Meet the SPHERE Mentors!
Robert Leeman, Ph.D. (He/Him)
Professor and Chair, Department of Public Health and Health Sciences
Bouvé College of Health Sciences
Dr. Leeman is an experimental psychologist with a public health focus. His primary research interests are addictive behaviors (particularly alcohol), sexual health behavior, and difficulties with self-control (e.g., impulsivity). Using human laboratory, survey, and randomized controlled trial methods, Dr. Leeman tests novel interventions for substance misuse and HIV prevention and attempts to learn more about risk factors for these behaviors, particularly in adolescent and young adult populations. In his recent research, these novel interventions have been primarily technology-based including web-based interventions, mobile health (mHealth) devices, and smartphone applications.
Further information: Robert F. Leeman, PhD – Bouvé Faculty Directory (northeastern.edu)
Darla Castelli, PhD, FNAK (She/Her)
Professor and Chair, Department of Physical Therapy, Human Movement, and Rehabilitation Sciences
Bouvé College of Health Sciences
Dr. Castelli has designed six federally-funded physical activity intervention programs to improve physical and cognitive health. Her research projects have received funding from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Education. As a member of two Institute of Medicine Committees, Dr. Castelli helped generate new national guidelines for physical activity participation in schools. She has authored more than 130 peer-reviewed publications and five books. Dr. Castelli is currently the principal investigator of an NIH-funded study on obesity and metabolic risk factors among Latina mothers. At Northeastern, Dr. Castelli directs the Behavioral and Cognitive Health Lab.
Further information: https://bouve.northeastern.edu/directory/darla-castelli/
Jennifer Evans, PhD, MCHES (She/Her)
Assistant Teaching Professor, Department of Public Health and Health Sciences
Bouvé College of Health Sciences
Dr. Evans has been an educator and health educator for ten years, teaching courses focused on health education and promotion concepts. Her ongoing research interests include human sexuality, sexual violence, and health inequities. She has conducted qualitative research examining public perceptions via Twitter of prominent sexual violence cases and quantitative analysis investigating college students’ hookup behaviors and condom negotiation and coercion strategies. Dr. Evans’ current research projects include examining condom and emergency contraception availability and accessibility and stealthing (non-consensual condom removal) behaviors.
Further information: https://bouve.northeastern.edu/directory/jennifer-evans/
Stephen Intille, PhD (He/Him)
Professor, Department of Public Health and Health Sciences
Bouvé College of Health Sciences and Khoury College of Computer Sciences
Dr. Intille’s research focuses on the development and evaluation of personal, behavioral health informatics – how sensor data acquired throughout everyday life from smartwatches, smartphones, wearable monitors, and in-home sensors might be used to improve wellness via novel human-computer interfaces. This research involves merging ideas from the computer science subfields of human-computer interaction and applied machine learning and artificial intelligence with ideas from behavioral science, social psychology, and preventive medicine. Overall, Dr. Intille’s research group develops and evaluates novel sensor-based tools that can be used to both measure and motivate behavior change. He has been principal investigator on sensor-enabled health technology grants from the NSF, the NIH, foundations, and industry. He directs Northeastern’s Ph.D. program in Personal Health Informatics.
Further information: https://www.khoury.northeastern.edu/people/stephen-intille/
Susanne Jaeggi, PhD (She/Her)
Professor, Department of Psychology
College of Science, Bouvé College of Health Sciences, and College of Arts, Media, and Design
Susanne M. Jaeggi’s research program focuses on understanding individual differences in working memory, executive functions, and related cognitive domains, as well as their malleability across the lifespan using experimental and neuroscientific approaches. Because of the relevance of those cognitive domains in educational settings and daily life, her major work has focused on the development of assessments and interventions, and the extent to which working memory and executive functions can be improved with both, experience and targeted training. She is particularly interested in understanding the underlying mechanisms of learning and cognitive training, and determining for what individuals and populations cognitive training is most effective and why. She received PhDs in Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience, as well as a ‘Habilitation’ degree in Psychology from the University of Bern in Switzerland, and she conducted postdoctoral work in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Michigan.
Further information: https://cos.northeastern.edu/people/susanne-jaeggi/
Winston Kennedy, PhD, MPH, DPT (He/Him)
Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Therapy, Human Movement, and Rehabilitation Sciences
Bouvé College of Health Sciences
Dr. Kennedy is committed to conducting research that supports the health and well-being of people with disabilities within their intersecting identities. He is currently investigating how physical activity interventions accommodate youth with psychiatric and intellectual developmental disabilities. Dr. Kennedy is also interested in understanding, and ultimately influencing, healthcare professional curricula in order to train health professionals to work with and better support people with disabilities. Dr. Kennedy is currently an assistant professor at Northeastern and has been a physical therapist since 2015. Along with his DPT, he has a master’s degree in public health and a PhD in Kinesiology with a concentration in adapted physical activity.
Further information: https://bouve.northeastern.edu/directory/winston-kennedy/
Varun Mishra, Ph.D. (He/Him)
Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health and Health Sciences
Bouvé College of Health Sciences and Khoury College of Computer Sciences
Mishra leverages ubiquitous technologies like smartphones and wearables to enable effective digital interventions for mental and behavioral health. His research in the broad field of ubiquitous computing lies at the intersection of mobile and wearable sensing, human-centered computing, data science, and behavioral science. His work is highly interdisciplinary, and he regularly collaborates with clinicians, psychologists, engineers, and other computer scientists to design, build, and deploy tools and systems. Before joining Northeastern, Mishra worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health in the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College.
Further information: https://www.khoury.northeastern.edu/people/varun-mishra/
Aaron Seitz, PhD (He/Him)
Professor, Department of Physical Therapy, Human Movement, and Rehabilitation Sciences
Bouvé College of Health Sciences and Center for Cognitive and Brain Health
Prior to Northeastern, he was a Professor at University of California, Riverside, where he was the director of the Brain Game Center for Mental Fitness and Well-being. Seitz’s research program aims to understand mechanisms of cognitive processes and to apply this knowledge for public benefit. His research has led to new insights regarding the roles of reinforcement, attention, multisensory interactions, and different brain systems in learning, computational approaches to learning, translational neuroscience and perceptual/cognitive enhancement, among others. He utilizes psychophysical, physiological, imaging, pharmacological, genetic, and computational methods to study cognitively diverse populations, ranging from individuals with cognitive deficits (due to disease, injury, or development) to neurotypical individuals, to specialists (e.g., radiologists, athletes).
Further information: https://bouve.northeastern.edu/directory/aaron-seitz/
Ashleigh Shields, Ph.D., MPH (She/Her)
Assistant Teaching Professor, Department of Public Health and Health Sciences
Bouvé College of Health Sciences and College of Arts, Media, and Design
Dr. Shields has a Ph.D. in health communication and her MPH from Purdue University, focusing on family and community health. As a researcher, she aims to explore how social interactions (i.e., through listening and disclosure) affect how individuals perceive and value themselves and how social interactions can help prevent or aid in recovery from stigmatized health topics. She is also interested in education evaluation of stigmatized health topics. Dr. Shields also aims to implement what she has learned through her research and teaching to those within her community. The main courses Dr. Shields teaches consist of Interpersonal and Health Communication within the Department of Communication Studies, and Communication Skills for the Health Professions in the Department of Health Sciences.
Further information: https://camd.northeastern.edu/people/ashleigh-shields/