Will Eger (he/him/his) received a Bachelor of Arts in Public Health and Spanish from Hartwick College and a Master’s in Public Health from the Yale School of Public Health with a concentration in Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Global Health. Will’s prior work includes several domestic and international projects related to studying the impacts of social vulnerability on infectious disease transmission. For example, he completed his Master’s thesis through a collaboration with the Yale School of Public Health and the New Haven Health Department to analyze disparities in COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among low-income communities in Connecticut to help tailor the state’s pandemic response program.
In the time following his Master’s degree, Will worked as a Research Associate at the Yale School of Medicine’s Syringe Services Program (SSP) and as an Adjunct Professor at the University of New Haven. Will’s work at the SSP focused on HIV prevention among people who inject drugs (PWID), where he led a pilot randomized controlled trial studying the efficacy of a rapid HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) program among PWID. At the University of New Haven, Will taught an Introductory to Statistics in the Health Sciences course.
Will is a National Institutes on Drug Abuse (NIDA) T32 Pre-doctoral Fellow and will continue to focus his research on implementing HIV and other co-morbid infectious disease prevention strategies among PWID. His research uses a combination of harm reduction, implementation science, and mixed methods techniques.
Christian Romero Chavez
Christian earned a Bachelor’s in Psychology at the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC) and a M.A. in Public Action and Social Development at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte (COLEF). After completing his masters, he worked at the Municipal Institute Against Addictions (IMCAD) in the Tijuana City Council as head of research and institutional strengthening.
During his tenure at the local government, he was able to create meaningful collaboration agreements between community organizations and the committees in charge of developing public policy around substance use. He also contributed to the founding of the Municipal Committee Against Addictions of Tijuana (COMCA). Christian helped expand free drug treatment services in Tijuana, creating one of the only centers directed exclusively for women.
Romero conducted several studies related to the local overview of addictions in 2017 and 2018, drug use among drivers of public transportation in 2018, and drug use among people at the center of detention in 2019. In 2020 he presented findings of the research determinant risk factors for psychosocial disability. His research interests lie in the opioid crisis, harm reduction and making comparisons and charting evolving risk environments between border cities such as Tijuana, San Diego, and Vancouver. Romero seeks to develop a model to study people with drug use disorders, risk environments, and risk factors as predictors to advance in the drug use continuum from early use to psychosocial disability.
Shayna La Scala
Shayna La Scala is a first-generation college student that earned associate’s degrees from Mount San Antonio College, one in Alcohol and Drug Counseling. This enabled her to work in the field as a co-occurring disorders counselor and eventually as an executive at a non-profit recovery organization serving the counties of Los Angeles and Orange. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Human Services with an emphasis in Mental Health from California State University, Fullerton (CSUF), and a Master of Arts in Sociology with a specialization in Medical Sociology from the University of California, Riverside. Her previous research examined racial inequalities in opioid prescribing and mortality in California counties. She has worked on projects ranging from exploring the mental health needs of students in recovery to community-based participatory research with underserved populations in Riverside County.
Shayna is a Ronald E. Mcnair Scholar and Sally Cassanova Pre-Doctoral Scholar Alumna that vehemently pursues mentoring within this scholar community. She currently lectures at CSUF in the Honors Department. Her current research interests include harm reduction strategies for people who inject drugs, including the inequalities that may exist in naloxone distribution and utilization of drug checking for safer use.
Francisco Soto
Stephen Omotayo Ololade earned a Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) from University of Benin Nigeria and a Post-graduate diploma in Community Dentistry from University of Pretoria, South Africa. He later received his MPH at Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University South Africa. His MPH research involved the use of integrated Univariate and Multivariate statistics to examine substance use and misuse among high school learners in an informal settlement within South Africa where residents are at risk of alcohol and other substance abuse due to abnormally high concentrations of alcohol outlets. His interest in substance use developed after treating a nine – year old boy with orofacial defects caused by prenatal exposure to alcohol while practising as a dentist in Nigeria. Based on his research background, he strives to address the issues of substance use among youths and evaluate possible treatment and prevention methods for addiction.
The basic biological sciences and pharmacology knowledge acquired during his undergraduate dental training will be a background framework for interdisciplinary research related to substance use and misuse. His involvement in public and private health services in Africa also afforded him some degree of exposure and enriched knowledge to understand the different levels of approach to health issues and related policy processes. He wishes to use the doctoral training at JDP IRSU to boost his knowledge and skills to become an intervention research specialist in a multidisciplinary setting responsible for strategic primary prevention of diseases, especially those associated with substance abuse.
