Our Team

Leadership

Tashara Leak

Tashara Marie Leak, PhD, RD

Tashara M. Leak, PhD, RD is Co-Director of the Cornell Action Collaborative, and Assistant Professor in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University and Division of General Internal Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Neil Anthony Lewis, Jr., PhD

Neil Lewis, Jr, PhD is Co-Director of the Cornell Action Collaborative, Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at Cornell University and Division of General Internal Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Geneva Hidalgo Nazaio

Geneva Hidalgo Nazario

Geneva Hidalgo Nazario, is a research coordinator for the Action Research Collaborative (ARC) and Community Neuroscience Initiative (CNI).

Zeynab Jouzi

Zeynab Jouzi, PhD

Zeynab Jouzi, PhD is a postdoctoral researcher at the Action Research Collaborative (ARC), Cornell University. Her research interests lie primarily in food security and environmental justice.

Natalia Rommen

Natalia Rommen

Natalia is a communications specialist for the Action Research Collaborative (ARC) and Cornell University Cooperative Extension (CUCE-NYC).

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Xinyi Deng

Xinyi Deng is a research coordinator in the Action Research Collaborative (ARC) and the Life History Lab (LHL).

Eunyoung Myung, PhD

Eunyoung Myung, PhD is a postdoctoral researcher at the Action Research Collaborative (ARC).

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Monica Cornejo, PhD

Monica Cornejo, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in Interpersonal Communication in the Department of Communication at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and co-founder of the Communication and Empowerment Collaborative (CEC).

Jamein P. Cunningham, PhD

Jamein P. Cunningham, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy at Cornell University. Dr. Cunningham is an applied micro-econometrician with a research interest in demography, crime, and poverty.

Eve De Rosa, PhD

Eve De Rosa, PhD, examines how brains and cognitive faculties change across the lifespan. She works with community partners to include seniors from underrepresented populations in research studies on developing early biomarkers for dementia.

Roger Figueroa

Roger Figueroa, PhD, MPH, MSc

Roger Figueroa, PhD, MPH, MSc is an Assistant Professor of Social and Behavioral Science in Nutrition in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University.

Marlen Gonzalez, MA, PhD

Marlen Gonzalez, MA, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in psychology and founder and director of the Community Neuroscience Initiative.

Adam J. Hoffman, PhD

Adam J. Hoffman, PhD, studies the development of ethnic-racial and gender identities among racially marginalized youth.

Misha N. Inniss-Thompson, PhD

Misha Inniss-Thompson's, PhD, work is focused on shifting educational and social policies in ways that better support Black girls.

Renata M. Leitao, PhD

Renata M. Leitao, PhD, is a graphic designer and social justice-focused design researcher with eleven years of experience in collaborative projects with Indigenous and marginalized communities.

Sadé Lindsay, PhD

Sadé L. Lindsay, PhD, is a Provost's New Faculty Fellow and Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Sociology in the Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy at Cornell University.

J. Nathan Matias, PhD

Nathan Matias, PhD, organizes citizen behavioral science for a safer, fairer, more understanding internet.

Nathan Matias, PhD, organizes citizen behavioral science for a safer, fairer, more understanding internet. A Guatemalan American, Nathan is an assistant professor in the Cornell University Department of Communication and field member in Information Science. Nathan is founder of the Citizens and Technology Lab, a public-interest research group at Cornell that organizes citizen behavioral science and consumer protection research for digital life. CAT Lab has worked with communities of tens of millions of people on reddit, Wikipedia, and Twitter to test ideas for preventing harassment, broadening diversity on social media, responding to human/algorithmic misinformation, managing political conflict, and auditing social technologies. Nathan is also pioneering industry-independent evaluations on the impact of tech platform policies in society. Before Cornell, Nathan conducted research at Princeton University, the MIT Media Lab, and Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. He publishes in The Atlantic, PBS, the Guardian, FiveThirtyEight, and other international media.

Courtney McCluney, MS, PhD

Courtney L. McCluney, MS, PhD, (she/her) is an award-winning educator, researcher, consultant, and social scientist.

Jamila Michener, PhD

Jamila Michener, PhD, studies poverty, racism, and public policy, with a particular focus on health and housing.

Jamila Michener, PhD, studies poverty, racism, and public policy, with a particular focus on health and housing. Her research investigates the ways public policy and political institutions shape the material and political lives of economically and racially marginalized denizens, as well as the ways members of such groups gain power to affect policy. She is author of the award-winning book, Fragmented Democracy: Medicaid, Federalism, and Unequal Politics. She is Associate Dean for Public Engagement at the Brooks School of Public Policy, co-director of the Cornell Center for Health Equity, co-director of the Politics of Race, Immigration, Class and Ethnicity (PRICE) research initiative, and board chair of the Cornell Prison Education Program.
Angela Odoms-Young

Angela Odoms-Young, PhD

Angela Odoms-Young, PhD, explores the social and structural determinants of dietary behaviors and related health outcomes in low-income populations and black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC).

Jaleesa Reed, PhD

Jaleesa Reed, PhD, is an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Human Centered Design at Cornell University.

Jennifer Sarah Tiffany, RN, MRP, PhD

Jennifer Tiffany, RN, MRP, PhD is committed to the development of equitable community partnerships and to building linkages that promote and strengthen community health and economic justice. She has a background in community-based HIV/AIDS work, city and regional planning, and participatory action research,

Summer Graduate Research Fellows

Samantha De León Sautu

Samantha De Leon Sautu is a Latin American MD, and third year PhD Student in Human Development in Cornell University. Sam conceives health as the product of societal interactions throughout our lives. She focuses on autonomic patterns and her interests include Social Yielding, Social Emotional Regulation, and Transgenerational Transmission of Stress. During her time outside of the lab you’ll find her consuming excessive music and cat cuddles.

Ruyu Liu

Ruyu (Ru) Liu, MS, RD is a PhD Candidate in Community Nutrition in the Division of Nutritional at Cornell University. She is interested in removing barriers to achieving food and nutrition security among historically marginalized communities, particularly those with low income and who are racially or ethnically minoritized. Under Dr. Roger Figueroa’s guidance, her dissertation focuses on evaluating the efficacy and implementation of community-supported agriculture and produce prescription programs in the urban food pantry setting.