Our Team
Center Leadership

Jonathon P. Leider, PhD
Center Director
Office: C302 Mayo
Phone: 612-625-0908
E-mail: leider@umn.edu
Read about Jonathon
Dr. Leider is the founding director of the Center for Public Health Systems, as well as Associate Professor in the SPH Division of Health Policy and Management and associate faculty at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He has published more than 120 peer-reviewed manuscripts in the areas of public health systems, the public health workforce, and public health finance. He is the director of evaluation for the Region V Public Health Training Center. He holds a PhD in health policy and management from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Rachel Schulman, MSPH, CPH
Center Manager
Office: C302 Mayo
Phone: 612-625-0908
E-mail: schulman@umn.edu
Read about Rachel
Ms. Schulman is the center manager for the Center for Public Health Systems. She has a deep interest in building strong and resilient public health systems. Previously she served as the Cities Readiness Initiative coordinator for the Minnesota Department of Health and as a senior program analyst with the National Association of County and City Health Officials. She holds an MSPH in public health policy from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a BA from Wesleyan University.
Center Staff

Harshada Karnik, PhD, MPP, MS
Researcher
Phone: 612-625-0908
E-mail: harshada@umn.edu
Read about Harshada
Dr. Karnik is a researcher at the Center for Public Health Systems. Her research interests include public health workforce development, particularly in rural / frontier areas, health equity, and social determinants of health. She has experience in program/impact evaluation, designing surveys and choice experiments, facilitating primary data collection in minority / BIPOC communities, and working with larger data sets. She has also used qualitative research methods. She holds a PhD in applied economics and master’s in public policy from the University of Minnesota.

Chelsey Kirkland, PhD, MPH, CHW
Researcher
Phone: 612-625-0908
E-mail: ckirk@umn.edu
Read about Chelsey
Dr. Kirkland is a researcher for the Center for Public Health Systems. She is a mixed methodologist and is experienced in public health research including workforce development, social determinants of health, health equity, physical activity, and community health workers. She holds a PhD in public health and graduate qualitative research certificate from Kent State University. Dr. Kirkland also holds a BS in exercise science, an MPH, and CHW certification.

Skky Martin, PhD, MA
Researcher
Phone: 612-625-0908
E-mail: skky22@umn.edu
Read about Skky
Skky Martin is a researcher at the Center for Public Health Systems. Her research interests include health equity, health disparities, social determinants of health, and the interrelationship between public health and medical education. She has experience in qualitative methods and analysis, writing surveys, and using STATA to create and analyze quantitative datasets. Dr. Martin holds a doctoral degree and master’s degree in sociology and a Certificate in Public Health from Loyola University Chicago.

Feather LaRoche, MTAG
Native American Outreach & Communications Associate
Phone: 612-625-0908
E-mail: laroche@umn.edu
Read about Feather
Feather LaRoche focuses his attention on the underlying disparities and imbalances that affect Native American communities. He holds a Master’s of Tribal Administration and Governance from University of Minnesota – Duluth and has been working with the School of Public Health since this past June (2022) to bring awareness to the Public Health Administration and Policy MPH to Native American professionals and students. Mr. LaRoche is an enrolled member of the Kul Wicasa Oyate Tribe from Lower Brule, South Dakota.

Jocelyn Leung, MPH, MA, MSc (Oxon)
Researcher
Phone: 612-625-0908
E-mail: leung077@umn.edu
Read about Jocelyn
Jocelyn Leung is a researcher at the Center for Public Health Systems with over four years of experience practicing community-based participatory research, qualitative research, and evaluation with BIPOC and Greater Minnesota communities. She has facilitated decision-making processes and planning efforts involving communities most impacted by inequities, philanthropy, county governments, and state agencies on social determinants of health, including affordable housing and keeping drinking water safe from contamination. Ms. Leung holds an MPH in Community Health Promotion from the University of Minnesota, a MA in Political Science from the University of Minnesota, and a MSc in Modern Chinese Studies from the University of Oxford.

