About PREVENT

Professor
University of California, San Diego

Bio: Louise Laurent, M.D./Ph.D is a Professor at UC San Diego and has led collaborative community-driven projects aimed at increasing access to testing for COVID-19 and other respiratory pathogens.

Louise earned her M.D. and her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, San Francisco. She performed her Residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology and her Fellowship in Maternal Fetal Medicine at the University of California, San Diego.

Role: Louise is the PI of the PREVENT project.

Assistant Professor
University of California, San Diego

Bio: Dr. Marva Seifert is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine at UC San Diego. As an infectious disease epidemiologist her primary research interests focus on evaluating the performance and uptake of novel diagnostics for respiratory pathogens.

Dr. Seifert earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Public Health Epidemiology from the University of California San Diego, and a master’s in public health from the George Washington University.

Role: Marva is a Co-Investigator who is supporting study implementation, participant enrollment, and data collection activities.

Assistant Professor
University of California, San Diego

Bio: Marni Jacobs, PhD, MPH is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Diego. She is an epidemiologist with methodological expertise in data capture and analysis for both domestic and international interdisciplinary studies of infectious disease transmission.

Marni earned her PhD in Public Health, Epidemiology from the University of California, San Diego, and a Master’s in Public Health, Epidemiology from Columbia University.

Role: Marni is a Co-Investigator and co-leads the Data Management Core for CHARM/PREVENT.

Associate Professor
University of California, San Diego

Bio: Dr. Nicole Stadnick is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at UC San Diego, Director of Dissemination and Evaluation of the UC San Diego Dissemination and Implementation Science Center, researcher at the Child and Adolescent Services Research Center and a licensed psychologist. Her program of federally, state and privately funded research focuses on the implementation, equity, and sustainment of evidence based practices in community health and mental health contexts. She has received NIH funded fellowships from the Child, Intervention, Prevention, and Services Research Mentoring Network (2015-2016), the Implementation Research Institute (2017-2018) and the Mixed Methods Training Program for the Health Sciences (2019-2020). She currently leads community engaged, cross-system health services and implementation research in federally qualified health centers, low- and middle-income countries, publicly funded mental health services, and HIV/AIDS care programs.

Role: Nicole is a Co-Investigator who will be supporting the community-engaged research activities of the PREVENT program.

Professor
University of California, San Diego

Bio: Dr. Carrie Byington is a Professor of Pediatrics (Clinical) at UC San Diego. She is the emeritus Executive Vice President (EVP) for University of California Health (UCH), the largest academic health system in the US, with 12 hospitals, six academic health centers, 20 health professional schools, and more than 100,000 employees across California. In the EVP role, she was responsible for both the UC COVID-19 response and advancing the public service mission of UCH.

Dr. Byington’s research expertise is related to respiratory pathogens, especially those with pandemic potential. She works to address threats to health security including pandemics and health disparities. She is a faculty member of the UCSD Pandemic Response to Emerging Pathogens, Antimicrobial Resistance, and Equity (PREPARE) Institute, the Human Milk Institute, and an advisor to the UC Health Milk Bank.

Professor
University of California, San Diego

Bio: Borsika Rabin, PhD, MPH, PharmD is a Professor at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public and Human Longevity Science and the Co-Director of ACTRI Dissemination and Implementation Science Center at the University of California San Diego. She is a nationally know expert in implementation science methodology and engages in co-creation with various partners in creating solutions for key public health priorities.

Borsika holds a PhD and MPH in Public Health Studies (Epidemiology) and a PharmD.

Role: Borsika co-leads the community-engagement component of PREVENT with Dr. Nicole Stadnick.

Associate Teaching Professor
University of California, San Diego

Bio: Dr. Niema Moshiri is an Associate Teaching Professor in the Computer Science & Engineering Department at UC San Diego. He works on computational biology, with a research focus on viral phylogenetics and epidemiology. He also places a heavy emphasis on teaching, namely on the development of online educational content, primarily Massive Adaptive Interactive Texts (MAITs). 

