Research Associates
Caitlin McMahon, PhD, MPH
- Project Director
Caitlin E. McMahon, PhD, MPH received her doctorate in Sociomedical Sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University. She started her research career working in the Department of Psychiatry at NYU based in historic Bellevue Hospital. Her dissertation research has focused on the historical evolution of the health consumer identity and the ways in which consumer rhetoric, and social, economic, and racial inequalities have informed debates over health insurance in the U.S. throughout the 20th century. More broadly, her research interests extend to the history of activism in health social movements, rights language and justice in health care access, and public health policy.
Elise Zheng, PhD
- Postdoctoral Fellow
Elise received her PhD degree at the School of History and Sociology at Georgia Tech. Her research investigates the intriguing intersection of technology and health, with a particular emphasis on the social and material entanglement of personal technology such as wearables and mobile applications on health practices and perceptions. Her dissertation work investigates self-tracking in China, revealing the intricate connections between data, design, individuals' life-worlds, and the broader socioeconomic landscape, providing valuable insights into the societal implications of these technologies. During her PhD study at Georgia Tech and her prior career as a science writer, Elise Li Zheng demonstrated a strong commitment to public-facing writing, interdisciplinary coordination, research impact activities, and community engagement.
Sadie Bergen, PhD(c)
- Research Associate
Sadie Bergen is a research associate with the Division of Ethics working on the JUSTICE study. She is a PhD candidate in Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health. Specializing in the history and ethics of public health, she has conducted qualitative research into issues of reproductive health access as well as historical research into reproductive politics, including physician advocacy around abortion rights, gendered occupational health risks, and the institutional politics of perinatal medicine.
Mika Caruncho, MSW, MPH
- Research Associate
Mika Caruncho, MSW, MPH, is a research associate trained in anthropology, public health policy, and social work. She has extensive experience in qualitative research and has spent the past few years supporting ELSI (Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues) studies in cancer genomics at the University of California, San Francisco Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. Her academic and professional interests include understanding the lived experiences of various stakeholders to examine health disparities and social policies, and the intersections between racial equity and healthcare access. She has been leading her own NCI funded diversity supplement to support her work on an ELSI project that follows an online, pragmatic RCT testing a risk-stratified approach to breast cancer using genomics. Through this study she hopes to further understand the experiences of breast cancer screening trial participants from underrepresented communities, so to inform medical systems on how to cultivate trust, reduce stigma, and increase participation and representation of diverse populations in medical studies.
