Jeremy Orloff
Doctoral Student, General Studies, Columbia University
Jeremy Orloff is a premed postbac student in the School of General Studies. Prior to his interest in medicine, he studied political science and history at Johns Hopkins University. He later worked in local New York City government relations. As a postbac, Jeremy has been involved in clinical research around obesity and related diseases.
Jeremy Orloff
Premedical Post Baccalaureate Student, General Studies, Columbia University
Jeremy Orloff is a premed postbac student in the School of General Studies. Prior to his interest in medicine, he studied political science and history at Johns Hopkins University. He later worked in local New York City government relations. As a postbac, Jeremy has been involved in clinical research around obesity and related diseases. As part of his participation in On the Frontlines, Jeremy joined the group’s research trip to Sierra Leone and Liberia in August 2019.
Working Group Affiliation
Ming Pei
Doctoral Student, Medicine, Columbia University
Ming Pei is currently a pre-health student in the Pre-Medical Post Baccalaureate Program at Columbia University. Previously, she attended University of California, Berkeley earning a B.A. in Statistics and B.A. in Economics. She is interested in public health research and aims to make an impact on healthcare policy making.
Ming Pei
Postbac Premed, School of General Studies, Columbia University
Ming Pei is currently a pre-health student in the Pre-Medical Post Baccalaureate Program at Columbia University. Previously, she attended University of California, Berkeley earning a B.A. in Statistics and B.A. in Economics. She is interested in public health research and aims to make an impact on healthcare policy making.
Working Group Affiliation
Alex Pekov
Graduate Assistant
Social Media & Weekly Digests
ap3543@columbia.edu
Alex Pekov
Graduate Assistant
ap3543@columbia.edu
Alex is a 6th-year PhD candidate in Slavic Languages and Comparative Literature at Columbia. He holds a BA (diploma with distinction) in Philosophy from Moscow State University Lomonosov and an MA in Slavic and Jewish Studies from Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg. He is also a recipient of Graduate Certificate in Feminist Scholarship at the Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality. His dissertation Toward a Transmediterranean Genealogy: Matrilineal Legacies in Sephardi Women Writers from the Former Yugoslavia and the Maghreb, focuses on the contemporary autofictional family novels, crafted in French and Serbian by the women writers of Jewish Sephardi origin, born in the French-ruled Maghreb and ex-Yugoslavia, respectively. Alex’s broader research interests include ex-Yugoslav literatures, Francophone belles lettres, Jewish lifeworlds & Jewish difference, the Shoah & pornotroping, multilingualism & decolonization, autofiction & life-writing, genocide & gynocide, postmemory, colonial regimes of desire, colonial photography, gay male physique photography, visual representations of gay masculinities, queer diasporic communities. In the academic year 2021-2022, Alex also serves as a Teaching Observation Fellow at the Center for Teaching and Learning and teaches Second-Year (Intermediate) Russian in the Department of Slavic Languages.
Alex assists the CSSD with social media and weekly digest updates.
Adrienne Pichon
Doctoral Student, Biomedical Informatics, Columbia University
Adrienne Pichon is a Research Coordinator under Dr. Noemie Elhadad in Columbia University’s Department of Biomedical Informatics. Her research interests center around leveraging emerging health technologies coupled with user-centered design to improve access to health-related information, access to care, and meaningful and actionable personal insights, particularly for vulnerable and marginalized populations.
Adrienne Pichon
Biomedical Informatics Research Coordinator, Columbia University
Adrienne Pichon is a Research Coordinator under Dr. Noemie Elhadad in Columbia University’s Department of Biomedical Informatics. Her research interests center around leveraging emerging health technologies coupled with user-centered design to improve access to health-related information, access to care, and meaningful and actionable personal insights, particularly for vulnerable and marginalized populations. The Citizen Endo project and Phendo app harness the power of citizen science to better understand and manage endometriosis.
Working Group Affiliation
Hannah Pivo
Hannah Pivo is a Ph.D. candidate specializing in 19th- and 20th-century design and architecture, with a focus on the history of graphic design and information visualization. Her work has appeared in the journals Design Issues and Public Art Dialogue and she has contributed to exhibition catalogs on various topics in modern and contemporary art and design.
Hannah Pivo
Hannah Pivo is a Ph.D. candidate specializing in 19th- and 20th-century design and architecture, with a focus on the history of graphic design and information visualization. Her work has appeared in the journals Design Issues and Public Art Dialogue and she has contributed to exhibition catalogs on various topics in modern and contemporary art and design. Her research has been supported by the Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture at Columbia University, the Center for the History of Business, Technology and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington, Delaware, and the Rochester Institute of Technology’s Cary Graphic Arts Collection, where she was the Summer Research Fellow for 2021. Before entering the doctoral program in 2019, Hannah was Curatorial Assistant for 20th- and 21st-Century Design at the Milwaukee Art Museum.