Role: Niema is a Co-Investigator who is supporting the bioinformatics aspects of sequencing data analysis. 

UCSD Professor

Clinical Research Coordinator
University of California, San Diego

Bio: Angel graduated from UC San Diego in 2022 with a B.S. in public Health epidemiology and in 2024 with master’s in public health – epidemiology. He joined the CO-CREATE research team in 2021 as an undergraduate student intern. His research interests include global health, immigrant health, and infectious disease transmission, surveillance, and immunology. His goal is to complete a PhD in epidemiology.

Role: Clinical duties, data collection, data management, data analysis.

Clinical Research Coordinator
University of California, San Diego

Bio: Breanna joined the UC San Diego Health team back in 2021 as a Clinical Research Coordinator. She graduated from UC San Diego in 2018, then received her MPH in Health Promotion and Health Education from Cal State San Marcos. She has experience working with diverse communities in the San Diego-Tijuana region. Her focus has been in areas related to sexual and reproductive health, mental health and migrant health. Her passions include addressing health inequities and hopes to one day become a Physician Assistant.

Role: Oversees recruitment, phlebotomy and specimen collection, and project coordination efforts.

Clinical Laboratory Supervisor
University of California, San Diego

Bio: Mr. Jedediah Wilson after having served in the United States Air Force received his Associates in Electronics Systems Technology from the Community College of The Air Force and his Bachelors of Science in Medical Technology from Louisiana Tech University.  He completed his clinical rotation at Overton Brooks VA Medical Center in Shreveport, Louisiana and is certified as a Medical Laboratory Scientist by the American Society of Clinical Pathology. Since then, he has worked for numerous healthcare organizations throughout the country including the Department of Veterans Affairs, The Department of Defense, The Department of The Navy, Sharp Rees Steely, Scripps Health, and UCSD Health . Currently he supervises the day to day operations of the EXCITE laboratory located on UCSD campus which encompasses both clinical and research activities.

Role: In consultation with the medical director, I will oversee the day to day operations of the EXCITE laboratory and the testing of both clinical and research samples collected as part of the PREVENT project.

Research Data Analyst
University of California, San Diego

Bio: Meg Quattrocchi earned her Master of Public Health degree with a focus in Epidemiology from San Diego State University in 2018. Her research expertise spans the fields of infectious disease, substance use, and sexual health. Meg recently rejoined UC San Diego after several years working in pandemic response and infectious disease surveillance for local health departments. She brings valuable experience in data management, statistical analysis, and research operations.

Role: Manages data for PREVENT project and CHARM network data hub.

Clinical Research Coordinator
University of California, San Diego

Bio:  Kayleigh grew up in San Diego and attended the University of California San Diego, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in environmental science and Master of Public Health. During her studies, she was involved in several research projects focusing on women’s health, child/adolescent health, and environmental health. After graduating, Kayleigh joined the department of OB-GYN at UC San Diego Health as a clinical research coordinator.  

Undergraduate Researcher
University of California, San Diego

Bio: I am a third-year Computer Science student at UC San Diego with a strong focus on software development and computational biology. As an undergraduate researcher under Professor Niema Moshiri, I develop scalable bioinformatics tools, including WebAssembly-based applications for viral genomics and molecular clustering. My experience spans full-stack development, algorithm design, and cloud-based computing for genomic data processing. I have also contributed to projects like Secure HIV-TRACE, optimizing tools for epidemiological tracking. In addition to my work in genomics, I’m involved in work that explores machine learning applications in Cryo-EM. In my free time, I enjoy going on walks, playing basketball, and listening to music.

Role: Developing and maintaining the PREVENT user web application.

University of California, San Diego

Bio: Over a decade of experience in both the logistics and healthcare spaces. Joined UCSD as part of the COVID-19 Return to Learn program and oversaw the daily collection and transport of clinical respiratory samples and wastewater samples. Joined the EXCITE lab in 2024 and oversee the transport of specimens and supplies to and from the lab as well as inventory management.  

