Ahlam Abuawad is a Ph.D. student in Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences (EHS). She holds an M.P.H. in EHS (2017), B.S. in Biology (2015), and B.A. in Chemistry (2015) from the University at Albany, State University of New York. Abuawad is currently an Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD) fellow. Her research mentors are Drs. Ana Navas-Acien and Mary Gamble, and her research focuses on assessing potential factors involved in arsenic methylation in Bangladeshi populations.
Anne K. Bozack is a Ph.D. candidate in Columbia University’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences. She holds an M.P.H. in Sociomedical Sciences from Columbia University and B.A. degrees in Environmental Science and Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley. Bozack currently works in Dr. Mary Gamble’s lab, which focuses on nutritional influences on arsenic toxicity in Bangladesh. Dr. Gamble’s group has recently completed the Folic Acid and Creatine Trial (FACT), which has the primary goal to lower blood arsenic concentrations by enhancing arsenic methylation in a Bangladeshi population that is chronically exposed to arsenic-contaminated drinking water. She was recently awarded a 2017 KC Donnelly externship to conduct research at the Oregon State University SRP Center, under the guidance of Dr. Molly Kile. The externship will allow her to extend her current work by focusing on statistical approaches to analyze mediation of the association between arsenic exposure and birth outcomes by DNA methylation in a cohort in Bangladesh.
Anne E. Nigra is a Ph.D. candidate in Columbia University’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences in the Mailman School of Public Health. She joined the Columbia SRP in September of 2016. Her research mentor is Dr. Ana Navas-Acien, and her research focuses on metal exposure assessment and the association of metals with cardiovascular disease, particularly arsenic. Nigra has a B.A. in Biology from Oberlin College (2014) and a Sc.M. in Epidemiology from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2016).
Roheeni Saxena is a Ph.D. candidate on the Toxicology Track in Columbia University’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences. She previously earned a B.A. from Wellesley College, an M.P.H. from Columbia University’s Department of Sociomedical Sciences, and a CPH certification from the National Board of Public Health Examiners. Currently, she works under Dr. Mary Gamble with a research focus on the effects of nutritional deficiencies and arsenic exposures on cognitive outcomes in children and adolescents.