Faculty Grants

2023

  • Julie Herbstman, professor of Environmental Health Sciences and director of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health, awarded $599,919 over four years from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for "Exposomic Approach to Identifying WTC Exposures and Effects in Survivor Youth."
  • Ana Navas-Acien, MD, PhD, Environmental Health Sciences: $9,381,875 over five years from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for "Columbia University and Northern Plains Partnership for the Superfund Research Program."
  • Alwyn Cohall, Professor of Sociomedical Sciences, Population and Family Health and Pediatrics at the Columbia University Medical Center, received funding from the Department of Health, for two five-year grants – “Improving Equity through Clinical HIV Prevention in Community Health Settings, Component B: Young Adult Community Access Programs (YACAP)” for $2,000,000 and “Advancing Health Equity through Comprehensive Community-Based HIV Ambulatory Care Services: Component B, Centers for Young Adults (SCC)” for $1,812,495. The project period for both grants is July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2028.
  • Daniel Giovenco, assistant professor of sociomedical sciences, is a Co-Investigator on a new U01 center grant funded through the NIH National Cancer Institute and Federal Drug Administration. The Center for Rapid Surveillance of Tobacco (CRST) consists of a national network of collaborators who will use innovative methodologies to rapidly detect emerging trends in nicotine use. Collaborators will assess changes in use behaviors, product marketing, and the marketplace to better understand the rapidly evolving tobacco landscape in the United States.
  • Wafaa Mahmoud El-Sadr, MD, ICAP: $1,000,000 over four years from Cepheid Inc. for "Pandemic Response Institute Cepheid."
  • Jennifer Hirsch, PhD, Sociomedical Sciences: $1,045,045 over five years from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for "GSH Training Grant."
  • Rupak Shivakoti, PhD, Epidemiology: $1,189,147 over three years from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for "Metabolic impact of ART on women living with HIV and their infants."
  • Ami Zota, ScD, Environmental Health Sciences: $450,000 over three years from the JPB Foundation for "Agents of Change in Environmental Justice."
  • Charles Branas, PhD, Epidemiology: $326,587 over four years for a subaward from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for "The role of neighborhood greenspace in reducing risk of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, chronic hypertension, and racial disparities in maternal morbidity."
  • Kelli Hall, PhD, Population and Family Health: $3,439,225 over five years from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism for "Improving alcohol and substance use care access, outcomes, and equity during the reproductive years: A Type 1 Hybrid Trial in Family Planning Clinics."
  • Christian Gloria, PhD, Sociomedical Sciences: $3,075,216 over four years from the Health Resources and Services Administration for "Affordable Care Act: Public Health Training Centers Program."
  • Mary Beth Terry, PhD, Environmental Health Sciences, and Jasmine McDonald, PhD, Epidemiology: $1,693,082 over five years from the National Cancer Institute for "Training in Health Equity, Highlighting Environmental Inequities, & Growing Neighborhood Teachers and Students (YES in THE HEIGHTS)."
  • Daniel Belsky, PhD, Epidemiology, and Peter Muennig, MD, Health Policy & Management: $2,979,505 over five years from the National Institute on Aging for "The MyGoals for Healthy Aging Multi-Center Randomized Controlled Trial."
  • Adana Llanos, PhD, Epidemiology: $1,549,760 over four years from the National Cancer Institute for "Impact of Allostatic Load and Neighborhood Contextual Factors on Breast Cancer in the Women’s Health Initiative."
  • Silvia Martins, MD, PhD, Epidemiology, and Morgan Philbin, PhD, Sociomedical Sciences: $3,788,799 over five years from the National Institute on Drug Abuse for "State-level opioid policies and policies that regulate substance use during pregnancy: a mixed methods exploration of their effects on maternal and infant outcomes."
  • Wafaa El-Sadr, MD, MPH, MPA, ICAP: $1,247,760 over six months for a subaward from ViiV Healthcare for "HPTN 084: A Phase 3 Double Blind Safety and Efficacy Study of Long-Acting Injectable Cabotegravir Compared to Daily Oral TDF/FTC for Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis in HIV-Uninfected Women."

