Meet Our Team!
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Principle Investigator
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Cara M. Murphy, Ph.D.
Principle Investigator
Cara Murphy is an Assistant Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology (2015) from the University of Georgia. She completed a clinical psychology residency at the Alpert Medical School at Brown University and a National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) T32 postdoctoral research fellowship focused on Substance Abuse Intervention Outcome Research at the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies (CAAS) in the School of Public Health. Dr. Murphy was awarded a K23 career development award from NIDA to develop and pilot a multiple health behavior change intervention. This intervention aims to help individuals who smoke cigarettes are and overweight or obese make changes in diet, physical activity, and smoking. Dr. Murphy has joined the faculty at CAAS to conduct her research and to receive continued training in qualitative methods, treatment development, conducting clinical trials, and advanced data analysis.
Senior Research Assistant
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Katie Good
Senior Research Assistant
Katie is a Senior Research Assistant working on the team. She graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.S. in Biopsychology, Cognition, and Neuroscience. Katie is from Cincinnati, OH and enjoys kickboxing, reading, and cooking in her free time.
Research Assistants
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Amaya Allen
Research Assistant
Amaya is an undergraduate student from New Jersey studying Economics on the Public Policy track at Brown University. In her free time, she enjoys working out, reading young adult and literary fiction novels, and learning more about health and health equity.
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Jerry Quan
Research Assistant
Jerry is an undergraduate student at Brown and is concentrating in Computer Science. Outside of work, Jerry enjoys baking, drinking tea, and squirrel-watching
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Shukria Sakhi
Research Assistant
Shukria is an undergraduate student at Brown University, concentrating in Public Health with a Certificate in Data Fluency. Outside of work, she enjoys going for walks, cooking, drinking tea, and spending time with friends.
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Cameron Cooper
Research Assistant
Cameron is a Master of Public Health student at Brown University, studying Health Policy and Services. He recently graduated from Morehouse College with a degree in biology. A fun fact about him is that he loves swimming, and even became a lifeguard while recovering from a broken leg!
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Leah Koritz
Research Assistant
Leah is an undergraduate student from Massachusetts studying Public Health and Judaic Studies at Brown University. In her free time, Leah enjoys writing, hiking, reading, and playing with her dog, Boba.
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Libby Dakers
Research Assistant
Libby is an undergraduate student from Southern Maine studying Health and Human Biology at Brown University. She enjoys taking walks, beading jewelry, and writing poetry in her free time.
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Chína Emekanwokeji
Research Assistant
Chína is a junior at Brown University, double-concentrating in Health & Human Biology and Public Health. She is originally from Boston and has been tutoring students of various grade levels for almost five years, and loves it! In her free time, she loves the arts, whether it’s writing, drawing, or music, she enjoys expressing creativity in all forms!
Nurse Practitioners
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Carline L. Fleig, MSN ANP-C
Research Nurse Practitioner
Carline is the CADRE/COBRE Research Nurse Practitioner as well as the Clinical Laboratory Research Manager. She provides clinical support to all active randomized clinical trials. A graduate of Boston College, she came to CAAS in 2019 with extensive career experience in critical care, cardiology, diabetes management and women’s’ health in the settings of acute care, primary care and college health. Her project involvement includes protocol development, performing eligibility physical exams, administration of psychiatric assessments, monitoring vital signs as well as identifying behavioral changes during study lab sessions and monitoring for adverse events for both in-person and remote study sessions. She is also responsible for starting intravenous access when necessary to draw blood samples for in-person sessions. She is involved in numerous studies for the CADRE/COBRE which looks at how substance use impacts disease. In her free time, she loves to spend time outdoors with her friends and family. She is a proud Navy Mom. She loves to write, hike, travel and go sailing whenever she can!
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Rita Blanko, MSN, APRN, AGPCNP-C
Research Nurse Practitioner
Rita is a Research Nurse Practitioner at the Brown University School of Public Health. She works in the lab ensuring that our participants are safe while being a part of our research studies. Her work is centered primarily around alcohol use disorder. Outside of work Rita loves to hike, travel, spend time at the beach, and visit her family in Connecticut. She can still do a handstand after years of being a gymnast!
Former Lab Team Members
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Petros
Research Assistant
2024
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Liza
Senior Research Assistant
2021-2024
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Ellie
Research Assistant
2022-2024
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Eddie
Research Assistant
2023-2024
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Abby
Research Assistant
2023-2024
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Madison
Research Assistant
2024
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Anny
Research Assistant
2024
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Alex
Research Assistant
2024
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Meagan
Research Assistant and Interventionist
2022-2023
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Jordy
Research Assistant
2022-2023
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Minchae
Research Assistant
2022-2023
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Kayleigh
Interventionist
2022-2023
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Cheyenne
Interventionist
2022-2023
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Tessa
Interventionist
2022-2023
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Emma
Research Assistant
2023
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Kayla
Research Assistant
2023
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Surya
Research Assistant
2022
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Michael
Research Assistant
2022
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Josepha
Research Assistant
2021
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Rayna
Research Assistant
2021