{"id":33,"date":"2026-08-31T14:08:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T18:08:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/cheer\/?page_id=33"},"modified":"2026-10-06T14:37:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T18:37:24","slug":"meet-the-people","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/cheer\/meet-the-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the People"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Meet the People
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\"Profile<\/h2>

Director: <\/span><\/h2>

Christopher Wheldon, PhD, MSPH. M.Ed<\/span><\/h2>

Contact Information:<\/strong> chris.wheldon@temple.edu<\/span><\/p>

Dr. Christopher Wheldon is a behavioral scientist working to reduce cancer disparities and improve cancer care for underserved and vulnerable populations. Central to this focus is his consideration of how individual, interpersonal and organizational factors influence cancer-related risk (e.g., tobacco use), preventive health behaviors (e.g., HPV vaccination, cancer screening) and healthcare delivery (e.g., cancer survivorship care). He is particularly interested in developing culturally responsive interventions for sexual and gender minority populations.<\/span><\/p>

Dr. Wheldon is an associate professor with tenure in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the College of Public Health. He directs the Cancer Health Equity, Education and Research (CHEER) Lab. Prior to joining the faculty at Temple University, Dr. Wheldon was a Cancer Prevention Fellow at the National Cancer Institute. He completed a PhD in community and family health from the College of Public Health at the University of South Florida.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\"\"Sarah Bauerle-Bass, PhD, MPH<\/span><\/span><\/h2>

Contact Information:<\/strong>\u00a0sbass@temple.edu<\/span><\/p>

Dr. Sarah Bass is a Professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences in the College of Public Health and Director of the Risk Communication Laboratory at Temple University. Her over thirty years of experience focuses on health and risk communication and how public health messages are crafted for audiences. With expertise in health literacy, message development, and working with underserved and vulnerable populations, she is using new technologies to develop, target and test messages for their impact on patient\/public self-efficacy, behavior intention, and behavior. Use of these technologies is then applied to community or clinical-based interventions using mHealth, eHealth, social media and other communication channel strategies. She has conducted research on a variety of public health topics, with emphasis on cancer, infectious diseases (HIV, HPV, HCV, smallpox, SARS-CoV-2), and emergency preparedness. With a background in communication, she has also been a state spokesperson and worked in developing state-wide media campaigns around HIV\/AIDS early in the pandemic. She has provided training in risk and crisis communication and is widely published in the area of health and risk communication.\u00a0 She was named the 2021 winner of the American Public Health Association\u2019s Everett M. Rogers Award, a national honor for outstanding contribution to public health communication.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\"\"Bradley Collins, PhD<\/span><\/span><\/h2>

Contact Information:<\/strong>\u00a0bradley.collins@temple.edu<\/span><\/p>

Dr. Bradley Collins is a professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS) at Temple University’s College of Public Health. He recently served for seven years as the department\u2019s founding graduate program director. In that role, he led the development and launch of the PhD program in SBS, facilitated the development and launch of the online master of public health program, and oversaw operations of those programs as well as the preexisting MPH in SBS. In addition, Dr. Collins is the founding director of the Health Behavior Research Clinic (HBRC). For 18 years, the HBRC has maintained a dynamic extramurally-funded research program in cancer control and prevention, maternal and child health, and health behavior promotion in underserved communities, and he has provided clinical services for underserved tobacco smokers in Philadelphia. Prior to coming to Temple University, he was a faculty member of the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Psychiatry.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\"\"Levent Dumenci, PhD<\/span><\/span><\/h2>

Contact Information:<\/strong> ldumenci@temple.edu<\/span><\/p>

Levent Dumenci joined Temple University College of Public Health as a professor in July 2015. His NIH-funded (NIMH, NCI) research focuses on test development and discrete latent variable modeling of behavioral data. He is the author of Latent Kappa. His primary interests include structural equation modeling specification of multitrait-multimethod matrix, statistical modeling of observed and unobserved heterogeneity, estimation of situational specificity of behavioral ratings, modeling of latent agreement, and health literacy. He provides consultation to students and research faculty on statistical modeling of data originating from quasi-experimental and non-experimental designs. He has served in NIH and NSF study sections and currently serves on editorial boards of two international journals. He has extensive experience in collaborating with researchers applying for externally funded projects.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\"\"<\/span><\/span><\/h2>

Mona Lisa Baishya, PhD<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Contact Information:<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0mona.baishya@temple.edu<\/span><\/span><\/p>

Mona recently graduated from Temple University\u2019s College of Public Health with a PhD in Social and Behavioral Sciences and holds an MPH in Biostatistics from Texas A&M University. Her research interests span violence prevention, substance use intervention, childhood trauma, community health, and the social and behavioral factors that shape health and well-being.