2022

  • Deborah Hasin, PhD, and Silvia Martins, MD, PhD, Epidemiology: $2,700,235 over five years from the National Institute on Drug Abuse for “Substance Abuse Epidemiology Training Program (SAETP) at Columbia University.” 
  • Rebecca Kehm, PhD, Epidemiology: $341,712 over two years from the National Cancer Institute for “Characterizing the role of adolescent physical activity in early onset breast cancer risk for women across the familial risk continuum.” 
  • Virginia Rauh, ScD, Population & Family Health: $2,040,000 over three years from the JPB Foundation for “Ecological Study of the Comparative Health Effects of Housing-based Interventions.”
  • Jasmine McDonald, PhD, Epidemiology: $2,606,638 over five years from the National Cancer Institute for “The Tumor Microenvironment and Lymphatic Remodeling in Postpartum Breast Cancer.” 
  • Kara Rudolph, PhD, Epidemiology: $3,135,544 over five years from the National Institute on Drug Abuse for “Role of disability and pain in opioid overdose: mechanism and risk mitigation.” 
  • Susan Michaels-Strasser, PhD, ICAP: $7,851,222 over one year from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for a subaward of “Integrating Services for Maximum Impact.” 
  • Veronicah Mugisha, DPH, ICAP: $1,000,000 over five years from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief for “Enhancing Sustainable and Integrated Health, Strategic Information and Laboratory Systems for Quality Comprehensive HIV Services through Technical Assistance to the Republic of Rwanda under PEPFAR.” 
  • Harriet Nuwagaba-Biribonwoha, MD, PhD, ICAP: $3,789,300 over four years from the Gates Foundation for a subaward of “A Phase 3, Randomized, Active-Controlled, Double-blind Clinical Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of Oral Islatravir Once-Monthly as Preexposure Prophylaxis in Cisgender Women at High Risk for HIV-1 Infection.” 
  • Kiros Berhane, PhD, and Christine Mauro, PhD, Biostatistics: $1,212,989 over four years from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for “Summer Institute for Training in Biostatistics and Data Science at Columbia.” 
  • Julie Franks, PhD, ICAP: $43,129,160 over five years from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief for “Sustain and Accelerate a Comprehensive HIV Response in the United Republic of Tanzania under PEPFAR.” 
  • Nischay Mishra, PhD, Center for Infection and Immunity: $971,998 over five years from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for a subaward of “Investigation and Treatment of Undiagnosed Neuroinflammatory Diseases.” 
  • Matthew Perzanowski, PhD, Environmental Health Sciences: $2,948,318 over five years from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for “Mold Policy Intervention in New York City Public Housing and Asthma Morbidity.” 
  • Wan Yang, PhD, Epidemiology: $2,171,230 over five years from the National Cancer Institute for “UNCOVER: underlying novel causes of onset of very early cancer research.” 
  • Mary Beth Terry, PhD; Dawn Hershman and colleagues received $20,408,097 over five years from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities for “Center to Improve Chronic disease Outcomes through Multi-level and Multi-generational approaches Unifying Novel Interventions and Training for health EquitY (The COMMUNITY Center).”
  • Joan Casey, PhD, Environmental Health Sciences Received 2,944,789 over five years from the National Institute on Aging for “Historical social and environmental determinants of memory decline and dementia among U.S. older adults.”
  • Diana Hernández, PhD, Sociomedical Sciences: $250,000 over two years from the Johnson (Robert Wood) Foundation for “Exploring Racial Disparities in Home Energy Services to Shed New Light on Persistent Housing Inequity.”
  • Gina Wingood, ScD, Sociomedical Sciences, will receive $1,231,220 over five years from the National Institute of Mental Health for “Social Determinants of HIV.”
  • Goleen Samari, PhD, Population & Family Health, will receive $654,210 over five years from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for “Migration, Dynamic Social Environments, and Birth Outcomes” and 350,000 over five years from the Grant (William T.) Foundation for “Reducing Harm from Structural Xenophobia for Reproductive Equity.”
  • Mary Beth Terry, PhD, professor of Epidemiology, is the principal investigator of a new grant -- the Center to Improve Chronic Disease Outcomes through Multi-level and Multi-generational Approaches Unifying Novel Interventions and Training for Health Equity (COMMUNITY Center) at HICCC. The official project will address health disparities in multiple chronic diseases. Read more.