Working Group: Extractive Media
Ronna Popkin
PhD Student, Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University
Ronna A. Popkin is a Ph.D. Candidate in Sociomedical Sciences (SMS) with a concentration in Sociology at Columbia University. She was a Fellow in SMS's NICHD predoctoral training program in Gender, Sexuality, and Health. Her multi-disciplinary research interests span the fields of sociology, public health, science and technology studies, and gender studies, and include adolescent and young adult sexual and reproductive health, genetic risk, and women’s health in the United States. Prior to attending Columbia, Ms. Popkin worked as a community sexuality educator for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin and lectured courses at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on sexuality education, women’s health, and the politics of fertility control. Ms. Popkin earned her M.S. in Health Education and B.S. with Honors in Women’s Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Ronna Popkin
PhD Student, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Ronna A. Popkin is a Ph.D. Candidate in Sociomedical Sciences (SMS) with a concentration in Sociology at Columbia University. She was a Fellow in SMS's NICHD predoctoral training program in Gender, Sexuality, and Health. Her multi-disciplinary research interests span the fields of sociology, public health, science and technology studies, and gender studies, and include adolescent and young adult sexual and reproductive health, genetic risk, and women’s health in the United States. Prior to attending Columbia, Ms. Popkin worked as a community sexuality educator for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin and lectured courses at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on sexuality education, women’s health, and the politics of fertility control. Ms. Popkin earned her M.S. in Health Education and B.S. with Honors in Women’s Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Working Group Affiliation
Kenia Pujols
Doctoral Student, Public Health, Columbia University
Kenia has a clinical background and is an MHA '22 graduate of the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University.
Kenia Pujols
Mailman School of Public Health, '22 graduate
Kenia has a clinical background and is an MHA '22 graduate of the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University.
Kenia applies her knowledge and skills to identify solutions to the most pressing challenges in the health care system. More specifically, this fellowship analyses the limitations of precision medicine, implementation processes and possible solutions to help improve the scientific literature and applied knowledge on personalized medicine.
Working Group Affiliation
Hannah Pullen-Blasnik
Ph.D. Candidate, Sociology, Columbia University
Hannah Pullen-Blasnik is a Ph.D. student and Paul F. Lazarsfeld Fellow in the Department of Sociology at Columbia University. She is also a Graduate Research Fellow at the Columbia Justice Lab on the Pennsylvania Solitary Study and the Rikers Island Longitudinal Study. Her primary research interests include social movements, political economy, and algorithms and technology.
Hannah Pullen-Blasnik
Ph.D. candidate and Paul F. Lazarsfeld Fellow in the Department of Sociology, Columbia University
Hannah Pullen-Blasnik is a Ph.D. student and Paul F. Lazarsfeld Fellow in the Department of Sociology at Columbia University. She is also a Graduate Research Fellow at the Columbia Justice Lab on the Pennsylvania Solitary Study and the Rikers Island Longitudinal Study. Her primary research interests include social movements, political economy, and algorithms and technology.
Hannah is the coordinator for the Racial Capitalism Working Group at the Center for the Study of Social Difference, in charge of organizing workshops, roundtables, and events for interdisciplinary collaboration rooted in a commitment to Black radicalism, historical materialism, feminism, and anti-imperialism. She is also co-coordinator for the Sociology of Algorithms Workshop at the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy and volunteers with Data for Black Lives as project manager for a research team on algorithmic and technological surveillance.
Hannah is currently developing projects on the appropriation of Black Lives Matter by nonprofits and corporations during Covid-19, and transformations in the ideological state space of Black liberation organizing over the past 50 years. She is also working on research projects that aim to make algorithmic tools more transparent and build community control over their consequences. One such project investigates the biases and impact of prison intake risk assessment scores on incarceration, solitary confinement, and parole decisions. Another examines human decision-making and interpretation of algorithmic results in probabilistic DNA profiling.
Working Group Affiliation
Racial Capitalism, Graduate Assistant
Sikder Rabbi
Doctoral Student, Precision Medicine, State University of Bangladesh
Sikder Nahidul Islam Rabbi completed his Bachelor and Master’s in clinical pharmacy and pharmacogenetics from State University of Bangladesh. In the arena of research, he has worked with clinical pharmacokinetics, drug protein binding study, pharmacogenetics, SNP genotyping, HLA research and cancer genetics, better understanding about drug activation and pharmacodynamics variation based on patient’s genetics. His research interest includes, epigenetics, proto-oncogene mutation, cancer genetics and neuroscience.
