational trauma editions. She holds a PhD and MPhil from Columbia University and an MSW from Washington University in St. Louis.

Usen-Obong Sabbath

Director of Editorial Management and Quality Assurance

Areas of Interest

• Editorial Quality Assurance
• Infectious Disease and HIV
• Health Systems Strengthening
• Social Justice
• Health Workforce Development
• Expedite Campaigns

Usen-Obong Sabbath is Director of Editorial Management and Quality Assurance at BCPHR. He joined the journal as an intern in September 2022, advanced to Managing Editor and Reviewer, and took up the directorship in August 2023, where he sets the standards that keep published work rigorous and squarely within the journal's public health and social justice mission.

He also serves as Director of the BCPH Thought Leadership for Public Health Fellowship, which he has grown through successive cohorts, building a community of public health thought leaders. He works on the journal's Expedite Campaigns, and his own interests span one health, health systems strengthening, environmental health, and climate change.

Jennifer Hanlon-Wilde

FNP, Writer, and Clinical Assistant Professor, Washington State University

Areas of Interest

• Anti-Racism in Nursing Education
• Health Workforce Development
• Narrative Medicine
• Health Communication

Jennifer Hanlon-Wilde is a family nurse practitioner, writer, and clinical assistant professor at Washington State University, United States. She holds a master's and a doctorate of nursing as well as a master's in English. Her scholarly interests include narrative, anti-racism in nursing education, and simulation in education—work that carries the journal's equity mission into how the next health workforce is trained.

Nicolle Ma

Nonprofit Founder/CEO, Supply and Protect Healthcare Workers

Areas of Interest

• Climate Change and Health
• Infectious Disease and HIV
• Noncommunicable Diseases
• Global Health
• Health Workforce Development

Nicolle Ma is a biomedical instructor and nonprofit leader whose work spans climate change, COVID-19, HIV, and noncommunicable diseases—four of the biological and environmental determinants of health BCPHR publishes on. She is founder and CEO of Supply and Protect Healthcare Workers and of Compassionlit, and co-creator of the climate organization Reeforesting 4 Peace, and she teaches at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Hong Kong.

A Youth4Climate delegate, she has served as a U.S. delegate to the United Nations Climate Change Conference of Youth in Egypt and Azerbaijan, bringing environmental justice and global health advocacy experience to the board.

Danielle C. Robinson, MPH, PhD

Epidemiology Supervisor, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services

Areas of Interest

• Epidemiology
• Infectious Disease and HIV
• Health Equity
• Community-Engaged Research

Dr. Danielle C. Robinson, MPH, PhD, is an epidemiology supervisor at the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and a professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Gillings School of Global Public Health, United States. An alumna of North Carolina Central University, she earned her MPH from Purdue University and her PhD from Walden University.

Her research and community work specialize in infectious diseases and health disparities, joining surveillance evidence to the equity questions the journal exists to advance, and she is a member of several public health associations and boards.

Joseph Aaron Joe

Johns Hopkins University, History of Medicine Department

Areas of Interest

• History of Medicine
• Global Health
• Neglected Tropical Diseases
• Planetary Health
• Community-Engaged Research

Joseph Aaron Joe is a graduate student in the History of Medicine Department at Johns Hopkins University, United States, pursuing an MA in Critical Approaches in Science, Technology, and Medicine. He earned his BS in Psychology from the Ateneo de Manila University and has undertaken graduate coursework in anthropology at the University of the Philippines.

Since 2018 he has served as a research assistant and associate in the Philippines, including with the Neglected Tropical Diseases Study Group at the University of the Philippines Manila and the Planetary and Global Health Program at St. Luke's Medical Center, bringing an interdisciplinary, reflexive lens to public and global health research and the social studies of medicine and technoscience—the cross-disciplinary integration of ideas and methods the journal asks of its authors.

Alexandra Farris, MPH, CPH

Public Health Project Coordinator, University of North Texas Health Science Center

Areas of Interest

• Sexual and Gender Minority Health
• Reproductive Health
• Trauma-Informed Care
• Health Communication
• Health Equity

Alexandra (Allie) Farris, MPH, CPH, is a public health project coordinator at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth, United States. Since earning her MPH in 2022, she has coordinated public health initiatives across the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, collaborating with community partners and developing written materials for diverse audiences—practical work in translating knowledge into action.

Her published work with BCPHR covers adverse childhood experiences across the life course and sexual health communication by gender identity and sexual orientation. An author of three peer-reviewed publications, she has also drafted and edited two public health chapters for an upcoming dental hygiene textbook. Editing and proofreading are the elements of her work from which she derives the most joy.

Dr. Mariah Seater

Doctor of Public Health; Fulbright Arctic Initiative Scholar

Areas of Interest

• Indigenous Health
• Maternal and Child Health
• Legal Epidemiology
• Health Systems Research
• Health Policy

Dr. Mariah Seater is a public health leader and researcher dedicated to advancing equity, advocacy, and resilience in Arctic and Indigenous communities, the constituency at the center of the journal's Indigenous health edition. With over a decade of experience across government, academia, and the non-profit sector, she brings expertise in maternal and child health, legal epidemiology, and health systems research.

A Doctor of Public Health and a Fulbright Arctic Initiative Scholar, her work bridges research and policy to address disparities and promote thriving, sustainable communities.