2021

  • Andrew Rundle, DrPH, Epidemiology, will receive $2,645,973 over four years from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism for “Identifying alcohol-related and built environment factors that can be modified to prevent pedestrian road traffic deaths” and $538,088 over five years from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for a subaward of “Elucidating Genetic and Environmental Second Hits in Racial and Ethnic Minorities with APOL1 High-Risk Genotypes.”
  • Dustin Duncan, ScD, Epidemiology, will receive $3,624,329 over five years from the National Institute on Drug Abuse for “Cannabis use, PrEP and HIV transmission risk Among Black MSM in Chicago.”
  • Barun Mathema, PhD, Epidemiology, will receive $3,433,190 over five years from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for “Targeting TB transmission hotspots to find undiagnosed TB in South Africa: a genomic, geospatial and modeling study (TARGET- TB).”
  • Gary Miller, PhD, Environmental Health Sciences, will receive $2,367,669 over four years from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for “Vesicular modulation of dopamine neuron toxicity.”
  • Christopher Morrison, PhD, Epidemiology, will receive $3,072,894 over five years from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism for “Impacts of Subsidized Ridesharing on Drunk Driving, Alcohol Consumption, and Mobility.”
  • Jeanette Stingone, PhD, Epidemiology, will receive $481,457 over two years from the Health Effects Institute for “Race, Ethnicity, and Air pollution in COVID-19 Hospitalization OUTcomes (REACH OUT Study).”
  • Andrea Baccarelli, MD, PhD, chair of Environmental Health Sciences, is receiving an eight-year grant of $7,398,756 from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for “Extracellular vesicles in Environmental Epidemiology Studies of Aging.”
  • Norman Kleiman, PhD, Environmental Health Sciences, will receive $1,139,975 over five years from the National Cancer Institute for Serological Test for SARS-COV-2, Human Coronaviruses and Other Respiratory Pathogens.
  • Rafal Tokarz, PhD, Center for Infection & Immunity, will receive a two-year grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for “Identification of the Agent of Southern Tick Associated Rash Illness.”
  • Nour Makarem, PhD, Epidemiology, will receive $726,833 over three years from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for “Circadian Pattern of Rest-Activity Rhythms and Blood Pressure and the Underlying Epigenetic Mechanisms.”
  • Joan Casey, PhD, Environmental Health Sciences, will receive $2,130,169 over three years from the National Institute on Aging for “Short and Long-Term Consequences of Wildfires for Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias.”
  • Parisa Tehranifar, DrPH, Epidemiology, and Rachel Shelton, ScD, Sociomedical Sciences, will receive $2,616,318 over five years from the National Cancer Institute for “De-implementation of Mammography Overuse in Older Racially and Ethnically Diverse Women.” 
  • Ana Navas-Acien, MD, PhD, and Andrea Baccarelli, MD, PhD, Environmental Health Sciences, will receive $3,148,020 over four years from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for “The Epitranscriptome as a Novel Mechanism of Arsenic-Induced Diabetes.”
  • Ian Lipkin, MD, Center for Infection & Immunity, will receive $3,000,000 over one year from the Skoll Foundation for “Columbia Convalescent Plasma Trial.”
  • Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou, ScD, Environmental Health Sciences, will receive $2,508,769 over five years from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for “Air Pollution and Pregnancy Loss.”
  • Marni Sommer, DrPH, RN, Sociomedical Sciences, will receive $299,905 from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for “Support for Global Menstrual Health and Hygiene Monitoring.”
  • Mary Gamble, PhD, Environmental Health Sciences, will receive $1,852,969 over three years from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for “Interdisciplinary Approaches for Understanding the Metabolic Effects of Arsenic and Manganese” and $2,623,349 over four years from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for “Metabolomic and Nutrigenetic Effects of Folic Acid Supplementation and Unmetabolized Folic Acid.”
  • Andrea Baccarelli, MD, PhD, Environmental Health Sciences, will receive $949,566 over five years from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for a subaward of “Air Particulate Pollution and Stress: Effects and Mechanisms for Long-term Maternal Obesity Risks.”
  • Morgan PhilbinPhD, MHS, assistant professor of sociomedical sciences, will receive $551,816 as a 3-year Notice of Award R34 Grant from the National Institutes of Health for "Optimizing HIV Adherence by Developing a Shared Decision Support Tool to Facilitate Women's Choice Between Oral and LAI ART."
  • The Department of Epidemiology along with the CDC Columbia Center for Injury Science and Prevention and The Irving Institute’s Implementation Science Initiative granted one-year pilot awards to the following faculty members. The program prioritized applications that focused on promoting health equity and racial justice.
    • Silvia Martins, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Jeremy Kane, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, for "Adaptation and piloting of brief interpersonal therapy (IPT) for remote delivery among refugees and other displaced persons in Peru."
    • Yuval Neria, PhD, Professor of Medical Psychology in the Department of Epidemiology for the study of "Reducing Public Stigma Towards Individuals with Psychosis Across Race and Gender: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Young Adults."
    • Christina Hoven, PhD, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology in the Department of Epidemiology for "The Impact of Race and Other Characteristics on Parent-Teacher Communication: Examining a Critical Mechanism of Change for Implementation and Mental Health Outcomes in Children with Autism."
  • Rachel Shelton, ScD, MPH, associate professor of Sociomedical Sciences, will receive 5-year R01 NIH National Cancer Institute grant titled, “De-Implementation of Mammography Overuse in Older Racially and Ethnically Diverse Women” funded for 1.6 million. Co PIs are Nathalie Moise, and Parisa Tehranifar.
  • Andrea Baccarelli, MD, PhD, Environmental Health Sciences, will receive $3,967,867 over five years from the National Institute on Aging for “Blood Mitochondrial DNA Biomarkers of Midlife Cognitive Decline and Adverse Brain Imaging Changes – A Longitudinal Investigation in the CARDIA Population‐based Cohort Study.”
  • Ana Navas-Acien, MD, PhD, Environmental Health Sciences, will receive a five-year award from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to study “Metal Exposure and Early Cardiovascular Risk in Adult E-Cigarette Users."
  • Mary Beth Terry, PhD, will receive a grant from the U.S. Department of the Army for studying breast cancer risk and “Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH)". 
  • Diana Hernandez, PhD, associate professor sociomedical sciences, will receive $3,361,189 over five years from the National Cancer Institute for “A Randomized Controlled Trial to Support Smoke-Free Policy Compliance in Public Housing.”