Team | SSRI/CTSI Advisory | Student Interns

Team

  • Jessica Sperling

    Jessica Sperling

    Director, Office of Evaluation and Applied Research Partnership
    (Director, AREE, SSRI; Director, Evaluation & Strategic Planning, CTSI)

    Jessica Sperling, Ph.D. serves as the Director of the Applied Research, Evaluation, & Engagement team based in Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) and Director, Evaluation & Strategic Planning in the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), and she additionally teaches in the Sanford School of Public Policy. She is centrally committed to utilizing research and evaluation processes to inform strategic initiative development and to inform iterative decision-making. Her work utilizes mixed methods to understand the interplay between individual experience and complex institutions and interventions. She collaborates with community-based, university, and health system initiatives with a focus on education and learning, health and healthcare, inequality, and pilot / innovation programming. She has taught evaluation and applied/community-engaged research methods and at the undergraduate and graduate level, as well as in leadership and organizational development programming serving non-profit and healthcare sectors.

  • Perusi Benson

    Perusi B. Muhigaba

    Project Manager & Research Analyst
    Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute

    Perusi Benson is a project manager & research analyst for the Evaluation and Strategic Planning team in the Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute. They are also a doctoral candidate in the Applied Social Psychology program at North Carolina State University. They have a background in health and health care disparities research and are committed to applying an intersectional and equity-focused lens to evaluation, research, and practice to their work.

  • Adrian Brown

    Adrian Brown

    Research Analyst
    Applied Research, Evaluation & Engagement, Social Science Research Institute

    Adrian Brown, Ph.D. serves as a research analyst for the Applied Research and Evaluation group at the Social Science Research Institute. She provides mixed-methods expertise with a focus on program evaluation. Her work has focused on public management and policy, education, digital equity, and healthcare to support critical decision-making and stakeholder experiences across varied organizational contexts.

  • Erin Haseley

    Erin Haseley

    Research Analyst
    Applied Research, Evaluation & Engagement, Social Science Research Institute

    Erin Haseley, M.A. is a Research Analyst for the Applied Research and Evaluation group at Duke’s Social Science Research Institute. She is passionate about collaborative and utility-focused research and evaluation with a primary focus on qualitative data. She has experience working with foundations, nonprofits, community groups, and public school system.


  • Elena Johanson

    Evaluation and Applied Research Associate
    Applied Research, Evaluation & Engagement, Social Science Research Institute

    Elena Johanson, M.Sc. is an Evaluation and Applied Research Associate with the Applied Research, Evaluation, and Engagement group at Duke University’s Social Science Research Institute. Elena is a mixed-methods researcher experienced in data collection, management, and analysis with a topical focus on healthcare access in the United States. She also has organizational expertise in community engagement with work focusing on gender and racial equity.

  • Vicki Lee

    Vicki Lee

    Research Associate
    Applied Research, Evaluation & Engagement, Social Science Research Institute

    Vicki Lee, Ph.D., serves as a Research Associate in the Applied Research, Evaluation & Engagement area of Duke University’s Social Science Research Institute. She plays a central role in the day-to-day aspects of research, utilizing her expertise in data collection, data management, quantitative analysis, documentation, and dissemination of results. She has partnered with individuals across multiple departments at Duke, to work on projects centered around executive function, social emotional learning, education, social cognition, and economic decision-making.


  • Marissa Personette

    Evaluation and Applied Research Associate
    Applied Research, Evaluation & Engagement, Social Science Research Institute

    Marissa Personette, Ph.D. is an Evaluation and Applied Research Associate for the Applied Research and Evaluation group at the Social Science Research Institute. She is a mixed-method researcher with an emphasis on evaluation designed to create data-driven, structural impact. Marissa’s work has focused on promoting gender and racial equity across a variety of institutional and organizational contexts.

  • Doreet Preiss

    Doreet Preiss

    Research Associate
    Applied Research, Evaluation & Engagement, Social Science Research Institute

    Doreet Preiss, Ph.D., is a Research Associate with the Applied Research and Evaluation group at Duke University’s Social Science Research Institute. At Duke, her work has focused on educational evaluation, with a particular emphasis on quantitative analyses of educational interventions using large scale administrative datasets. She has also collaborated on qualitative and mixed-methods analyses in both education and healthcare delivery. As a sociologist, she has a particular interest in evaluation and support of programs aimed at reducing educational and healthcare inequities.

  • Stella Quenstedt

    Stella Quenstedt

    Project Manager & Research Analyst
    Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute 

    Stella Quenstedt serves as a Program Manager and Research Analyst on the Evaluation and Strategic Planning team housed in the Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI). As an evaluator, Stella was trained in and to utilize culturally appropriate evaluation, using mixed-methods approaches as well as transforming data into visualized stories and easy to read reports. At Duke, Stella is responsible for managing TSBM focused case studies and developing and refining continuous improvement processes including implementing of the Translation Research Accomplishments Cataloger (TRACER) and the IMPROVES quarterly update.

