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Staff and Students

Our staff keep the lab moving – staff support research administration, coordination, and data management tasks. Together, we hold ourselves to the highest standards of privacy protection. We have several full-time staff and student interns who rotate through the lab to support different research activities.

Staff

Mingchao He, MS

Data Analyst/Research Teaching Specialist III

Dedicated researcher collaborating with PIs on impactful projects examining the influence of neighborhood environments on cancer screening access and racial disparities. Proficient in advanced statistical and machine learning techniques, contributing to model development for understanding healthcare access patterns. Experienced in designing and maintaining registry-based cohort studies, ensuring data integrity and adherence to protocols. Skilled in preparing research findings for publication, employing data visualizations to communicate results to diverse audiences.

 

 

Chidinma Opara, BA

Study Coordinator/Research Teaching Specialist V (December 2022-Present)

I assist Dr. Iyer with administrative tasks including completing IRB’s, processing documents, and organizing agendas for meetings that are associated with the various projects we work on. I help gather publications and contribute ideas to projects that are surrounded about neighborhood SES, racial disparities, and its impact on prostate cancer. I have gained insight on cancer research, data analysis, and understanding the socioeconomic impact of prostate cancer within minority communities.

 

 

Jennifer Falcon 

Administrative Research Associate (November 2023-present)

I assist Dr. Iyer and his team with administrative tasks, including procurement, finance, and grant support. My focus is to provide administrative support and be a liaison for Dr. Iyer and other departments throughout the university. I handle the onboarding of new research staff, help with expenses, assist with getting approvals for purchases, and submit the purchases. I also assist with scheduling various meetings for Dr. Iyer with the team and other colleagues.I’ve learned a great deal about research administration since I started working here. The administrative and business side of conducting research is fascinating to me and I’m looking forward to learning more.

 

Students

Hafsa Khan

September 2023-present

  • School and concentration: I am an Epidemiology concentration at Rutgers School of Public Health where I am gaining my MPH.
  • Research in lab:I am working with Dr. Iyer on my MPH Capstone Project. I am studying county-level exposures to superfund sites and high-flood areas and childhood cancer rates in NJ.

 

 

Shreya Bhalla 

November 2023-present

  • School and concentration: I attend Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (MD Candidate).
  • Research in lab: I am currently working to create a refined model for travel burden for New Jersey men diagnosed with prostate cancer to analyze associations between travel burden and choice of treatment.

 

 

 

Julianne Varga

January 2024-present

  • School and concentration: I am a MPH candidate within Rutgers School of Public Health with a concentration in epidemiology.
  • Research in lab: I am currently exploring how multilevel associations with drinking ultimately effect the likelihood of getting screened within the United States.

 

 

Julia Jones 

June 2024- present

  • School and concentration: I am a medical student at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
  • Research in lab: I am currently studying variations among androgen deprivation therapy use across the United States and the impacts of demographics on these geographic variations.

 

 

 

Samuel Tundealao

June 2024-Present

  • School and concentration: I am an Epidemiology doctoral student at the Rutgers School of Public Health under the tutelage of Dr. Anita Kinney. I am a member of the Kinney Lab at Rutgers Cancer Institute, where I am contributing to research aimed at addressing genomic disparities among Black cancer patients and their families in the United States.
  • Research in lab: Geospatial evaluation of equity/efficiency of prostate cancer services in the United States.

 

 

 

Adelaide Asante

June 2024-Present

  • School and concentration: I am an undergraduate at Princeton University with a concentration in Psychology (pre-med).
  • Research in lab:I am currently working to help recreate lecture materials that would be used to teach people in Nigeria how to use geospatial data and analyze them to detect how climate change might have an influence on one’s chronic illness or diseases.

 

 

Alumni

Loren Odam, BS, MA

Summer 2023 intern

  • School and concentration: I am in the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School Class of 2026. I was a summer intern in Dr. Iyer’s lab through the “Oncology Physician Training Initiative to Maximize Diversity” Program (OPTIM).
  • Research in lab: During my time in the lab, I completed a project focused on associations of food environments with obesity and breast cancer mortality among women in New Jersey and Louisiana.