Marisha Kashyap, MPH, MA

Equity-Driven Researcher in Child, Youth & Family Health

Areas of Interest

• Maternal and Child Health
• Intergenerational Trauma
• Trauma-Informed Care
• Community-Engaged Research
• Health Equity

Marisha Kashyap, MPH, MA, is a nationally and internationally published equity-driven researcher and advocate for disadvantaged children, youth, and families in the context of trauma and adversity—the subject matter of the journal's intergenerational trauma edition. Her work centers on cultural responsiveness, meaningful community engagement, and trauma-informed approaches.

She holds a master's in Population and Family Health from Columbia University and a master's in Child and Adolescent Development from California State University, Sacramento.

Dr. Jamie Means

Business & Public Health Consultant; DBA, MSPH

Areas of Interest

• Health Workforce Development
• Health Policy
• Curriculum Development
• Health Systems Research

Dr. Jamie Means is a business and public health consultant with more than a decade of experience in professional development, workforce development, and curriculum design, as well as research, program implementation, and rebuilding health-based workforces—the delivery side of turning public health evidence into practice.

She earned a Doctorate in Business Administration with a concentration in Higher Education from Trevecca Nazarene University and a Master of Science in Public Health, with a certificate in Health Policy, from Meharry Medical College.

Dr. Samia Hussein

Public Health Leader & CEO, Heyya Consulting

Areas of Interest

• Health Equity
• Immigration
• Mental Health
• Substance Use
• Health Policy

Dr. Samia Hussein is a public health leader, equity strategist, and CEO of Heyya Consulting. She serves as Director of the Office of Multicultural Health Equity at the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, driving systems-level change to eliminate disparities in mental health and addiction care.

Rooted in her lived immigrant experience, she champions culturally responsive programs and inclusive policy solutions, bringing immigration and health equity—two standing BCPHR topic areas—to the editorial board. Her doctorate in public health, from Mercer University, concentrated in diverse populations and health equity.

Dr. Marcos Briano (“DrB”)

Associate Professor, USC Physical Education & Mind Body Health

Areas of Interest

• Mental Health
• Suicide Prevention
• Multicultural Counseling
• Social Justice
• Health Equity

Dr. Marcos Briano “DrB” (he/him/el) is an Associate Professor in USC's Physical Education & Mind Body Health program, where he supports students' wellbeing through physical fitness, mental wellness, and the connection of mind and body, and teaches on systems of inequality and multicultural counseling in the Rossier School of Education.

His clinical experience spans K–12 schools, universities, community centers, and an acute psychiatric hospital, and his doctoral training in clinical psychology emphasized multicultural community clinical psychology. His interests include LGBTQ+ advocacy, suicide intervention, intersectionality, social justice, and professional ethics, with an emphasis on Spanish-speaking and BIPOC communities—expertise that maps onto the journal's sexual and gender minority health edition and its social justice mission.

Manasvini Moni

Public Health Researcher; MPH, Karolinska Institute

Areas of Interest

• Health Equity
• Gender-Based Violence
• Infectious Disease and HIV
• Social Justice
• Global Health

Manasvini Moni is an early-career public health researcher applying interdisciplinary approaches to advance health equity, the journal's founding aim. She holds a Master's in Public Health Sciences from the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, with a specialization in health promotion and prevention.

She has worked across the non-profit and public sectors, addressing topics ranging from gender-based violence to infectious disease prevention.

Dr. Jessica Alden

Associate Professor of Occupational Therapy, Howard University

Areas of Interest

• Occupational Therapy
• Knowledge Translation
• Health Equity
• Community-Engaged Research

Dr. Jessica Alden is an Associate Professor and Doctoral Capstone Coordinator in the Department of Occupational Therapy at Howard University, United States, and a licensed occupational therapist whose clinical specialties include pediatrics and pelvic floor dysfunction. Her research applies knowledge-translation principles to participant-led studies that address health and education inequities—the journal's standard of research that reaches practice.

As capstone coordinator, she empowers graduate students to conduct rigorous, community-centered projects and manages their digital capstone repository to disseminate student and faculty research.

Jessica “Jex” Huang

Public Health Researcher & Consultant, The World Bank

Areas of Interest

• Climate Change and Health
• Global Health
• Health Policy
• Health Misinformation
• Humanitarian Innovation

Jessica “Jex” Huang is a public health researcher and consultant at the World Bank, focusing on policy recommendations to protect at-risk communities from climate change and natural disasters—environmental justice at the scale the journal's global health edition covers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they supported response and recovery policy with a Mayor's Office through a Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government fellowship and worked with the Meedan Digital Health Lab to expand equitable access to health information and address misinformation.

Previously a designer and instructor with D-Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, they facilitated projects on youth development, environmental health, and humanitarian innovation with organizations including UNICEF and Oxfam. They hold a master's in Learning, Design, and Technology from the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a Doctor of Public Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Jessica Honig

Psychotherapist & Artist, Pennsylvania

Areas of Interest

• Mental Health
• Anxiety Treatment
• Creative Arts Therapy
• Psychotherapy

Jessica Honig is a Pennsylvania-based psychotherapist and artist specializing in treating anxiety disorders and creative blocks using a blend of psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioral techniques, bringing clinical mental health practice to the journal's psychosocial determinants coverage. She developed the CLOVERING method, trained in creativity and human development at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and in clinical social work at Smith College, and serves as an Associate Editor of HPHR Journal.

Learn more about her clinical practice at The Anxiety Therapist.