Sikder Rabbi
Associate Fellow, Precision Medicine
Sikder Nahidul Islam Rabbi completed his Bachelor and Master’s in clinical pharmacy and pharmacogenetics from State University of Bangladesh. In the arena of research, he has worked with clinical pharmacokinetics, drug protein binding study, pharmacogenetics, SNP genotyping, HLA research and cancer genetics, better understanding about drug activation and pharmacodynamics variation based on patient’s genetics. He worked as a scientific officer in a pharmcogenetics lab and worked with FDA genetic biomarkers with several research groups of Bangladesh and Germany. He has several research articles on precision medicine, cancer genetics and HLA research. His research interest includes, epigenetics, proto-oncogene mutation, cancer genetics and neuroscience.
Working Group Affiliation
Syed Raza
Doctoral Student, Public Health, Columbia University
Syed Raza is a master of public health candidate in the department of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University where he is also completing a certificate in the Social Determinants of Health. His work focuses on the political economy, sociocultural aspects, and research methodologies of public health. His research interests include historical sociology, geopolitics, science and technology studies, social epidemiology, world-ecology analysis, and critical animal studies.
Syed Raza
Graduate Student, Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Syed Raza is a master of public health candidate in the department of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University where he is also completing a certificate in the Social Determinants of Health. His work focuses on the political economy, sociocultural aspects, and research methodologies of public health. His research interests include historical sociology, geopolitics, science and technology studies, social epidemiology, world-ecology analysis, and critical animal studies. For his master's thesis, he will examine the links between population health, precision medicine, health paradigms, health disparities, and political economy.
Working Group Affiliation
Natalie Reinhart
Project Coordinator
Working Group: Insurgent Domesticities
Project Coordinator
Working Group: Insurgent Domesticities
Natalie Reinhart is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University, New York. She is the managing editor of PREE Literary Magazine in Kingston, Jamaica, and worked as an editorial assistant for Small Axe: A Journal of Caribbean Criticism from 2016-2019. Her dissertation thesis is funded by the Lindt Dissertation Completion Fellowship.
Her dissertation focuses on the "uncontrollable" law in Jamaica, and constructs a socio-legal genealogy of the legislation to argue that such offenses were integral to Jamaica's colonial state formation immediately following Emancipation. She interrogates how such laws have become a discursive staging ground where Caribbean postcolonial modernity, national identity, and international human rights are debated— mobilized around the double-edge of an “uncontrollable” girl’s perceived social vulnerability and threat. Building on work in vagrancy, which positions the runaway as an intervention in the literature and theory of the flâneur, she thinks through girlhood as a critical category and an intellectual tradition.
Andrew Ressler
PhD Student, Systems Biology, Columbia University
Andrew Ressler is a PhD Candidate in the department of Systems Biology. Andrew is currently a researcher in the Institute for Genomic Medicine in Dr. David Goldstein’s lab. He received his Bachelors of Science in Applied Math and Biology from Brown University in 2013. After graduating, Andrew worked as an associate in finance at Amgen for two years before beginning his PhD at Columbia University in 2015. As a graduate student, Andrew’s research focuses on developing methods to model and characterize neuropsychiatric disease using human stem cell derived cultured neuronal networks.
Andrew Ressler
PhD Student, Columbia University
Andrew Ressler is a PhD Candidate in the department of Systems Biology. Andrew is currently a researcher in the Institute for Genomic Medicine in Dr. David Goldstein’s lab. He received his Bachelors of Science in Applied Math and Biology from Brown University in 2013. After graduating, Andrew worked as an associate in finance at Amgen for two years before beginning his PhD at Columbia University in 2015. As a graduate student, Andrew’s research focuses on developing methods to model and characterize neuropsychiatric disease using human stem cell derived cultured neuronal networks.
Working Group Affiliation
Anna Simone Reumert
Anna Simone Reumert
Anna Simone Reumert is a political anthropologist and a gender studies scholar. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at The New School's Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility, and holds a PhD in Anthropology from Columbia University. Her work has appeared in Cultural Anthropology, Mashriq&Mahjar, Merip, Rusted Radishes, Kohl journal for Body and Gender Research, Jadaliyya, among other journals. She is currently working on two research projects. Her book manuscript Future Returns: Labor, Revolution and Sudan in the Middle East follows Sudanese migrant workers in Lebanon and migrant returnees in subsistence farming communities in Sudan during a time of economic and political upheaval in both countries. Her second project, “Sex and the Civil War”, examines the political economy of sex in the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990).