Role: Sample transport and processing, inventory management, laboratory logistics.  

University of California, San Diego

Bio: Former EMT with both clinical and research lab experience. Joined the EXCITE lab in 2021 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and performed multiple clinical and research roles including high-throughput SARS-CoV-2 testing and Next Generation Sequencing.   

Role: Sample receiving and processing, nucleic acid extraction, qPCR, sequencing, and data analysis.  

University of California, San Diego

Bio: UCSD grad with over five years of experience working in both the clinical and research laboratory spaces. Joined the EXCITE lab in 2021 during the height of the pandemic and has performed numerous clinical testing roles as well as participated in multiple research projects. 

Role: Sample receiving and processing, nucleic acid extraction, qPCR, sequencing, and data analysis.  

University of California, San Diego

Bio: UCSD grad with over six years of experience working in both the clinical and research laboratory spaces. Joined the EXCITE lab during its formation in 2020 at the start of the pandemic. Have performed numerous clinical testing roles as well as participated in multiple research projects. Also, serve as a lab assistant at the Radys Children Hospital clinical lab. 

Role: Sample receiving and processing, nucleic acid extraction, qPCR, sequencing, and data analysis.  

University of California, San Diego

Bio: I provide technical expertise and support to various projects within the lab. Projects encompass ExRNA NGS, ExDNA NGS, WGBS, NGS data processing/analysis, DNA construct design/cloning, and biochemical fractionation of protein/particles from human serum/plasmas/stem cell culture materials, clinical and research assay development including respiratory pathogen detection and sequencing. 

Role: qPCR, ddPCR, sequencing, and immunology analysis, assay development, RUO protocol development.  

University of California, San Diego

Kristen Jepsen, PhD is the Executive Director at IGM Genomics Center, UC San Diego a position she has held since May 2013. In this role, she oversees a staff of staff research associates and provides genomics services to the UC San Diego. Dr. Jepsen consults with UC San Diego faculty and others on experimental design and technical approaches to genomics research. The IGM Genomics Center provides a variety of services, including sequencing library preparation and sequencing on Illumina’s NovaSeq X Plus and MiSeq platforms. The Center also processes Illumina Infinium Beadchips, which includes a variety of whole-genome genotyping (WGGT) arrays as well as the Infinium Methylation EPIC BeadChip. The Center has extensive experience with 10X genomics single cell approaches as well as with 10X Genomics Spatial ‘Omics (Visium and Xenium).   

Sr. Program Manager
San Ysidro Health

Bio: Linda Salgin is a Senior Program Manager at San Ysidro Health (SYH) the second largest Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in San Diego. Over the last 10 years she has dedicated her career to work closely with underrepresented communities to improve access to health and improve patient health outcomes. Her expertise includes the development, implementation, and evaluation of both service and research-oriented programs, as well as qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods approaches grounded in implementation science. As an emerging Dissemination and Implementation (D&I) scientist, I integrate implementation science methods to increase the adoption, implementation, and effectiveness of evidence-based programs across priority public health topics. Linda also received her PhD in from the San Diego State University and University of California San Diego Joint Doctoral Program in Public Health, with an emphasis in Health Behavior. Her long-term goal is to bridge the persistent gap between academic research and real-world practice by advancing the sustainable implementation and dissemination of evidence-based interventions in safety-net settings and supporting organizational-level change to improve health outcomes among vulnerable populations.

Role: Linda serves as the Site Manager for the PREVENT. She provides oversight on both the operational and scientific approach of the study to ensure its successful implementation and dissemination.

Jeannette L. Aldous is Associate Chief Medical Officer for Medical Specialties and Clinical Director of Infectious Disease at San Ysidro Health (SYHealth), a large Federally Qualified Health Center serving a culturally diverse population in the San Diego County US-Mexico border region.  

