Potential Research Mentors

Center for Health Policy and Health Services Research

Jordan Braciszewski, PhD

Dr. Jordan Braciszewski is a licensed clinical psychologist and Associate Research Scientist in the Center for Health Policy and Health Services Research at Henry Ford Health System. His research generally focuses on innovative means of improving access to mental health and substance use services, often using technology-driven approaches. He collaborates with partners in Pediatrics, Infectious Disease, Internal Medicine, and Psychiatry to implement digital health care into health care practice. He is currently PI or Site PI for several NIH and other federally-funded grants. Dr. Braciszewski is also Training Director for the Center’s T32 Post-Doctoral Training Program in Mental Health Services Research. Potential projects on which interns could collaborate include (1) technology-based screening, intervention, and referral to treatment in pediatric primary care, (2) technology-based screening, intervention, and referral to treatment in school-based health centers (pending), and (3) technology-based suicide safety plans in pediatric primary care (pending).

Julia Felton, PhD

Dr. Felton is a licensed child clinical psychologist and researcher focused on characterizing the development of addiction and related mental health problems across adolescence as well as developing treatments to reduce and prevent substance use disorders in youth and adults from traditionally underserved communities. Dr. Felton is also interested in understanding early family/neighborhood environments and parenting practices that place youth at higher rate for engaging in risky behaviors. She has served as an investigator on a number of federally-funded trials aimed at improving access to evidence-based services among individuals from historically disadvantaged communities that often face significant barriers to accessing care. As part of this work, Dr. Felton examines integrating mental and behavioral health care services into existing community and primary care settings. She collaborates with a number of community partners in Detroit and Flint, MI and across health care settings in these cities. In 2024, projects will include: (1) examining an intervention to increase time horizon in mothers from Flint, MI; (2) evaluating the preliminary effectiveness of a parenting intervention for families receiving residential treatment for SUD; (3) examining the impact of early environments and genetic risk on risky decision making and subsequent substance use across adolescence and (4) creating an integrated clinic at HFH to support pregnant and postpartum people and their families with SUD.

Hongsheng Gui, PhD

Dr. Hongsheng Gui’s research focuses on identifying genetic biomarkers and gene x environment interactions involved in the development of neuropsychiatric diseases (e.g., schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and substance use disorders). Leveraging on accessible large-scale biobanking datasets (e.g., UK Biobank project, All of Us research program), he conducts integrative omics analyses to link electronic health records with genomic data for earlier disease diagnosis and risk prediction. Dr Gui also leads or co-leads the pharmacogenomics analysis for typical drug response in epilepsy, asthma, and heart failure patients. He is interested in reducing health disparities across diverse populations, through cross-ethnic meta-analysis and mega analysis. To speed up precision psychiatry, Dr. Gui is currently working on following projects: 1) estimate disease effect estimates for opioid use disorder (OUD) in diverse populations and apply an ancestry-tailored risk component to polygenic risk scores; 2) investigate adverse drug reactions (especially for HLA region) and treatment response during medication-assisted treatment for major depressive disorder and opioid use disorder; 3) reveal correlation and causation relationship between OUD and suicidal attempt using multivariate statistical tools.

Geoffrey Kahn, PhD

Dr. Geoff Kahn is the first alum of the Center’s T32 Post-Doctoral Training Program in Mental Health Services Research and a new Assistant Scientist. He is a public health epidemiologist by training whose work focuses on suicide and self-harm prevention and the application of advanced quantitative methods to a broad range of topics. He has expertise in predictive modeling, machine learning, and methods for drawing causal inference from observational data. Future projects may include: 1) assessing use of individual blister packaging for medication as a means to reduce overdoses; 2) evaluating the adaptation of Henry Ford’s Zero Suicide framework for use in small community-serving organizations; 3) examining early childhood risk factors for adolescent suicide attempts; 4) exploring the role that changes in prognosis, treatment, and other time-varying factors play in suicide risk among cancer patients; and 5) updating a systematic review of medical aid in dying (aka physician-assisted suicide).

Elizabeth Lockhart, PhD

Dr. Elizabeth Lockhart’s research focuses on reducing health disparities for medically underserved populations, investigating mechanisms to increase access to care, and chronic disease prevention and care. More specifically, her program of research includes 1) integrating Community Health Workers in the healthcare system; and 2) Understanding and reducing inequities to sexual and reproductive health, namely HIV and HPV. Some of the research Dr. Lockhart has led or contributed to includes technology use among people with HIV, HPV vaccination facilitators and barriers among migrant farmworkers, and diabetes medication patient-provider decision making among underrepresented minorities. Recently, Dr. Lockhart’s research has expanded to explore innovative ways to reduce substance use (i.e. cigarettes, alcohol) and increase access to HIV prevention methods (i.e., preexposure prophylaxis). Research methodologies include multiphase optimization strategy (MOST), mixed methods, qualitative research, clinical trials, and implementation science. Dr. Lockhart is working on a study that aims to expand access to preexposure prophlyaxis in primary care and plans to expand her research portfolio by 1) understanding how patients want to share information with the health system and potentially receive services with regards to the social determinants of health; 2) creating efficient interventions for HIV prevention and care via MOST; and 3) evaluating implementation strategies for suicide prevention.

