SBSB trainees contribute to all aspects of our research. Our fellows, many of them Intramural Research Training Award (IRTA) recipients, have experience and interests across a range of social and behavioral science areas, from health disparities to eating and diet-related outcomes to mental health and suicide.
Allison Choe is a postbaccalaureate fellow working with Dr. Tonja Nansel on research examining dietary behavior in pregnancy and early childhood. She is interested in child and adolescent mental health, addressing health disparities, and behavioral interventions in health care. She graduated from the University of Michigan in 2023 with a major in biopsychology, cognition, and neuroscience and a minor in community action and social change. After her fellowship, she hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in clinical psychology.
Julia M. Porth, Ph.D., M.P.H., is a postdoctoral fellow working with Dr. Bobby Cheon. Her research investigates the ways in which objective and subjective social disadvantages impact health behaviors (e.g., eating practices) and produce inequitable health outcomes in women and children. She also focuses on identifying interventions to diminish the influence of these disadvantages and promote positive health practices. She studied epidemiologic science at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, earning an M.P.H. in 2017 and a Ph.D. in 2021.
Alumni
Diana Augustin 
Postbaccalaureate IRTA Fellow and National Academy Enrichment Program Scholar, 2021-2023Diana Augustin’s research focused on the associations between maternal inflammation and birth outcomes in relation to racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities. After their fellowship, Diana went to the University of Minnesota to pursue an M.P.H. in maternal and child health.
Jenna R. Cummings, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow, 2020-2022 Jenna Cummings’ research focused on identifying biopsychosocial causes and effects of low diet quality, particularly early in the lifespan. After her fellowship, Jenna went to the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom for a teaching and research lecturer position.
Theemeshni Govender
Postbaccalaureate IRTA Fellow, 2020-2023Theemeshni Govender’s research interests included adolescent psychosocial development, mental health disparities, and social determinants of mental health and how they are transmitted generationally. Specifically, she examined early life risk factors for suicide and substance-related mortality in middle adulthood and adolescent substance use patterns as a risk factor for suicidal thoughts and behaviors in young adulthood. After her fellowship, Theemeshni went to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to complete her doctoral degree in clinical-community psychology.
Mia Kwan
Postbaccalaureate IRTA Fellow, 2022-2023Mia Kwan’s research interests included health disparities, nutrition, and pediatric health. After her fellowship, Mia went to Georgetown University for an M.S. in physiology.
Meegan Smith
Postbaccalaureate IRTA Fellow, 2021-2023 Meegan Smith’s research focused on the effects of perceived socioeconomic status on adiposity and eating behaviors in children, particularly how children with low status tend to have higher adiposity and engage in maladaptive eating behaviors (e.g., eating in the absence of hunger). After her fellowship, Meegan began working with at-risk adolescents who exhibit behavioral and mental health issues at Teaching Family Homes in Marquette, Michigan.
Pablo Vidal-Ribas, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow, 2019-2022Pablo Vidal-Ribas’s research focused on examining early life factors that increase vulnerability to suicide mortality and behaviors using data from the National Collaborative Perinatal Project pregnancy cohort. After his fellowship, Pablo joined the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Research Group at the Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu in Barcelona, Spain, as a Ramón y Cajal Investigator.
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