Meet Our Team
Teresa Janevic, PhD, MPH
Teresa Janevic (she/her) is a social-perinatal epidemiologist with over 25 years of experience in public health. Dr. Janevic leads a research portfolio on social and structural determinants of perinatal health. Dr. Janevic’s passion for women’s health equity was ignited during her undergraduate studies at University of Michigan in history, which laid the foundation of her academic understanding of health and illness through the lens of historical injustice and structures of oppression and opportunity. She pursued a MPH in epidemiology and biostatistics from University of California, Berkeley as her entry into public health. While working as a masters-level data analyst, she fell in love with perinatal epidemiologic methods and went on to complete her doctoral degree in Epidemiology at Columbia University. At Columbia University, she was a Foreign Language Area Studies Fellow in Bosnian-Serbian-Croatian and received a CDC Dissertation Fellowship Award. In the years since, Dr. Janevic’s research on maternal and child health equity has been funded by the March of Dimes, World Bank, Open Society Institute, Russel Sage Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Centers for Disease Control, and the National Institutes of Health. When Dr. Janevic is not working in the VIBE Research Lab, she is busy leading her daughter’s Girl Scout Troop, enjoying being a new convert to Dog-Person, sipping turska kafa while reading the newspaper, and practicing her salsa moves (NYC On2 Style of course!).
Principal Investigator
Bohao Wu, PhD
Bohao Wu (she/her) is a Postdoctoral Research Scientist for the VIBE Research Lab. Bohao’s research interests focus on prenatal and perinatal exposures and pregnancy and life-course health outcomes, longitudinal outcomes among women and their offspring who experience adverse pregnancy outcomes, and methodological study design to eliminate bias in perinatal epidemiology studies. Her previous research has explored preterm birth and the following neonatal deaths among Pacific Islanders in the US, and maternal childhood maltreatment experiences and offspring neurodevelopment. Bohao’s ultimate goal is to leverage her knowledge and skills to reduce health disparities and to decrease the disease burden in maternal and child health. Bohao holds a PhD in Chronic Disease Epidemiology from Yale University, and a Bachelor of Medicine in Preventive Medicine from Peking University, China. In her spare time, Bohao enjoys painting and music.
Postdoctoral Research Scientist
Frances M. Howell, MPhil, MA
Frances M. Howell (she/her) is a Research Project Coordinator for the VIBE Research Lab. Frances is also a PhD Candidate in Critical Social/Personality Psychology at The Graduate Center, CUNY. Her dissertation concerns the study of Black people’s experiences with fertility treatment, racism, and mental health. Generally, her research explores gendered racism in reproductive health care settings, social and political discourses of power and the reproductive body, and the impact these topics have on mental health outcomes. Frances primarily uses qualitative inquiry, arts-based methods for social justice, mixed-methods, and feminist frameworks to explore her research interests. Frances is committed to using her research to advocate for reproductive health equity in service of reproductive justice, and is committed to centering intersectionality, feminist principles, and social issues in her research, advocacy, and teaching practices. She received her MA in Psychology from The New School for Social Research, and BA from The New School. Prior to her academic career, Frances worked in the fashion industry for over five years.
Research Manager
Natalie Boychuk, MPH
Natalie Boychuk (she/her) is a Data Analyst for the VIBE Research Lab and a first year PhD student in the Epidemiology Department at Columbia University. She is passionate about maternal and reproductive health equity. In her research, she is interested in exploring the social and structural determinants of postpartum health and particularly the impact of social policies (such as paid family leave) on postpartum health outcomes. A secondary area of interest includes the influence of chronic gynecological conditions (PCOS, endometriosis, adenomyosis) on reproductive health trajectories. She received her MPH from Columbia Mailman, where she worked on a project revising WHO metrics for emergency obstetric and newborn care. Natalie first became passionate about women's health while working for Grand Challenges Canada, where she conducted research on adolescent sexual and reproductive health in low-income settings and assisted with the launch of the Humanitarian Grand Challenge. As a Data Analyst for the VIBE Research Lab, Natalie coordinates data management, quality control, and documentation, implements data analysis plans, and creates visualizations of findings. Natalie holds a BA from the University of Toronto, Canada. She lives in NYC with her partner Harry and their cat, Shelby. In her free time she loves to bake, go for walks around the reservoir in Central Park, and try new restaurants.