Leticia Robles
Doctoral Student, Performance Studies, New York University
Leticia Robles-Moreno is a PhD student at New York University’s Department of Performance Studies. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Humanities with emphasis in Linguistics and Literature from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. She also holds a Master’s degree in Latin American Literature from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and has taught Spanish, Latin American culture, and Writing classes in several college levels.
Leticia Robles
Performance Studies, NYU
Leticia Robles-Moreno is a PhD student at New York University’s Department of Performance Studies.. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Humanities with emphasis in Linguistics and Literature from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. She also holds a Master’s degree in Latin American Literature from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and has taught Spanish, Latin American culture, and Writing classes in several college levels. In addition to her academic background, Leticia studied Theater Arts in the Club de Teatro de Lima, and has participated in various workshops on improvisational theater, storytelling, and Theater of the Oppressed techniques. Her MA thesis, “Staging Real Time: Absent Presences in Forging/Inhabiting Fragmented Bridges through Video Chat Connections,” explored the ways in which new technologies might be used to generate alternative political subjects, communities, and spaces of belonging. She has published articles in Latin American Theatre Review and Contemporary Theatre Review. Her doctoral research is focused on the role of theater groups of "creación colectiva" in recent Latin American socio-political contexts -- particularly in Peru (Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani), Colombia (Teatro La Candelaria), and Ecuador (Teatro Malayerba) -- exploring their networked practices as strategies of survival, from a combined Performance Studies and Affect Studies perspective. She is always lost in translation.
Working Group Affiliation
Leah Rosen
Graduate Student, Narrative Medicine, Columbia University
Leah Rosen was raised in Denver, CO and graduated from Duke University in Durham, NC. At Duke, she created her own interdisciplinary major titled "Illness and Identity" and completed that in conjunction with the standard pre-med curriculum. She would describe the "Illness and Identity" curriculum as a medical humanities approach to patient-centered care--pulling from disciplines including psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, religious studies, and biology. She is excited to pursue a degree in Narrative Medicine at Columbia and then hopefully continue onto medical school.
Leah Rosen
Graduate Student, Narrative Medicine, Columbia University
Leah Rosen was raised in Denver, CO and graduated from Duke University in Durham, NC. At Duke, she created her own interdisciplinary major titled "Illness and Identity" and completed that in conjunction with the standard pre-med curriculum. She would describe the "Illness and Identity" curriculum as a medical humanities approach to patient-centered care--pulling from disciplines including psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, religious studies, and biology. Beyond her courses, she had the opportunity to work as a research assistant in the Duke Eating Disorder Research Lab and Health Humanities Lab. She is excited to pursue a degree in Narrative Medicine at Columbia and then hopefully continue onto medical school.
Working Group Affiliation
Daniel S. Sáenz
PhD Candidate, Latin American and Iberian Cultures, Columbia University
Daniel S. Sáenz is a Colombian-Canadian Settler, writer, art historian, and occasional independent curator based in Lenapehoking (New York City) and Tiohtiá:ke (Montréal). He is currently a Ph.D. student and Teaching Fellow in the Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures at Columbia University, where he holds a Doctoral Fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Daniel S. Sáenz
PhD Candidate, Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures, Columbia University
Daniel S. Sáenz is a Colombian-Canadian Settler, writer, art historian, and occasional independent curator based in Lenapehoking (New York City) and Tiohtiá:ke (Montréal). He is currently a Ph.D. student and Teaching Fellow in the Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures at Columbia University, where he holds a Doctoral Fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Under the supervision of Professor Alessandra Russo, Daniel’s research focuses on three interrelated areas: the relationship between artistic theory and European imperial expansion in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; the visual culture of masculinities and dissident sexualities in the early modern circum-Atlantic world; and the history, theory, and practice of Christian art. Drawing from contextual and decolonial methodologies, Daniel’s work seeks to shed light on the role of travelling artists in the construction of artistic, religious, and gender discourses at the time of Iberian imperial expansion.
At Columbia, Daniel is also affiliated with the Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality, the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, the European Institute, and the Graduate Certificate in Medieval and Renaissance Studies. He is the 2019-2020 Graduate Assistant for Queer Theory: Here, Now, and Everywhere.