Dr. Aldous received her medical degree from UCSD, completed residency in Internal Medicine at University of Colorado Hospital and returned to UCSD for an infectious disease fellowship.  Her career interest is in health disparities in historically underserved communities, which is reflected in her clinical and research activities.   

She currently serves as the director for SYHealth’s HIV, Tuberculosis, and Infectious Disease programs.  In addition to clinical responsibilities, Dr. Aldous directs SYHealth HIV/TB/ID Research, and Emerging Disease response (eg, M.Pox), and represents SYHealth on multiple HIV and TB advisory committees. 

Dr. Aldous also directed San Ysidro Health’s response during the COVID-19 public health crisis; implementing protocols to protect SYHealth’s 100K+ patients, and 3000+ staff, providing education and outreach on COVID-19 prevention, testing, treatment, and health disparities, and serving as a member of the San Diego COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force, Board of Supervisors Health Equity Sub-Committee, and the County of San Diego COVID-19 Vaccine Clinical Advisory Group. 

Edgar Diaz is the Director of Research and Health Promotion at San Ysidro Health, where he oversees research, care coordination, health education, adolescent health, and community outreach initiatives.  Born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia, Edgar is a bilingual and bicultural researcher with 25+ years of basic and clinical research experience at leading U.S. academic institutions. His work centers on bridging the gap between academic research and meaningful, real‑world health improvements for underserved communities. Edgar brings extensive leadership experience in large, collaborative, community‑participatory studies focused on the impact of the lived environment, diet, and social determinants of health on disease trajectories. 

Role: Edgar provides expertise, oversight, and leadership across all aspects of the PREVENT project’s implementation at San Ysidro Health to guide the intervention and ensure a successful, community-centered execution. 

Research Assistant
San Ysidro Health

Bio: Scarlet has been working at San Ysidro Health for 2 years. Her first position was as Promotora-Community Health Worker. Recently she has been promoted to Research Assistant. She earned a degree in Global Health with a minor in sociocultural anthropology from UCSD in 2023.

Role: Recruit, retain study participants, data collection, and carry out day-to-day onsite tasks.

Research Assistant
University of California, San Diego

Bio: Connie has a diverse background in healthcare, beginning with positions as a Lab Assistant and Medical Assistant. For the past 15 years, she has contributed to the Research Department at San Ysidro Health, as Promotora and Research Assistant. She earned an Associate Degree in Theology in 2003.

Role: Support study participant engagement through recruitment and retention efforts, conduct data collection, and manage daily on-site tasks to ensure smooth study service.

Professor
Scripps Research

Bio:  Kristian Andersen, Ph.D. is a Professor at Scripps Research and Director of Infectious Disease Genomics. Over the past decade, he has spearheaded large international collaborations investigating the emergence, spread and evolution of viral pathogens, including SARS-CoV-2, Zika virus, Ebola virus, West Nile virus, and Lassa virus.

Kristian earned his PhD in immunology from the University of Cambridge and performed postdoctoral work in virus genomics at Harvard University and the Broad Institute.

Role: Kristian is co-leading the Data & Analytics Hub for CHARM and PREVENT together with Drs. Laurent and Gangavarapu.

Institute Investigator
Scripps Research

Bio: Dr. Karthik Gangavarapu, Ph.D. is an Institute Investigator in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at Scripps Research. He received his Ph.D. in computational biology from Scripps Research, supervised by Dr. Kristian Andersen and Dr. Andrew Su, followed by postdoctoral training at University of California, Los Angeles supervised by Dr. Marc Suchard. He has led large-scale collaborative projects that apply phylogenetic and phylodynamic methods to understand the transmission dynamics of rapidly evolving viruses, including Zika, and SARS-CoV-2. His contributions to genomic epidemiology include the development of widely-adopted tools such as iVar and outbreak.info. He has also made contributions to BEAGLE, a high-performance library that performs core calculations for statistical phylogenetics.