Data Analyst/PhD Student
Elinol Lopez
Elinol Lopez (she/her) is a Research Coordinator at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, working within the Department of Epidemiology (Epi) and the Department of Population and Family Health (PopFam). Within Epi, she is involved in the VIBE Lab’s APPLE Cohort, and POEM for Equity studies. In PopFam, she contributes to Dr. Virginia Rauh’s Mothers and Newborns Cohort study, which investigates the long-term effects of prenatal exposure to pesticides on development among Black and Latino populations; as well as Dr. Gazi Azad’s Partners in School project, which pilot tests a communication training and consultation program aimed at supporting parents and teachers of children with autism spectrum disorder. Her work focuses on understanding and addressing the social and structural determinants of health, advocating for equitable health outcomes, and implementing research findings to improve conditions for disenfranchised populations. Currently, she is studying statistical methods in data science to monitor, analyze, and improve processes, with the goal of applying these techniques to implementation science. She aspires to specialize in innovative mental health counseling approaches for marginalized populations, leveraging these statistical techniques to develop and test the efficacy of new interventions. Outside of her work, Elinol enjoys playing ping-pong, creative writing, and watching scary movies!
Research Coordinator
Hana Suliman
Hana Suliman (they/them) is a Graduate Research Assistant for the VIBE Research Lab and a second year MPH student in the Sociomedical Sciences Department at Columbia University. Their research interests lie at the intersection of race and health, the ways in which structural determinants of health create differential treatment in marginalized communities, and how this differential treatment later manifests into health disparities. Hana is committed to applying their research to historically underserved and overlooked populations, especially children, adolescents and youth, women, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ communities. They hope to use the skills they are currently acquiring during their MPH education to advocate for greater health equity and social justice for those who haven’t traditionally been centered in conversations surrounding health care access, especially Black women and mothers. Prior to pursuing their MPH at Columbia, Hana received two BAs in Global Public Health and African/African American Studies from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA. Although Hana is originally from Northern Virginia, they currently live in NYC with their cat, Minnie, and enjoys spending their free time café-hopping around the city, creating digital art, and catching up with friends!
Graduate Research Assistant
Erynne Jackson
Erynne Jackson (she/her) is a Graduate Research Assistant for the VIBE Research Lab and an MPH Candidate in Epidemiology at Columbia University. Erynne is interested in exploring the interplay between social determinants and reproductive, perinatal, and pediatric health. She is passionate about applying her research to disadvantaged populations in the United States and in emergency settings. Prior to studying at Columbia University, Erynne received her BA in Psychology and Public Health Policy from the University of California, Irvine. She is originally from California and when she is not immersed in her studies or working in the lab, she loves spending time exploring NYC, reading books, and baking sweet treats!
Graduate Research Assistant
Meet Our Mentees
Adwoa K. Nantwi
Adwoa K. Nantwi (she/her) is a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) student in Epidemiology at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. She serves as the project manager and lead epidemiologist for the New Jersey Maternal Mortality Review Committee (NJMMRC) and Fetal-Infant Mortality Review (NJ-FIMR) programs at the New Jersey Department of Health. Her interests are focused on reducing disparities in maternal health outcomes for Black and Hispanic birthing populations and addressing barriers to care amongst immigrant populations. Her previous work has been focused on addressing health disparities across the life course, particularly in the aging population and environmental health risk during pregnancy on infant health outcomes. Adwoa received her MPH in Epidemiology from the New York University's School of Global Public Health, and a BS in Biology from the College of New Jersey (TCNJ). In her free time, Adwoa enjoys going to music concerts, doing various New York Times puzzles, and rooting for the New York Knicks!
Research Mentee
Christiana Onabola, MS
Christiana Onabola (she/her) holds a Master of Science in Epidemiology from Columbia University's Mailman Schol of Public Health. She was a research mentee with the VIBE Research Lab, where she examined Urinary Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Exposure and the Modifying Effect of Psychosocial Stress on Gestational Blood Pressure. She is passionate about mental health research and advancing health equity.
Research Mentee
Xi Peng
Xi Peng (she/her) is an MPH Candidate in Epidemiology at Columbia University and a student research worker focusing on maternal health care access for Romani women. With a BA in Food Systems, Nutrition, and Health, and a minor in Global Health from the University of Washington, she is particularly interested in chronic disease prevention and public health interventions. Originally from China, Xi has experienced different health systems and is eager to understand how they function in various settings. Currently living in NYC, she enjoys cooking in her free time.
Research Mentee