April Aviles (she/her/ella), Child Health Survey Manager, Bureau of Epidemiology Services, Division of Epidemiology, New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene
April Aviles is a Southern-grown, Latina scholar that likes to shake things up when it comes to survey development and data collection. As the Child Health Survey manager at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, she plays a critical role in incorporating an anti-racist approach to population health surveys and is active in many of the internal racial equity projects happening at the agency. Her public health interests are focused on racism, health equity, and child health. April earned her B.S. from Cornell University, a MPH in Maternal & Child Health at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and is currently working towards her EdD in Health Education at Columbia University, Teachers College. She is a proud first generation college student.
David Van Riper is the director of spatial analysis at IPUMS and is principal investigator of the National Historical Geographic Information System. He also leads their differential privacy research team.
Martha Alexander, Data Communications Outreach Analyst, Bureau of Epidemiology Services, Division of Epidemiology, New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene
Martha Alexander is a public health educator and cheerleader for the NYC Health Department’s data tools at nyc.gov/health/data. She works with community stakeholders to translate health data into clear and actionable steps toward health equity. Martha holds a Masters in Health Sciences (MHS) in International Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Michael Sanderson, Surveillance Surveys Lead, Bureau of Epidemiology Services, Division of Epidemiology, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
Michael Sanderson has been working in public health for 17 years and has focused his work on health surveillance through population based health surveys. Some of his research interests include improved measurement of sexual orientation, gender identity, and race/ethnicity (including underrepresented groups in NYC). He has managed the NYC Community Health Survey for 14 years and has helped expand the Agency’s health surveys with new studies focused on NYC children. He completed a B.S. and an M.S. in Sociology from Utah State University.
Ninez A. Ponce, PhD, MPP, is an expert on immigrant and global health, survey-based research, social determinants of health, and health disparities. She serves as director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and principal investigator of the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS). Ponce is a professor in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health’s Department of Health Policy and Management.
Stephanie E. Farquhar, Director of Social Research, Bureau of Equitable Health Systems, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
Dr. Farquhar is passionate about how data can promote racial and social justice. She has tackled this as an ethnographer, an organizer, and an applied researcher. Prior to working at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Dr. Farquhar served Director of Research Services for Population Health at Children’s Health System of Texas. She earned her B.A. in History from New York University, a M.H.S. in International Health and Ph.D. in Health, Behavior and Society as an Eddie and Sylvia Brown Community Health Scholar, both from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Tara Becker is a senior public administration analyst at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. Her duties include conducting research on gender and racial/ethnic disparities in health insurance coverage in California and collaborating with California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) funders and researchers in designing and implementing policy evaluation studies. Her research at CHIS focuses on survey measurement and data quality. Becker co-leads the CHIS sexual orientation and gender identity workgroup.
W. Scott Comulada, DrPH, is an Associate Professor-in-Residence in the UCLA Departments of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and Health Policy and Management. He is also a Methods Core Co-Director for the Center for HIV Prevention, Identification, and Treatment Services (CHIPTS) and an Analytic Core Project Lead for an Adolescent Trials Network (ATN) U19. His roles on CHIPTS and the ATN have supported the development of electronic data collection systems and evaluations of large-scale intervention trials for HIV prevention and treatment. Dr. Comulada’s current work focuses on the development and analysis of data from mHealth interventions that target HIV, substance abuse, diabetes, and other chronic illnesses.