Nancy Barnett is the Principal Investigator of the ’21 Rising research study, which means that she is responsible for making sure the investigation is completed as planned. Dr. Barnett is a Professor in the Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences, which is in the School of Public Health. Her office, and all the offices of the research team, are in the “Hemenway’s Building” at 121 South Main Street.
Dr. Barnett has been working at Brown since before students in the Brown class of 2021 were born! Both of her parents and one of her sisters are Brown alums. Her primary research interest is helping teenagers and young adults stay out of trouble with drugs and alcohol. She is particularly interested in using technologies like computers, smartphones, and wearable sensors to study behavior and develop interventions that improve health. When she isn’t hanging out with her own teenagers she loves to bike, play with her Boston Terrier, and work on her house.
Kelli Birch is a senior research assistant on the project. She received her undergraduate degree in Psychology and Anthropology from the University of Rhode Island, as well as her Master’s degree in Anthropology from the University of Montana. Her thesis work focused on dietary supplement consumption and recreational drug use among college students.
Kelli enjoys spending time outdoors and can often be found hiking with her Aussiedoodle puppy, Gordo, skiing in the mountains or working in her garden. She also enjoys reading and traveling to new places.
Melissa Clark is a co-investigator working on the project. She is Professor of Health Services Policy & Practice in the School of Public Health and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the Alpert Medical School. She is also Director of the School of Public Health Survey Research Center. Her research interests are in survey methods and data collection strategies. She teaches Introduction to Public Health at the undergraduate level and Survey Research Methods at the graduate level. In her free time, Dr. Clark likes to garden, ride her bike, hike and canoe. She also likes to watch and play just about any sport with a racket and a ball.
Michelle Haikalis is a postdoctoral fellow working on the project. She received her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her research focuses on understanding risk factors for alcohol-related sexual violence and examining the role of bystanders in preventing sexual violence and hazardous drinking. She is also interested in developing and evaluating interventions that promote bystander helping.
Michelle Loxley is ’21 Rising’s web programmer and data manager. Since 2005, Michelle has worked on a variety of public health research studies at Brown, including some of Dr. Barnett’s previous studies of college students. When she’s not in front of a computer, Michelle enjoys spending time with her family, being outdoors, and taking too many pictures of her kids and pets.
Matthew Meisel is an Assistant Professor working on the project. He received his PhD from the University of Georgia, where he researched social networks and addiction, specifically gambling and co-occurring addictive behavior. His research examines how the compositional and structural aspects of an individual’s social network is related to addictive behavior.
Matthew loves to watch and play sports, specifically football, basketball, sand volleyball, and soccer. In his free time, he likes to go to the beach, travel, and workout.
Miles Ott is the lead statistician on the ’21 Rising study, a Biostatistician, and an Assistant Professor of Statistics and Data Science at Smith College in Northampton Massachusetts. He is an alum of the Brown Biostatisitics PhD program. Miles enjoys working with data and using statistical methods to gain insights in health promotion, improve health, and uncover injustices. In his free time, Miles likes to take his Boston terrier Porkchop for walks, make pasta from scratch, and ceramics.
Michelle Rogers is an analyst working on the project. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences in the School of Public Health, and is an alum of Brown’s Sociology PhD program. Her research interests are mostly focused on child and adolescent health and well-being. When not working, Dr. Rogers is often found playing board games with her family, knitting, or curled up with a good book.
Eric Tesdahl is an applied statistician working on the project. He received his PhD from Vanderbilt University where he focused on questions at the intersection of social networks and health. Within the ‘21 Rising project, he uses statistical modeling techniques to better understand how people make choices about their social networks, and how network ties influence decision making.
When he’s not working on ’21 Rising, Eric is the Data Science Program Manager at SpecialtyCare, a healthcare company in Nashville that works in hospitals across the US to make heart, spine, and neuro surgery safer. Away from work, Eric enjoys spending time with his family, swimming, and playing fingerstyle guitar.