Working Group Affiliation
Queer Aqui, Graduate Assistant
Laura Salvatore
Doctoral Student, Creative Writing, The City College of New York
Laura Salvatore is a poet, currently pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing at The City College of New York, where she will be completing her thesis this fall. She studied Art History and English at Southern Connecticut State University.
Laura Salvatore
Creative Writing MFA student, The City College of New York
Laura Salvatore is a poet, currently pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing at The City College of New York, where she will be completing her thesis this fall. She studied Art History and English at Southern Connecticut State University. Laura currently works at Sotheby’s Institute of Art as part of the Global Online division. Her poetry has been published in Pith journal, Angel City Review, and Apricity Magazine, amongst others.
Working Group Affiliations
Zip Code Memory Project: Practices of Justice and Repair, Social Engagement Project
Taylor Santoro
Doctoral Student, Bioethics, Columbia University
Taylor Santoro is a graduate student in the Bioethics program at Columbia University School of Professional Studies. In May 2017 she graduated with honors from Wake Forest University with a double B.A. in Economics and Studio Art. After graduate school she plans to attend medical school and continue to pursue her research interests in the biomedical field. In her free time she focuses the majority of her time between her passion for cooking and completing her current painting projects!
Taylor Santoro
Graduate Student, School of Professional Studies, Columbia University
Taylor Santoro is a graduate student in the Bioethics program at Columbia University School of Professional Studies. In May 2017 she graduated with honors from Wake Forest University with a double B.A. in Economics and Studio Art. After graduate school she plans to attend medical school and continue to pursue her research interests in the biomedical field. In her free time she focuses the majority of her time between her passion for cooking and completing her current painting projects!
Working Group Affiliation
Srishti Sardana
Doctoral Student, Counseling and Clinical Psychology, Columbia University
Srishti Sardana is a graduate student in the Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology, in the Global Mental Health Lab, Teachers College, Columbia University. She is also a Research Assistant at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University Medical Center. She has assisted on various projects with the aim to build skills needed to conduct high-impact mental health research in low-resource settings.
Srishti Sardana
Graduate Student (Doctoral Scholar), Teachers College, Columbia University.
Srishti Sardana is a graduate student in the Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology, in the Global Mental Health Lab, Teachers College, Columbia University. She is also a Research Assistant at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University Medical Center. She has assisted on various projects with the aim to build skills needed to conduct high-impact mental health research in low-resource settings. She has worked with faculty and advanced graduate students on several studies including examining the feasibility and acceptability of evidence-based psychotherapy (specifically, interpersonal psychotherapy) to address the mental health needs of adolescent girls trafficked for sex work and prostitution in India; communities impacted by the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon; and implemented a pilot study to assess the mental health needs of home-based female sex workers in rural India for her Master’s thesis, at Teachers College. Srishti is currently examining how the precision medicine initiative may benefit a larger population by ensuring an equitable racial representation of individuals of different ethnic groups. Before enrolling at Columbia University, Sardana was employed in the juvenile offender unit at the Institute of Juvenile Justice, Delhi Police where she initiated a narrative therapy-based intervention project for youth offenders. She also helped a local mental health NGO with the Building Bonds project, which trained 100,000 men and boys to become active stakeholders in prevention of violence against women and girls in Delhi, India. Srishti is the co-founder of Sishu Vikas, an NGO, where she assisted in clinical work focused on providing therapeutic support for child and adult clients in need for crisis and suicide assessment and intervention for individuals exposed to violence, neglect, and sexual abuse. As a doctoral student, Srishti’s research is focused on bridging the gap in clinical science research and practice, with a specific focus on socially disadvantaged communities with severe mental illnesses.
Working Group Affiliation
Maureen Saylor
Doctoral Student, Nursing, Columbia University
Maureen Saylor is currently a student in the Master's Direct Entry program at Columbia University School of Nursing. She also graduated in May 2019 from Mailman School of Public Health with her MPH in Population and Family Health. Previously, she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Botswana where she primarily worked on projects related to HIV/AIDS and issues surrounding gender-based violence. She is passionate about participatory qualitative research and hopes to pursue a career in community health upon graduating from the MDE program in summer 2020.
Maureen Saylor
Graduate Student, School of Nursing, Columbia University
Maureen Saylor is currently a student in the Master's Direct Entry program at Columbia University School of Nursing. She also graduated in May 2019 from Mailman School of Public Health with her MPH in Population and Family Health. Previously, she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Botswana where she primarily worked on projects related to HIV/AIDS and issues surrounding gender-based violence. She is passionate about participatory qualitative research and hopes to pursue a career in community health upon graduating from the MDE program in summer 2020.
Working Group Affiliation