Our Team
Executive Director
Tonda L. Hughes, PhD, RN, FAAN
- Henrik H. Bendixen Professor of International Nursing (in Psychiatry)
Research Areas of Focus: sexual minority women’s health, alcohol use/abuse, violence and victimization
Co-Director
Walter Bockting, PhD, LP
- Professor of Medical Psychology (in Psychiatry and Nursing)
Research Areas of Focus: identity development across the lifespan, transgender health, SGM aging
Core CUSON Faculty
Billy Caceres, PhD, MSN, RN
- Assistant Professor of Nursing
Research Areas of Focus: psychosocial risk factors for cardiovascular disease in SGM populations across the lifespan
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Kasey B Jackman, PhD, MPhil, MS, BS, BA, PMHNP-BC
- Assistant Professor of Nursing at CUMC
Research Areas of Focus: Prevention and Treatment of Mental Health Disparities Among SGM People
Ronica Mukerjee, DNP, MsA, FNP-BC, PMHNP-BC, LAc
- Assistant Professor of Nursing at CUMC
Research and Clinical Areas of Focus: border-police-prison abolition; racial, economic, and health care justice in LGBTQIA+, refugee, and migrant communities, for people with substance use disorders, and for people living with HIV.
Jean-Marie Bruzzese, PhD
- Professor of Applied Developmental Psychology (in Nursing)
Research Areas of Focus: understanding and reducing health disparities in children and adolescents
Maureen George, PhD, AE-C, RN, FAAN
- Professor of Nursing at CUMC
Research Areas of Focus: community-based participatory research, health inequities, health beliefs, behavioral interventions
Corina Lelutiu-Weinberger, PhD, MPhil, BA
- Associate Professor of Health Sciences Research (in Nursing)
Research Areas of Focus: racial, ethnic, sexual and gender minority health equity; stigma and discrimination; mental health; substance and alcohol use; HIV/AIDS continuum of prevention and care; global health; multi-level intervention research; mobile health technologies; implementation science
![Profile Headshot]( "Corina Lelutiu-Weinberger, PhD, MPhil, BA")
Phoenix A Matthews, PhD, MS, BS, LCP
- Professor of Behavioral Sciences (in Nursing)
Research Areas of Focus: health inequities, cancer prevention and control, tobacco cessation, sexual and gender minority health, racial and ethnic minorities, culturally targeted health promotion interventions
Core CUMC Affiliates
Jeremy D. Kidd, MD, MPH
- Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry
Research Areas of Focus: clinical research, culturally adapted psychosocial interventions, alcohol use, opioid use, transgender health, medical education
Patrick J. Lao, PhD
- Assistant Professor of Neurological Sciences (in Neurology and in the Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center)
Research Areas of Focus: neuroimaging and biofluid biomarkers, ontextual factors that capture relevant mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease in underrepresented and underserved groups
Jessie Ford, PhD
- Assistant Professor of Sociomedical Sciences
Research Areas of Focus: influences of expectations and inequalities around gender and sexuality on sexual health, violence, and pleasure
Fellows
Lauren Bochicchio, PhD, MSW
- Postdoctoral Research Scientist
- Postdoctoral Fellow
Research Areas of Focus: mechanisms linking childhood sexual abuse and hazardous drinking among sexual minority women
Tyler Gaedecke, BSN, RN
- PhD Candidate
- Predoctoral Fellow
Research Areas of Focus: Access to care and healthcare teams for transgender and gender-diverse individuals, care delivery after gender-affirming surgery, mixed-methods research, social network analysis
David Lopez Veneros, MA, BSN, RN
- PhD Candidate
- Predoctoral Fellow
Research Areas of Focus: Mindfulness and mind-body connection, stress management, physical activity, cardiovascular health, and health disparities among sexual and gender minority populations
Susan Maloney, BSN, RN
- PhD Student
- Predoctoral Fellow
Research Areas of Focus: Transgender and gender diverse adolescent sexual health as it relates to policy at the school-, district-, and state-levels; gender diverse populations, pediatrics, sexuality and gender, and an intersectional approach to public policy
Sophia Kalomeris, BSN, RN
- PhD Student
- Predoctoral Fellow
Research Areas of Focus: sexual minority women, improving sexual health outcomes by mitigating barriers to care, STD/STI status
Staff
Lizzie Chadbourne, MPH
- Project Manager
Former Pre and Postdoctoral Fellows
Cindy Veldhuis, PhD
- Former Postdoctoral Fellow
Research Areas of Focus: Role of intimate relationships in sexual minority women's alcohol use
Current position: Assistant Professor, Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing, Department of Medical Social Sciences, Northwestern University
April Ancheta, PhD, RN
- Former Predoctoral Fellow
Research Areas of Focus: SGM adolescent health, bullying and obesity-related health disparaties
Current position: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, National Clinician Scholars Program at Penn and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute
Kodiak Soled, PhD, MSN, RN
- Former Predoctoral Fellow
Research Areas of Focus: Social support experiences among SGM+ childbearing individuals
Current position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard Medical School Department of Population Medicine
Joseph Belloir, PhD, MSN, RN, PMHNP-BC
- Former Predoctoral Fellow
Research Areas of Focus: SGM mental health, relationship between traumatic/adverse experiences and sleep disturbances in transgender and nonbinary individuals
Current position: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Columbia University School of Nursing
Yashika Sharma, PhD, RN
- Former Predoctoral Fellow
Research Areas of Focus: Impact of minority stress on substance use and mental health of SGM people
Current position: Postdoctoral Research Scientist, Columbia University School of Nursing
Sarah Zollweg, PhD, RN
- Former Predoctoral Fellow
Research Areas of Focus: Structural influences on sexual minority women’s substance use and mental health
Current position: Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the National Clinician Scholars Program (NCSP), David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA
Sarah Leonard, PhD, MSN, RN
- Former Predoctoral Fellow
Research Area of Focus: Intersectional discrimination as an underlying cause of SGM mental health disparities
Current position: T32 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Population Health Science Scholars Program, NYU Grossman School of Medicine