Our Team

Founder and Principal Investigator

Diana Hernández, PhD

Diana Hernández, PhD is a tenured Associate Professor of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Dr. Hernández conducts research at the intersection of energy, equity, housing and health. A sociologist by training, her work focuses on the social and environmental determinants of health and examines the impacts of policy and place-based interventions on the health and well-being of socioeconomically disadvantaged populations.

Project Coordinator

Farzana Y. Khan, MPH

Farzana Y. Khan, MPH is currently a Project Coordinator II in the E2H2 Program. She provides day-to-day assistance with a currently underway randomized control trial to identify strategies to increase compliance to a smoke-free mandate in all U.S. public housing. She previously received her undergraduate and Master of Public Health training from the University of Pennsylvania and is interested in mixed methods public health research.

Associate Research Scientist

Qian Li, PhD

Qian Li, PhD is currently an Associate Research Scientist in the E2H2 Program. Dr. Li will be contributing her 15+ years of experience to the data management and analysis for an ongoing randomized control trial to identify strategies to increase compliance to a smoke-free mandate in all U.S. public housing. She earned a Ph.D. in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University Science and Technology, and completed a post-doctoral training in cancer epidemiology and biostatistics at the International Agency Research on Cancer, World Health Organization. She is interested in research study design and data analysis.

Associate Research Scientist

Yutong Si, PhD

Yutong Si, PhD is an Associate Research Scientist in the Energy, Equity, Housing and Health (E2H2) Program in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Yutong is also affiliated with the Energy Opportunity Lab (EOL) in the Center on Global Energy Policy at the School of International and Public Affairs. She works under the supervision of Dr. Diana Hernández across both E2H2 and EOL. Yutong is also a member of the Climate Social Science Network.

Yutong received her PhD in Public Policy from Northeastern University (Boston) in 2024. Her research expertise centers on the topics of energy justice, climate communication, social media, computational methods, and social network analysis (SNA). Methodologically, she applies computational text analysis, qualitative methods, and SNA to analyze textual data and social network data. Substantively, her research addresses pressing research questions at the intersection of energy transitions and social justice. Yutong is passionate about leveraging different data sources to understand how to design and implement climate and energy policy that can promote renewable energy deployment, phase out fossil fuels, and advance energy justice. More information can be found on her personal website.

2023-2024 Research Assistants

MASTERS STUDENTS

  • Cabrini Austin, MSPH Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Research Assistant
  • Michelle Dandeneau, MSPH Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Research Assistant
  • Paola Jimenez, MSPH Department of Health Promotion Research and Practice, Research Assistant
  • Dan Usami, MPH Department of Health Policy Management
  • Kendra Hall, MSW School of Social Work, School of Social Work
  • Tharina Messoux, MSPH Department of Biostatistics, Practicum Advisee
  • Andrew Kim, MPH Department of Epidemiology, Research Assistant
  • Drew O’Neil, MPH Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Research Assistant
  • Emily

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

  • Alannis Jaquez, Columbia College, Research Assistant
  • Jada Tulloch, Columbia College, Research Assistant
  • Adam Kinder, Columbia College, Research Assistant
  • Esperanza Guizar, Columbia College, Research Assistant
  • Monisha Gunasekera, Columbia College, Research Assistant
  • Kimiko Reed, Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science
  • Josue Sierra, Columbia College, Research Assistant

VISITING STUDENTS/POST. BACC. RESEARCH ASSISTANTS

  • Daritza De Los Santos, PhD Candidate at University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • Yael Nidam, PhD Candidate at University of California, Berkeley
  • Jordyn Birmingham, Undergraduate student at Bowdoin College
  • Shane Araujo, Graduate of Bowdoin College