<\/span>Her path has taken her from Nebraska to Dominica, Texas, Virginia, and now Philadelphia, with each experience strengthening her commitment to rigorous research that can translate into meaningful change. Her work has included epidemiological surveillance, medical record review, randomized trials, community-based program evaluation, and mixed-methods research. During her doctoral training at Temple, she developed Skills for Tobacco Quit Preparation (STQP), a theory-driven, mobile-delivered intervention designed to build self-efficacy and emotion regulation skills among smokers preparing to quit. She has also contributed to research on adverse childhood experiences, tobacco use, community violence, mental health, substance use, and maternal health.<\/span><\/p>

Mona is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the CHEER Lab, where she is working to further develop her research interests and build the foundation to become an independent researcher. She is particularly interested in understanding how individual behavior, community environments, and systems intersect to shape health outcomes, and in using research to inform more immediate, actionable responses to childhood trauma, substance use, community violence, and the systems that support young people and their communities.
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\"\"Katie Singley, MPH<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h2>

Contact Information:<\/strong>\u00a0katie.singley@temple.edu<\/span><\/p>

Katie recently graduated from Drexel\u2019s Dornsife School of Public Health Community Health and Prevention Program. She received her undergraduate degree from Loyola University Maryland where she majored in Psychology and minored in Statistics. Her research interests include substance use, urban health, health disparities, and public health ethics. She previously worked for the Health Equity Advancement Lab (HEAL) where she was involved in various research projects that examine the role of harm reduction interventions in alleviating the opioid epidemic. Her goal is to conduct community-based research that can be used to empower individuals in their health-decision making and create equitable and transformative policy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Former Collaborators
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\"\"Niko Bezanis, MPH<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h2>

Contact Information:<\/strong> nikolas.bezanis@temple.edu<\/span><\/p>

Niko Bezanis is an interdisciplinary researcher whose MPH work at Temple University focuses on health outcomes among men who have sex with men. In Dr. Wheldon\u2019s lab, he studies the social and structural factors that shape those outcomes, with a broader interest in health disparities among underserved populations. He has also contributed to the Adversity & Novel Brain Therapeutics (ABN) Lab at Yale University, psychedelic-assisted therapy for alcohol use disorder. As a recipient of the Fulbright\/StAR RCSI PhD Award, he is extending this work to research on psychedelic-assisted therapy across Irish and American populations.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\"\"Imani Askew-Shabazz, PhD, MPH<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h2>

Contact Information: <\/strong>imani.wilson-shabazz@temple.edu<\/span><\/p>

Dr. Imani Askew-Shabazz (she\/they) is a visionary reproductive justice scholar, activist, and educator whose decade of transformative research and advocacy is reshaping how we understand and demand care, equity, and bodily autonomy for those most marginalized by existing systems. Holding a PhD in Social and Behavioral Sciences from Temple University’s Barnett College of Public Health and an MPH in Community Health Sciences with a certificate in Population and Reproductive Health from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Dr. Askew-Shabazz brings both rigorous academic grounding and fearless community commitment to her work. Her research confronts the most urgent and overlooked intersections of reproductive health, from infertility treatment disparities in sexual and gender minority populations and racial inequities in sexual health education, to the ways Black women navigate reproductive stereotypes, reclaim pleasure, and find healing in spaces the mainstream has long refused to take seriously. At the core of her scholarship is a radical and necessary vision: dismantling the family planning systems that have historically excluded, harmed, and ignored queer, Black, Indigenous, and people of color and rebuilding them as institutions rooted in genuine care, self-determination, and equity. As Partnerships and Engagement Director at Plan C, Dr. Askew-Shabazz translates that vision into direct action, forging community partnerships that expand awareness of and access to abortion pills across the country. Through lectures, webinars, and educational media, she equips diverse communities with the knowledge and tools to advocate powerfully for medication abortion access.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\"\"Caseem Luck, PhD(c), MPH(c), MS<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h2>

Contact Information:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>caseemluck@usf.edu<\/span><\/p>

Caseem is a PhD student in Medical Anthropology and an MPH student at the University of South Florida, with a Master\u2019s in Communication for Development and Social Change and a BA in Anthropology. My work sits at the intersection of applied anthropology and public health, with a focus on advancing health equity and driving social change.<\/span><\/p>

He explores cultural and structural health disparities, medical mistrust, and vaccine hesitancy, particularly among marginalized communities. His research emphasizes health-seeking behaviors, community-driven interventions, and culturally responsive methodologies, aiming to inform policies and practices that improve access, trust, and health outcomes.<\/span><\/p>

He has experience in qualitative and quantitative research, data analysis, and community engagement, contributing to NIH-funded projects and interdisciplinary collaborations. Caseem is passionate about translating research into actionable strategies that promote equitable healthcare and strengthen community partnerships.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meet the People Director: Christopher Wheldon, PhD, MSPH. M.Ed Contact Information: chris.wheldon@temple.edu Dr. Christopher Wheldon is a behavioral scientist working to reduce cancer disparities and…<\/p>\n

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