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Role: Dr. Gangavarapu will co-lead the Data & Analytics Hub for CHARM and PREVENT with Dr. Andersen.

Research Programmer
Scripps Research

Bio: James McFeeters is a research programmer with the Andersen Lab at Scripps Research. He develops tools to support the surveillance of ongoing outbreaks, such as SARS-CoV-2 and Avian Influenza. James graduated from Beloit College with a BA in computer science and math. After a few years as a software engineer in e-commerce, he decided to pursue a career in research instead. He previously worked at the University of Minnesota, where he developed tools to help with research in human genetics. When not working, James enjoys climbing, hiking, running, and anything else that gets him outdoors.

Role: James will support all the data needs of PREVENT and the CHARM Network.

Paul L. Watson Jr., MSHS, is the President and CEO of the Global Action Research Center (Global ARC), a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing community-driven solutions through participatory action research, capacity-building, and sustainable development partnerships. With more than 35 years of experience in community development, youth leadership, organizational training, and social-change facilitation in the U.S. and abroad, he has become a respected leader in integrating lived expertise into research, policy, and institutional decision-making. Among his many initiatives, he founded the Young Environmental Justice Advocates Academy, which supports youth of color as they explore local environmental justice issues and design their own community-centered projects. In 2017 he received the Sustainability Award from UC San Diego.  In 2023, he received the Wise Elder Changemaker Award in recognition of his transformative impact on people, land, communities, and justice-focused movements across San Diego County. 

Mr. Watson and the Global ARC team collaborate with partners across California to strengthen community-academic partnerships, elevate community priorities in translational research, and promote equity-centered approaches to health and social systems. He currently serves as a Co-Principal Investigator on a UC San Fransisco research study focused on food security and economic development. He is leading community engagement strategies in three UC San Diego public health research studies. He is also one of the Multiple Principal Investigators (MPIs), alongside UCLA’s Dr. Arleen Brown and Dr. Keith Norris, for the California CEAL team— a statewide network of community and academic leaders originally formed in response to the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on under-resourced communities. Today, he continues to help guide a multi-year initiative focused on supporting community-academic partnerships in addressing the social determinants of health across California. 

Clinical Research Assistant Student Intern
San Ysidro Health

Bio: Angelina is a fourth-year Public Health student at San Diego State University, expecting to graduate in Spring 2026. She is a student intern contributing to the PREVENT study in partnership with UC San Diego and San Ysidro Health. She assists with participant recruitment, consenting, data collection, and community outreach efforts. She is passionate about infectious disease prevention and using research to better understand and reduce the spread of illness.

Intern
San Ysidro Health

Bio: Lucia began working for UC San Diego Health as a student researcher in 2022 and graduated from UCSD in 2024 with a degree in Public Health and Medicine Science. Lucia’s prior research has focused on community health, health behavior psychology, successful aging, and quality improvement in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. She currently works as a medical assistant at Sharp’s High Risk Infant Follow-Up Clinic and volunteers in refugee/migrant health, in premed mentorship, and with foster care youth. Lucia plans to start medical school in 2026 and specialize in pediatrics.

Role: Assisting in the overall PREVENT project.

Clinical Research Intern  

University of California San Diego 

Arleth joined the CO-CREATE research team in 2021. She graduated from UC San Diego in 2023 and went on to earn an MPH in Infectious Disease and Vaccinology from UC Berkeley in May 2025. Arleth has since returned to support the PREVENT team remotely while working as a Clinical Research Coordinator at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Her research interests include applying implementation science methods to advance global health equity, investigate infectious disease transmission dynamics, and explore the development of immunity. Arleth aspires to attend medical school and pursue a career as a pediatric infectious disease physician. 

Role: Supports website design, recruitment, and overall PREVENT project activities as needed. 

Graduate Student Intern
University of California, San Diego

Graduate Student Intern
University of California, San Diego