Sezen Ozcan Onal, PhD, MA
Researcher
Phone: 612-625-0908
E-mail: ozcan@umn.edu
Read about Sezen
Sezen Ozcan Onal is a researcher at the Center for Public Health Systems. She is interested in applying a modern econometric toolkit to address policy-relevant questions in public health research. Dr. O. Onal holds a doctoral degree in Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Jason Orr, PhD(c), MPH
Researcher
Phone: 785-341-0192
E-mail: jorr@umn.edu
Read about Jason
Mr. Orr is a researcher with the Center for Public Health Systems and is experienced in policy analysis, mixed-methods research, and systems design & analysis. He holds a BS in chemical engineering and an MPH from Kansas State University and is a doctoral candidate in systems engineering at Colorado State University. He has academic interests in public health services frameworks (e.g., Foundational Public Health Services), collaborative service delivery (i.e., cross-jurisdictional or cross-sectoral collaboration), and other transformation and innovation initiatives for public health systems.

Yasmin Odowa, BA
Researcher
Phone: 612-625-0908
E-mail: odowa@umn.edu
Read about Yasmin
Ms. Odowa is a project manager with the Center for Public Health Systems. She has experience working in local and state public health agencies in program management and infectious disease surveillance. Her professional interests include understanding how to build an ethnically and racially diverse public health workforce and ways to ensure the retention of governmental public health staff. She holds a BA in biology, society, and environment and is currently pursuing an MPH at the University of Minnesota.

Hank Stabler, PhD, MPH
Post-doctoral Student
Phone: 612-625-0908
E-mail: stabl005@umn.edu
Read about Hank
Dr. Stabler is a postdoctoral research student with the UMN Center for Public Health Systems with experience in program evaluation, policy analysis, and mixed methods research. Dr. Stabler’s research interests relate to hospital-community relationships and multisectoral collaboration. He holds a PhD from the University of Minnesota’s Health Services Research, Policy, & Administration program with a focus on Health Policy, and an MPH from the University of Michigan.

Sarah Trachet
Fiscal Analyst
Phone: 612-624-0454
E-mail: scatt001@umn.edu
Read about Sarah
Ms. Trachet is an analyst and grant administrator in the SPH Division of Health Policy and Management. She has been the financial manager for the Center since its inception. While not involved in the PH Workforce science, she finds the science very interesting from an economic lens. Ms. Trachet has over 25 years of experience overseeing large-scale, complex grants, and contracts. She has implemented several new system processes across the University and provides training courses on reporting to mid- and upper-level management administrators. Prior to HPM, she was in Central Administration for 15 years.

Nikki Weiss, PhD
Researcher
Phone: 612-625-0908
E-mail: weis0731@umn.edu
Read about Nikki
Nikki Weiss is a biocultural anthropologist specializing in mixed methods research. She completed her undergraduate education in biology at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and she earned her master’s and doctorate in anthropology from Ohio State University. Before arriving at CPHS, Nikki worked for the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health – Great Lakes Hub, as well as for the CDC Foundation. Her research interests include health equity and making health care accessible and attainable for all.

