Current Scholars
Learn more about our current scholars below.
Johnny Berona, PhD
Research Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and a member of the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing
Faculty ProfileJohnny Berona, PhD, is a research assistant professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and a member of the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISGMH). They completed their BA in Comparative Human Development and Psychology at University of Chicago and MS and PhD in Clinical Psychology at University of Michigan. They conducted postdoctoral research in developmental psychopathology at University of Chicago and in sexual and gender minority health at Northwestern University. In 2021, they joined the faculty at the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing. Their research focuses on substance abuse, suicide, and self-injury among sexual and gender minority youth. Active research in these areas examine biomarkers of minority stress, developmental trajectories, and novel approaches to mental health assessment and intervention.
Chiagozie Pickens MD, MSc
Assistant Professor in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care
Faculty ProfileChiagozie Pickens MD, MSc is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She received her MD at Northwestern University FSM, where she also completed internship and residency in internal medicine and fellowship training in pulmonary and critical care medicine. Chiagozie’s research is focused on the diagnosis and management of pneumonia in critically ill patients. She leverages culture-independent platforms to understand how microbial communities modulate the development and resolution of lower respiratory tract infections. Her current research examines features of lung microbial communities that predict distinct clinical outcomes in viral pneumonia.
Milkie Vu, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Behavioral Medicine (Department of Preventive Medicine) at Northwestern University. She received her undergraduate degree in History and Cultural Anthropology from Duke University and her master’s degree in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago. Dr. Vu received her PhD degree in Behavioral, Social, and Health Education Sciences from Emory University, where she was also awarded an NCI F31 fellowship. She then completed her postdoctoral training through the NCI-funded T32 fellowship in Cancer Prevention & Control at Northwestern University. Dr. Vu’s current research focuses on community-engaged approaches to increase HPV vaccine confidence and uptake among Asian Americans and immigrant populations. Her long-term goal is to develop and implement culturally-relevant evidence-based interventions that leverage digital health to reduce health disparities experienced by Asian Americans and underserved populations.
Kevin McNerney, MD, MSc is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He earned his medical degree from the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and Master of Science in Translational Research from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed a categorical pediatric residency at Yale New Haven Hospital, followed by a fellowship in pediatric hematology-oncology and an advanced fellowship in pediatric cancer immunotherapy and bone marrow transplant from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. McNerney’s clinical and research interests include the application of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells to improve outcomes in pediatric cancers that carry poor prognoses by identifying strategies to limit their toxicities and improve their efficacy. His current project involves the preventative use of a cytokine-blocking medicine to limit severe inflammatory toxicities following CAR T-cell therapy in children with B-acute lymphoblastic leukemia. His long-term goals are to implement approaches that will improve the therapeutic index of, and access to, this transformative therapy.
Callie Walsh-Bailey, PhD, MPH is an assistant professor of Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine and core faculty in the Center for Dissemination & Implementation Science. She received her undergraduate education in biology and Spanish from Willamette University and Master of Public Health in international health from Oregon State University. She worked as a research specialist at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute for several years prior to pursuing her PhD in Public Health Sciences with a specialization in dissemination and implementation science from Washington University in St. Louis. Her research intersects health equity, implementation science, and chronic disease prevention and control. As a methodologist, she is interested in integrating a greater focus on health equity into implementation research tools and methods to improve the delivery of chronic disease control interventions and approaches to address health-related social needs. Her K12 award focuses on testing and refining the Designing Implementation strategies Centered in Equity (DICE) method. Long term, she aims to develop generalizable methods and resources to improve the field of implementation science’s impact on population health equity.
Burcu Aydemir, PhD
Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine (Rheumatology)
Faculty ProfileBurcu Aydemir, PhD is a Research Assistant Professor in the Division of Rheumatology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. She earned her PhD in Kinesiology and Nutrition at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2021. Following her doctoral studies, Dr. Aydemir joined the Division of Rheumatology at Northwestern as a postdoctoral fellow, where she was awarded a position on the T32 Training Grant in Rheumatology. Her research focuses on understanding how pain regulation and psychological distress contribute to the development of physical functional limitations in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. In the long-term, Dr. Aydemir aims to develop a patient-centered, multi-modal intervention that improves physical function, and ultimately quality of life for individuals with rheumatic diseases.