Amy Loree, PhD

Dr. Amy Loree is a licensed clinical psychologist. Her research broadly focuses on addiction and women’s health. She is particularly interested in prevention, identification, and treatment of mental health and substance use disorders during the perinatal period and leveraging technology-based approaches to improve access to evidence-based care. She currently oversees several foundation- and federally-funded projects including: 1) implementing technology-based screening and brief intervention (SBI/SBIRT) for alcohol in women’s health clinics; 2) implementing a telehealth-based integrated behavioral health program for perinatal patients; 3) evaluating telehealth-based integrated behavioral health programs in adult primary care and emergency department settings; 4) developing a digital health application to promote health behaviors in pregnancy; 5) examining treatment utilization for depression in pregnancy; 6) comparing evidence-based treatments for depression following perinatal loss; 7) examining approaches to implementing a preventive intervention for postpartum depression; 8) using storytelling to build patient-centered outcomes research in maternal mental health; and 9) evaluating whether prenatal yoga may be beneficial for preventing postpartum depression.

Clinical options: An intern could gain direct clinical experience through providing individual and/or group psychotherapy to perinatal patients with mood and anxiety disorders, serving as a group facilitator on an intervention study, conducting interviews and risk assessments with research participants, and/or developing their own small pilot study where they could conduct face-to-face clinical work.

Lisa Matero, PhD, ABPP

Dr. Lisa Matero is a licensed and Board Certified Clinical Health Psychologist. Her research focuses on the bidirectional relationship between physical health and mental health, primarily within the areas of pain and obesity/bariatric surgery. Within these areas, she is interested in mental health, substance use, and physical health outcomes. Research methodologies include mixed methods, survey-based studies, electronic health record reviews, and development and evaluation of psychological interventions implemented in medical settings and/or technology via clinical trials. Dr. Matero also has an interest in health disparities and identifies ways to engage underserved patients in psychological interventions. She currently oversees multiple projects that received federal or foundation grant funding. Examples of current projects include 1) examining how lifestyle after bariatric surgery contributes to weight loss outcomes; 2) integrating a brief psychological intervention for chronic pain in primary care; 3) a longitudinal study of patients with pain initiating an opioid; 4) a technology-based intervention to reduce alcohol use after bariatric surgery; 5) evaluating utility of an objective alcohol measure as a part of pre-surgical evaluations; 6) identifying distal and proximal predictors of alcohol use after bariatric surgery using ecological momentary assessment, 7) examining acceptance of illness among candidates for transplant; 8) evaluating benefits of a brief mindfulness intervention delivered post-operatively to organ donors or recipients of a transplant or LVAD; 9) mental health and eating behaviors among women with infertility; 10) implementation of Written Exposure Therapy for the treatment of PTSD across health care systems; and 11) an outreach program to increase utilization of mental health services among the underserved.

Clinical options: An intern could serve as a clinician on an intervention study, conduct interviews with participants, and/or develop their own small pilot study where they could conduct face-to-face clinical work.

Melissa Maye, PhD

Dr. Melissa Maye’s research focuses on increasing access to early identification and early interventions for neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g., autism, language delay, cognitive disorders) via leveraging health equity focused implementation science methods. Dr. Maye has conducted feasibility and adaptation research to inform implementation of group-based early intervention in community childcare classrooms. She has also leveraged large national databases to examine age of first autism diagnosis and recently collaborated with esteemed colleagues to write a commentary considering biases, barriers, and possible solutions to address the under-engagement of autism researchers with racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse populations. At present, Dr. Maye has active implementation science projects spanning: 1) NICU COVID19 parent visitation and interaction policy; 2) sociodemographic predictors of length of NICU stay; 3) access and equity in autism screening tools; and 4) increasing access to infant directed speech in the NICU. She collaborates with colleagues on a number of additional implementation science focused intervention studies, including topics such as: 1) designing for implementation; 2) sustainability; 3) Hybrid trials.

Clinical options: An intern could observe the Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities (1x/month, Wednesdays) and/or conduct Follow-Up autism screening interviews through a funded study.

Ashlee Vance, PhD

Dr. Ashlee J. Vance is an Assistant Scientist in the Center for Health Policy and Health Services Research. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the National Clinician Scholars Program at the University of Michigan after finishing her doctorate in Nursing at Duke University School of Nursing. She has clinical expertise as a neonatal nurse, with a BSN from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Master's in counseling from Western Michigan University. Her program of research focuses on parent and infant mental health and developmental outcomes, specifically for infants with medically complex conditions. Research projects include examining health care delivery and economic and family outcomes using a health equity framework and aligning healthcare system practices with family-focused values to increase parent engagement and self-efficacy in caring for vulnerable infants during and after NICU hospitalization. She currently has funding for a 4-year grant evaluating financial hardship and socioeconomic disparities among infants with complex conditions and another project examining patterns of parental presence in the NICU.

Hsueh-Han Yeh, PhD

Dr. Hsueh-Han Yeh is a biostatistician and epidemiologist in health services research, with specific interests in developing and applying statistical methods in the areas of suicide prevention, substance use, mental health disorders, and precision medicine. She also possesses expertise in analyzing Electronic Health Record (EHR) data, which provides a great opportunity to enhance our understanding of underlying clinical symptoms, holds immense potential to transform healthcare research and decision-making, leading to more effective treatments and improved patient outcomes. Currently, she is actively involved in several projects, including: 1) examining disruptions in mental health service during the COVID-19 pandemic; 2) exploring the characteristics of callers to the hotline 988 which provides support for people in suicidal or mental health-related crises; and 3) investigating the clinical factors associated with suicide risk.