Waridibo (Wari) Allison MD, PhD, FACP, CPE, FIDSA
Principal Investigator/ Program Director
Dr. Waridibo Allison is Vice President of Health Policy at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth (HSC) and Executive Director of their Center for Health Policy. She directs the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) funded National Rural Telementoring Training Center. Dr. Allison is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Disease with a PhD in Public Health and Community Medicine. Broadly, her work encompasses access to health care and work force development and support for underserved populations. Her work has received consistent federal funding for several years and she is Principal Investigator and Clinical Director of the HSC South Central AIDS Education Training Center and directs the Integration of the National HIV Curriculum e-learning Platform into Health Care Professions Programs project.
Jim Bridges, BS
Database Manager
Mr. Bridges supports all aspects of data management for the RTTC including REDCap database building. He has worked in data management for over 36 years. Previously at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute, Mr. Bridges helped develop PEDSYS a pedigree-based database. He built and maintained several data files for pedigree information retrieval and analysis. He also coordinated data from several different laboratories and institutions for large program projects. Within the RTTC, Mr. Bridges builds and manages several REDCap databases. Mr. Bridges has also been involved in innovative ways of utilizing REDCap for the UT Health San Antonio ECHO program and the TACKLE HIV/HCV program.
Erin Finley, PhD, MPH
Implementation Science Co-Investigator
Dr. Finley is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at UT Health San Antonio, and a Research Investigator with the Center for the Study of Implementation, Innovation, and Policy (CSHIIPP) at the Greater Los Angeles Veterans Healthcare System. Dr. Finley is a medical anthropologist, health services researcher and implementation scientist with expertise in mixed methodology, evaluation, and the implementation of evidence-based practices in inpatient and outpatient settings. She contributes D&I methodological expertise to the RTTC and guides its implementation evaluation efforts.
Krystle Gabele, MA
Senior Communications Specialist
Krystle Gabele is a Senior Communications Specialist who supports and assists in the communications efforts for the Rural Telementoring Training Center (RTTC). She also serves in the same capacity with other projects headed by the Center for Health Policy at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. She brings extensive experience in marketing and communications with a focus on web content strategy and management. Ms. Gabele graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Work from McDaniel College and a Master of Arts degree in Strategic Communications and Digital Strategy from the University of Oklahoma.
Sean Hubbard, PhD
Policy and Dissemination Co-Lead
Dr. Hubbard is an Assistant Professor with the Center for Health Policy and the Department of Health Administration and Health Policy. He holds a doctorate in Public Policy and Political Economy from the University of Texas at Dallas. Driven by his belief that health insurance coverage does not equate to access, Dr. Hubbard’s research focuses on healthcare-related financial decisions made by economically vulnerable households. He seeks to use his research to remove financial barriers to healthcare and improve patients’ ability to navigate complex healthcare systems. Dr. Hubbard’s recent work examines medical debt and cost avoidance among American Indians and Alaskan Natives, as well as the role of financial knowledge in healthcare-related financial decisions.
Keito Kawasaki, MPH
Research Associate
Ms. Kawasaki supports all components of the RTTC including administration and communication, training and technical assistance, evaluation and policy and dissemination. She supports program data collection and analysis of its implementation and communication activities as well as contributing to scholarly output. She graduated from Tulane University School of Public Health with an MPH, with a focus on global health. Her research interests include HIV, hepatitis C, social determinants of health, health systems strengthening, health program management, and program monitoring and evaluation. Prior to coming to the United States, she lived in Japan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan. She embraces diversity and as a RTTC team member, she is eager to contribute to improving access to quality healthcare for all who need it regardless of their race, ethnicity, age, gender, and socio-economic status.
