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.

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.

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.

Program Supervisor
San Ysidro Health

Bio: Gloria has served as a Program Supervisor in the Research and Health Promotion Department at San Ysidro Health since 2021. She earned her Master of Public Health with a concentration in Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences from San Diego State University in 2024. She is passionate about advancing health equity, addressing health disparities, and promoting environmental and community health, particularly among underserved populations.

Role: Gloria acts as a liaison between the research team and San Ysidro Health leadership, overseeing onsite research activities and ensuring alignment with organizational priorities.

Program Supervisor
San Ysidro Health

Bio: Ana has been a program supervisor for the Research and Health Promotion Department at San Ysidro Health since 2023. She received her master’s in public health with a concentration in health systems and management from the University of Colorado.

Role: Liaison between the research team and San Ysidro Health leadership, and provides oversight for onsite research activities at San Ysidro Health.

Sr. Program Manager
San Ysidro Health

Bio: Mrs. Linda Salgin received her Master of Public Health with an emphasis in Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences from San Diego State University (SDSU) and earned the Certified in Public Health credential in 2015. Since then, she has been worked with San Ysidro Health, the second largest Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in San Diego, developing, implementing, and evaluating various research and service-oriented programs. Over the past decade, Mrs. Salgin has dedicated her career to working closely with underrepresented communities, providing essential resources to improve health outcomes and address health disparities.

Mrs. Salgin is also a doctoral candidate in the Joint Doctoral Program in Public Health at San Diego State University and the University of California, San Diego, with a specific emphasis on Health Behavior. Her doctoral research uses a combination of quantitative, qualitative and implementation science methodologies to evaluate disparities in receipt of tobacco cessation counseling among underserved communities and to elucidate multilevel determinants for the equitable implementation of tobacco cessation services. As an emerging implementation scientist, her long-term goal is to bridge the gap between academic research and real-world applications, particularly in the context of FQHCs, to ensure the success and sustainability of interventions.

Role: Working alongside our co-researchers, I will be overseeing the implementation of the PREVENT project at San Ysidro Health.

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.

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.

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.

Clinical Research Assistant Student Intern
San Ysidro Health

Bio: Deyana is a student intern at San Ysidro Health, where she contributes to the PREVENT project, which examines respiratory infection transmission between household members. She assists with participant enrollment, consenting, data collection, and community outreach. Deyana has experience conducting surveys, collecting nasal swabs, and translating materials into Arabic to ensure accessibility for diverse populations. She is passionate about public health research, with a focus on health promotion and behavioral sciences.
Deyana is a third-year Public Health Student at San Diego State University, with a minor in Leadership Studies, expecting to graduate in Spring 2026.

Role: Deyana supports the PREVENT project by assisting with participant engagement, data collection, and translation services.

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 Assistant Intern
San Ysidro Health

Bio: Marian is a Pre-Physician Assistant student graduating in May 2025 with a bachelor’s degree in public health from San Diego State University. She has diverse experience in clinical research, community health, and crisis intervention. As a research assistant with the San Diego State University Research Foundation, she contributes to a study on the effects of hookah tobacco use by preparing data collection materials, recruiting participants, conducting home visits, processing and analyzing biological samples, and managing data entry. She has also interned with the CO-CREATE program, focusing on community-driven health initiatives. In addition, Marian serves as a crisis counselor volunteer, where she provides compassionate support to individuals in distress, utilizing strong active listening skills to ensure they feel heard, validated, and understood. To further strengthen her patient care skills, she is working toward her Medical Assistant (MA) certification. She is passionate about addressing healthcare disparities and hopes to bring a well-rounded perspective to patient care as a future PA.

Role: Connect with and support patients, ensure continued engagement, gather and document research data, and assist with daily onsite research activities.

Clinical Research Assistant
University of California, San Diego

Bio: Sandy Wastin is a third-year pre-medical Biology major at San Diego State University, expecting to graduate in May 2025. She combines her passion for medicine with hands-on research, clinical experience, and community outreach. Sandy currently works in Dr. Angelica Riestra’s lab, studying the interactions between Trichomonas vaginalis, Lactobacillus iners, and their role in trichomoniasis. Her work involves conducting experiments, analyzing data, and contributing to research that deepens understanding of microbial relationships.

She has gained clinical exposure as a medical shadow student and volunteer medical assistant, and she interned with the CO-CREATE program to support accessibility and provide COVID-19 testing kits to patients for laboratory research. Sandy volunteers as a Crisis Text Line Counselor, providing emotional support to individuals through text-based conversations, and currently works with the Disabled Students Programs and Services (DSPS) at Cuyamaca College to advocate for academic accommodations and accessibility. She is also working toward her Medical Assistant (MA) certification to continue developing her hands-on patient care skills. Together, these experiences have shaped her perspective and deepened her passion for a future career in medicine.

Role: Contributing to clinical and laboratory research efforts, recruiting study participants, data collection, and supporting the day-to-day operations of onsite study activities, through collaborative problem-solving to support advancements in healthcare.