Abby Vogel, MS
Researcher
Phone: 612-625-0908
E-mail: vogel327@umn.edu
Read about Nikki
Abby is a biostatistician whose research interests include quantitative analysis of public health topics, including systems and network analysis, inferential policy analysis, and predictive modeling. She has experience in data analytics and survey research, as well as data management and assessment development through past work with public health cost and capacity assessments. She holds a masters degree in Biostatistics from the University of Minnesota and undergraduate degrees in Mathematics, Sociology, and Neuroscience.
Affiliated Faculty and Staff
Rebecca Wurtz, MD, MPH
Director of Public Health Administration and Policy
Office: C305 Mayo
Phone: 612-625-1387
E-mail: rwurtz@umn.edu
Read about Rebecca
Dr. Wurtz is an infectious disease physician and informaticist. She worked as a clinician and public health officer in tuberculosis control for the City of Chicago and Cook County (IL). She was the deputy medical director for the Illinois Department of Public Health. As the chief medical officer for various IT start-up companies, she worked on electronic disease surveillance systems, immunization registrations, and medical vocabularies. She currently serves as director of Public Health Administration and Policy (PHAP) and E-PHAP MPH programs at the School of Public Health. She was elected to the Academy of Distinguished Teaching Faculty and has won awards for outstanding contribution to graduate and professional education and for mentoring and advising. For the center, she focuses her efforts on innovation in education and training.
Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, PhD, MA
Assistant Professor, Sociology
Office: 1156 Social Sciences Building
Phone: 612-624-7602
E-mail: ewf@umn.edu
Read about Elizabeth
Elizabeth Wrigley-Field is an associate professor at the University of Minnesota. A sociologist and demographer, she studies racial inequality in mortality in the historical and contemporary United States, and specializes in finding comparisons and metrics that illuminate the human meaning of mortality disparities. She has extensively researched the Covid-19 pandemic in Minnesota, where she also co-founded an award-winning community vaccination organization. She is also a demographic methodologist, developing models designed to clarify relationships between micro and macro perspectives on population processes.
Sarah Trachet, CPA
Financial Manager
Office: D385 Mayo MMC 729
Phone: 612-624-0454
E-mail: scatt001@umn.edu
Read about Sarah
Ms. Trachet is an analyst and grant administrator in the SPH Division of Health Policy and Management. She has over 25 years of experience overseeing large scale, complex grants and contracts. She has implemented several new system processes across the University and provides training courses on reporting to mid- and upper-level management administrators. Up until recently, she managed HPM’s T32 Training Grant. Prior to HPM, she was in Central Administration for 15 years. The best part of her job is that she gets to see students from matriculation to their retirement. As part of the training grant requirements, she has to follow-up with alums to see how they’ve contributed to the discipline. During this process, she gets the privilege of seeing students navigate the many challenges associated with a PhD program and then blossom into major players in the field.
Janette Dill, PhD, MA, MPH
Associate Professor, Division of Health Policy and Management
Office: 15-213 Pillips-Wangensteen
Phone: 612-625-8595
E-mail: dill0221@umn.edu
Read about Janette
Janette Dill is an Associate Professor in the Health Policy & Management Division in the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota, and she is the deputy director for the Center for Workforce Research in Public Health. Her research focuses on the health care workforce, especially direct care and community-based workers. Her current projects include measuring regional variation in the supply of the direct care workforce, racial and gender disparities in the rewards for professional certification and unionization among direct care workers, and measuring the employment behavior and intentions of direct care workers during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Her research has been published in top public health and social science journals, including Health Affairs, The American Journal of Public Health, Medical Care Research and Review, and Social Science and Medicine, and her research has been supported by the National Institute on Aging, the Health Resources and Services Administration, and other state and federal agencies. She has a Master of Public Health degree (MPH) and PhD in Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Sripriya Rajamani, MBBS, PhD, MPH, FAMIA
Office: 6-174 Weaver-Densford Hall
Phone: 612-624-5412
E-mail: sripriya@umn.edu
Sarah Sevcik Tummala, MPH, M.Ed
Curriculum Developer & Trainer
E-mail: smsevcik@umn.edu
Xiao Zang, PhD
Assistant Professor, Division of Health Policy & Management
Office: Mayo D375
Phone: 612-624-4426
E-mail: xzang@umn.edu
Read about Xiao
Xiao Zang serves as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Health Policy and Management at the School of Public Health, where he is also an affiliate of the Center for Public Health Systems. His research centers around evaluating the health economic and health equity impacts of interventions/policies designed to combat HIV/AIDS and opioid overdose mortality using simulation modeling methods. Beyond this, his research interests extend to systems dynamic modeling and health policy analysis using quasi-experimental methods to inform meaningful health systems changes.
Center Students
- Denisha Demeritte, BA
- Olivia Houck, MPH
- Nicole McDaniel, BS
- Morgan Pak, BA
- Noah Westfall, MPH
- Jaclyn Frank, BS
Previous Students
- Kyeongki Park
- Shantanu Mallick
- Jovin Lasway
- Celestine Siameh
- Sarah Vermeland
- Safia Abdinur
- Nicholas Farmer
- Kirrthana Jegathesan
- Jake Abrahams
- Emily Johnson
- Yasmin Odowa
- Hannah Geressu
- Umesh Ghimire
- Daisy Corona
- Zach Levin
- Kiran Nabi
- Margaret Tait
- Asia Tamaami
- Abby Vogel
- Amanda Tran
- Julieta Barbiero
- Vivian Pham
- Puleng Moshele
- Rachel Price