Sarah Lill, MA
Business Operations Lead
Ms. Lill oversees the business and administrative operations of the RTTC. She holds a BA in Communication Studies from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College and an MA in Arts Management from George Mason University. Ms. Lill has provided overall management and oversight of financial and administrative operations of the Center for Research to Advance Community Health (ReACH) at UT Health San Antonio since 2016 and has over a decade of experience in financial and budgetary management, strategic management, entrepreneurship, and public relations in non-profit and higher education settings
Charles Mathias, PhD
Policy Co-Investigator
Dr. Mathias is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at UT Health San Antonio. His research focuses on improving health outcomes stemming from behavioral health risk and its interaction with community systems. His policy work applies a Culture of Health Framework in promoting solutions for population well-being through cross-sector collaboration. He is an alumnus of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellowship, Dr. Mathias guides RTTC activities related to strategic communication and health policy.
Maya McMillian, MEd
Senior Communications Specialist
Maya McMillian serves as a Senior Communications Specialist for the Center for Health Policy in the Division of Research and Innovation. She earned her Master of Education in Higher Education from UNT along with her Bachelor of Arts in Communications from The University of Texas at San Antonio. She’s accumulated years of relevant experience in communications and marketing at the higher education, agency, and corporate levels with project management experience in recent years. Maya has a passion for creativity, community outreach and fostering connections all of which she brings to her current role.
Trisha Melhado, MPH
Evaluation Staff Lead
Ms. Melhado leads evaluation efforts across the RTTC, including the development of telementoring quality measures, an evaluation toolkit, and dissemination of program findings. As a Senior Research Scientist, she brings experience in various research roles, where she provides research guidance to faculty and residents on all aspects of the research process with an emphasis on study methodology and statistical analysis. She has collaborated with faculty from multiple institutions to implement multi-year grant funded projects and has worked on CPRIT, DOD, and HRSA funded grants as well as provided analytical and statistical expertise to projects. She has presented research at local and national conferences in addition to co-authoring several publications based on her analytical contributions.
Jason Rosenfeld, DrPH, MPH
CHC Co-Investigator
Dr. Rosenfeld is an Assistant Professor of Medicine/Research and the Assistant Director of Global Health Education for the Center for Medical Humanities at UT Health San Antonio’s Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine. He has dedicated his career to empowering under-resourced communities around the world with the knowledge, skills, and social support to address health disparities and inequities using Community-Based Participatory Research approaches. Dr. Rosenfeld has 20 years of experience collaborating with community health workers in Africa, the Caribbean and South Texas to implement and evaluate community-based health promotion programs that focus on water, sanitation and hygiene, reproductive and sexual health, nutrition and physical activity, and infectious disease prevention. For the RTTC, Dr. Rosenfield guides the adaptation of the Community Health Club (CHC) telementoring model into an all-virtual format designed to educate and empower rural health workers.
Blake Ross, MPH
Research Assistant
Blake Ross is a Research Assistant at the University of North Texas Health Science Center, Department of Research and Innovation, Center for Health Policy. He earned his Masters of Public Health in Epidemiology from UNTHSC. As a part of his MPH practicum, Mr. Ross spent time working with urban farming projects and discount food events in Southeast Fort Worth and gathered extensive data on the food inventory of vendors across Tarrant County. From these experiences, his professional desire is to contribute to innovative and multifaceted approaches to building healthier and more resilient communities.
Suyen Schneegans, MA
TTA Staff Lead
Suyen Schneegans is a Research Scientist for the Rural Telementoring Training Center at the Research to Advance Community Health at UT Health San Antonio. Suyen has been with UT Health San Antonio since 2004. She has a MA from the University of Texas at San Antonio in Bicultural Bilingual Studies with a concentration in Cultural Studies and is a graduate of the University of the Incarnate Word with a BA in Spanish, Literature and Language and a minor is Psychology. Ms. Schneegans has worked on various social science projects pertaining to substance use disorders, community health, and screening, brief intervention, referral to treatment (SBIRT). She is also a qualitative researcher and has presented at numerous local and national conferences and co-authored several publications.