David Cavallo, MPH, RD
Graduate Research Assistant
UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
PhD Candidate
Department of Nutrition
UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health

David Cavallo is a doctoral student working in the area of health promotion and online social networks.  He is currently working on an NIH funded project designed to increase physical activity and healthy eating amongst middle school students using web based technology.

"The IHC program provides a unique opportunity to explore interdisciplinary approaches to public health problems. The opportunity to work with the faculty and students in UNC's Journalism and Mass Communications department while in the School of Public Health has broadened my thinking about health promotion research."

Miriam Hartmann
Research Assistant II
Family Health International
MPH
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Miriam Hartmann graduated with an MPH from UNC-Chapel Hill in May 2009 from the department of Maternal and Child Health. She completed the Certificate in Global Health and the Certificate in Interdisciplinary Health Communication. Before receiving her MPH, Miriam worked with the Academy for Educational Development (AED) in the Global Health, Population, and Nutrition Department on a number of health communication related projects and activities. She has also worked with MEASURE Evaluation, finalizing a Violence Against Women Compendium of Indicators.  In addition, she has worked in Malawi with Save the Children, completing a program assessment of a peer-education nutrition intervention model.  Her masters paper focused on assessing the awareness-raising  and communication activities of a local South Asian community-based organization working to prevent violence against women. She joined FHI in May 2009 where she will be collecting, analyzing, and reporting on qualitative data for a large HIV related research study.

"The collaborative environment and faculty support provided by this certificate program was one of my favorite experiences of graduate school. It allowed me to work with individuals in a variety of different departments, which greatly added to my educational experience by exposing me to numerous perspectives, ideas, and energy."

Mohamed Jalloh

MPH Candidate, UNC-Chapel Hill

B.S. Rutgers University

Mohamed Jalloh graduated from Rutgers University with a Bachelor of Science in Public Health. He served as a health education intern at Rutgers Health Services, where he planned and implemented health promotion programs. In addition,  Mohamed updated RU Up in Smoke, an evidence-based smoking cessation guide guided by the Transtheoretical Model. The cessation guide has served as an invaluable resource in helping members of the Rutgers community quit cigarette smoking.

As a Barnhill-Hatch Fellow (Health Behavior and Health Education Department - UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health), he works as a research assistant on the Brothers Keeper Project in Northern Orange County, NC.  The project engages Black churches in employing a lay health adviser model that seeks to help African American men adhere to their cardiovascular disease care plans

“While in the IHC program, I’ve been introduced to medical journalism, through a course taught by Dr. Tom Linden. The course gave me the unique opportunity to work as a health reporter for Carolina Week - the Emmy winning student newscast housed in the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication.”

Christina Malik
Ph.D. Student, Roy H. Park Fellow
School of Journalism and Mass Communication, UNC-Chapel Hill
M.A., University of Southern California
B.S., Ithaca College

Christina Malik is a doctoral student whose research focuses on the processing of advertising and persuasive health communications, specifically branded public health campaigns and corporate sponsored health communications.  Her secondary stream of research explores the influence of marketing on children¡¯s values and behaviors. Christina's professional background is in advertising and consumer research.  She has worked at advertising agencies such as Ogilvy and Mather, Deutsch and The VIA Group, creating integrated marketing campaigns for clients including Motorola, Mattel, TD Banknorth and DIRECTV.

"Through the IHC program I have had the opportunity to gain insights from multiple disciplines.  This interdisciplinary interaction has challenged me to explore my research from new perspectives."

Deborah Neffa

M.A. Candidate, research assistant

School of Journalism and Mass Communication, UNC-Chapel Hill

B.A. Journalism, Political Science (UNC-Chapel Hill)

Deborah received her Bachelor’s Degree in journalism (news-editorial) and political science from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2009. Her undergraduate honors thesis focused on “green issue” magazines and their cover appeal on the newsstand. She is now a first year master’s student in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and is interested in social marketing and health campaigns. Deborah’s research interests are in reproductive health and healthy lifestyle behaviors (potentially with a global focus). Deborah has worked as an editorial intern for Shape magazine in New York, National Geographic magazine in Washington, D.C., and NC State alumni magazine in Raleigh. She is currently a research assistant for a grant-funded survey of religion on MySpace.