  • Noelle Wyman Roth

    Noelle Wyman Roth

    Assistant Director
    Applied Research, Evaluation & Engagement, Social Science Research Institute

    Noelle Wyman Roth, MEM, is the Assistant Director of the Applied Research, Evaluation, and Engagement group at Duke University’s Social Science Research Institute. Noelle is a mixed methods evaluator with particular competencies in qualitative research methods. Her work with Duke has included implementing evaluation with a variety of partners, which have spanned diverse content areas, including education, health systems, public policy, and equity.

  • Lorrie Schmid

    Lorrie Schmid

    Data and Analytics Lead
    Applied Research, Evaluation & Engagement, Social Science Research Institute

    Lorrie Schmid, Ph.D. serves as research methodologist and analyst for Social Science Research Institute (SSRI). Her work focuses on data management and statistical analysis which includes: data documentation, merging and linking disparate data sources, utilizing administrative records, and sensitive as well as statistical data analysis focusing on descriptive and inferential statistics, latent modeling processes for creating sub groupings, utilizing mediation and moderation in determining for whom interventions and implementations work and do not work.

  • Duke Icon

    Whitney Welsh

    Research Scientist
    Applied Research, Evaluation & Engagement, Social Science Research Institute

    Whitney Welsh, Ph.D., is a Research Scientist at the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) at Duke, and a sociologist by trade. Her research focuses primarily on inequality and social demography, social capital and social networks, comparative/historical sociology, and increasingly, how those areas interact with health-related topics. She specializes in qualitative methods.

SSRI/CTSI Advisory


  • Susanna Naggie

    Interim Director
    Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute (Advising capacity)

    Dr. Susanna Naggie completed her medical education at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and her internal medicine training at Duke University Medical Center (DUMC), where she also served as a Chief Resident in Internal Medicine.  She completed her Infectious Diseases (ID) fellowship training at Duke and then joined the faculty in the Division of ID. She is an Associate Professor of Medicine with Tenure and currently holds joint appointments at the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI, Director of ID Research), and at the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center (DVAMC). Dr. Naggie has dedicated her academic career to the care of patients with HIV and viral hepatitis, with a research program focused on understanding the mechanisms of accelerated liver fibrogenesis in this population and the extrahepatic health outcomes attributed to HCV in persons with HIV infection. In addition to her investigator-initiated research program, Dr. Naggie is also involved in multiple clinical trials and clinical registries with a particular focus on HIV and liver disease. She is the prior co-Chair of the AASLD/IDSA HCV Guidance Committee and is currently Chair of the AIDS Clinical Trials Group Viral Hepatitis Transformative Science Group Committee and a member of the DHHS Guidelines for the Use of Antiretroviral Agents in Adults and Adolescents Living with HIV and the CDC/NIH/IDSA-HIVMA Opportunistic Infections Guideline Committee. For the past two years Dr. Naggie has served as the Medical Director of the Duke Department of Medicine Clinical Research Unit.

  • Joe McClernon

    Joe McClernon

    Faculty Director, Integration and Strategic Partnerships
    Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute (Advising capacity)

    Joe McClernon, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Founder/Director of the Center for Addiction Science and Technology (CfAST), and Director of Evaluation and Strategic Planning in the Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI). McClernon’s research is focused on increasing our understanding of tobacco and other addictions, developing new and more effective interventions to treat substance abuse, and informing the FDA’s regulation of tobacco products.

  • Don Taylor

    Don Taylor

    Director, Social Science Research Institute (Advising capacity)

    Don Taylor is is an associate professor of Public Policy and Director of the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) at Duke University. He has published numerous peer review articles and co-authored two books. His papers have appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, BMJ, Health Affairs, The Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, and Social Science and Medicine. Most of his ongoing research is in the area of end of life policy with a focus on patient decision making and Medicare hospice policy.

  • Diane Uzarski

    Diane Uzarski

    Sr. Staff Director, Integration and Strategic Partnerships
    Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute (Advising capacity)

    Dr. Uzarski serves as the Senior Staff Director of Strategy and Planning for the Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute. She provides programmatic and administrative leadership of the Integration and Strategic Partnerships pillar, including development and implementation of the strategic plan. Dr. Uzarski is responsible for creating, growing and sustaining cross-disciplinary collaboration, integrating priorities across CTSI pillars, and measuring success of CTSI activities.

Student Interns

  • Anya Chabria

    Anya Chabria

    Undergraduate Intern
    Applied Research, Evaluation & Engagement, Social Science Research Institute

    Anya is an intern at the Social Science Research Institute with Applied Research, Evaluation and Engagement Group. She is contributing to the State of the South project in partnership with MDC. Anya is a sophomore at Duke University, intending to double-major in Statistical Science and Political Science.

  • Zach Stamper

    Zack Stamper

    Graduate Intern
    Applied Research, Evaluation & Engagement, Social Science Research Institute

    Zach Stamper is a Master of Public Policy candidate at Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy and a graduate research assistant for the Applied Research, Evaluation & Engagement group in Duke’s Social Science Research Institute. He also holds an MA in demographic and social analysis. Social science research is his passion, and social policy & program evaluation, particularly equity assessment, is the context.


  • Ruixi Yu

    Graduate Intern
    Applied Research, Evaluation & Engagement, Social Science Research Institute

    Ruixi Yu is a first-year master’s student in economics. As a research assistant, Ruixi participates in a community-partnered project and focuses on examining, visualizing, and interrogating data related to social and economic inequality.