Andrea Nikolai
IN4Kids Registered Dietitian
East Carolina University, Greenville, NC
MPH Nutrition, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Public Health, 2008

Andrea Nikolai works as a Registered Dietitian in two pediatric practices in eastern North Carolina as part of a study to determine the cost effectiveness and outcome impact of registered dietitians in private pediatric practices.  Her work involves communicating nutrition to overweight children and their families to help improve their health behaviors.  She is interested in nutrition communication messages and strategies and how they affect decision making.  Her overall goals involve promoting healthy behavior and nutritious food choices to help establish an environment and knowledge base in others that increases the ease of making healthy choices. In addtion to her current position, Andrea has worked in a variety of venues of health communication, including the Physical Activity and Nutrition Branch at the NC Division of Public Health; Southern Progress Corporation, (a Division of Time Inc. that produces magazines such as Cooking Light, Health, and Southern Living); and the Rice Diet Store.


"The IHC program has taught me things I can use on a daily basis to communicate health to others and has given me insight and understanding on how various channels can influence behavior.  Glad I was able to be involved in the program!"

Autumn Shafer
Second Year Ph.D. Student and Roy H. Park Fellow
School of Journalism and Mass Communication

Autumn is interested in the design and evaluation of persuasive health-related messages.  In her first year at UNC, she worked on two social marketing campaigns, helping to develop effective messages to revent cervical cancer and to ease caregiver burden for parents of
children with eating disorders.  She is in the IHC Psychological Processes track.  Autumn's professional background is in political communication and her research has been published in Health Communication and the Howard Journal of Communication.

"The opportunity the IHC provides to work with faculty across disciplines and to be exposed to new and interesting research has been instrumental in developing my own program of research.  The IHC faculty are accessible and encouraging mentors."

Carmina Valle
Ph.D. Student, Department of Nutrition
Thomas S. and Caroline H. Royster, Jr. Fellow
Gillings School of Global Public Health, UNC-Chapel Hill
M.P.H., Drexel University School of Public Health
B.S., Yale University

Carmina's research interests focus on developing health communication  interventions to promote dietary and physical activity behavior change among cancer survivors. Prior to coming to UNC, she spent five years at The National Cancer Institute as a Presidential Management Fellow and Program Analyst with the Epidemiology and Genetics Research Program and the Office of Cancer Survivorship. She is a predoctoral fellow in the Cancer Control Education Program of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Megan G. Van Noord
MS, UNC-Chapel Hill
BA, UCSB

Megan completed a double major in Global Studies and English, as well as a minor in French, from U.C. Santa Barbara in 2004.  In 2008, she completed her master's degree in Information Science and Certificate in Interdisciplinary Health Communication from UNC-Chapel Hill.  Megan
currently works for the RTI-UNC Evidence-based Practice Center, which produces systematic reviews and analyses of the scientific evidence on a variety of health care and health policy topics.

Brooke Weberling
Doctoral Student and Richard Cole Fellow
School of Journalism and Mass Communication

Brooke Weberling is interested in advocacy and philanthropy as they
relate to public health. Recently, she has written and presecnted
academic papers focusing on childhood obesity, underage drinking, and
autism. Brooke's professional experience includes work in public
relations, marketing and fundraising for non-profit organizations, such
as St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the Bedford Stem Cell
Research Foundation.

Courtney Woo
B.A. Asian Studies, Bowdoin College
M.A. Journalism and Mass Communication, UNC Chapel Hill

Woo received her Master's Degree in May 2009 with a concentration in social marketing and public relations. Through thesis research and a research assistantship, she worked on the strategic messaging of two state-wide health campaigns. Her thesis, "Overcoming A (False) Bad Rep: Designing and Testing Messages to Reposition Teens and Secure Funding for Adolescent Health Initiatives in North Carolina," was selected for a poster presentation at the CDC's National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing and Media. Woo also won grand prize in the Arthur W. Page Society's Corporate Communications Case Study Competition. After receiving a B.A. in Asian Studies from Bowdoin College in 2003, Woo divided her time between China and the United States. In China, she freelanced for Newsweek Select, Fodor's and French Vogue; she also produced and edited City Weekend, an English language entertainment magazine published in Shanghai and Beijing. As a media volunteer at the Beijing Olympics, Woo blogged for the Huffington Post.