Meet The Hunter College Mentors

Dr. Erblich's research focuses on the interactions between emotional, cognitive, behavioral and genetic factors in addictive behaviors. In conducting his research, Dr. Erblich takes a multidisciplinary-translational approach, with hypotheses driven by both the human and animal literatures that have contributed to the current understanding of motivations for drug use. Projects in this area include studies of the effects of personality, attitudes, cognitions, and stress on alcohol craving and drinking decisions. More recently, Dr. Erblich's work has focused on the multifaceted trait of impulsivity, and how behavioral dysregulation impacts substance abuse decisions in a variety of populations. Dr. Erblich has projects that aim to identify behavioral and genetic factors associated with cancer health disparities among African American smokers. Finally, Dr. Erblich has experience with conducting research on early detection of cancer (e.g., breast examination, mammography, and more recently, studies conducted in the context of low-dose computed tomography clinics for lung cancer detection). Dr. Erblich's research program aims to ultimately lead to effective multifaceted treatments for tobacco smoking and alcohol dependence, both of which continue to contribute unabatedly to human morbidity and mortality at alarming rates.

Dr. Ford’s research interests include the psychosocial and behavioral outcomes of childhood, adolescent and young adult cancer survivors. Her primary research focus has been to improve quality of life and quality of care outcomes for childhood, adolescent, and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors. In particular, her independent and collaborative research areas have included observational studies of health behaviors, survivorship clinic attendance, psychosexual functioning and fertility, quality of life and psychosocial outcomes, as well as risk-based surveillance. She has also conducted behavioral interventions, including more recently, those that utilize technology to provide distance-delivered health and behavioral interventions. She has led research studies focusing on the underserved and under-researched cohort of adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivorship. Dr. Ford’s research experience in behavioral medicine, provides guidance and insights about working with young adult cancer survivors, conducting and interpreting qualitative research, applying theory to the development and interpretation of the study, and using the results to construct an intervention.

Dr. Goodwin has over 15 years of experience with NIH-funded research on the epidemiology of both childhood asthma and tobacco use, cannabis use and substance use problems, specifically related to the dynamic interplay of cigarette use, substance use disorders and asthma in children over time. She is currently investigating the role of common mental health and substance use problems in the slowed decline in cigarette smoking decline over the past two decades. This proposal grew out of our prior and ongoing work focused on understanding the nature of the relationship between mental disorders (depression, anxiety) and substance use (cannabis, alcohol) and cigarette smoking using population-based, prospective longitudinal data in the United States, Germany, New Zealand and various other countries with exemplary birth cohort and extensive longitudinal datasets. She has published over 200 peer reviewed papers on childhood respiratory health and mental health, substance use and psychiatric epidemiology, the majority of which relate to the overlap between smoking, mental and physical health and substance use problems inter-generationally and over the life- course, focusing on vulnerable populations, as well as psychological sequelae of living with cancer. 

Dr. Lewis' research interest is in the behavioral neurobiology of alcohol abuse and dependence. His lab has focused on the neurobehavioral mechanisms that mediate alcohol reinforcement. Current research explores the role of basic feeding and nutrition systems in alcohol reinforcement and dependence. Alcoholics frequently exhibit significant deterioration of brain, liver and other vital organ systems that regulate food intake and the utilization of nutrients. Possibly under such conditions, alcohol intake is motivated by its nutrient status and its effects on nutritional systems. Research, in collaboration with colleagues at Princeton, Columbia and Rockefeller Universities, suggest that certain neuropeptides that increase food intake may play a role in increasing alcohol intake. The normal role of these peptide systems may be altered due to chronic intake so as to increase alcohol intake at the expense of normal nutrition. This research shows that galanin and opioid neuropeptide systems may increase alcohol intake during the development of dependence. 

Dr. Lechuga graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso with a PhD in health psychology in 2008 and completed an NIH-NRSA postdoctoral fellowship at the Medical College of Wisconsin in 2010. The overarching goal of her research is to contribute to ameliorate the profound ethnic health disparities that characterize the U.S. health care system by developing, implementing and testing theory informed behavior change interventions that are culturally appropriate for Latinx populations. Dr. Lechuga employs a community based participatory research approach (CBPR), which entails forging and sustaining strong partnerships with community based organizations. Her approach is consistent with the socio-ecological view of human development which suggests that the individual is nested in a complex system and promoting sustainable behavior change entails targeting determinants of health operating at multiple levels. 

Dr. Khursheed Navder is the Director of the School of Urban Public Health where she oversees the Nutrition and Public Health programs. She also serves as the Chair of the Nutrition Program where she directs three accredited graduate Nutrition Programs that enable students to pursue the Registered Dietitian (RD) Credential. Her research studies focus on bioactive components of foods, body composition, BMI-body fat relationships, and energy expenditure measurements as they relate to cancer risk and treatment outcomes.

Trained as one of the first generation of health psychologists, Dr. Revenson studies how intra- and interpersonal-factors affect psychological adjustment to chronic physical illness using a contextual approach. Instead of focusing on whether factors such as coping or interpersonal relationships affect adaptation to illness, research using a contextual approach addresses the questions of when, how, for whom, and under what conditions these effects occur, to be able to target behavioral interventions more effectively. For three decades, she has been conducting research in adjustment to illness and cancer survivorship that has examined both risk and resilience factors. Her current research examines psychosocial adaptation and young adults and their parents. 

For more than 10 years, Dr. Seo has been conducting research about Asian immigrant women’s health service utilization, health disparities (barriers to healthcare access), and health-seeking behavior regarding cancer screening. Dr. Seo has a broad background in nursing, with specific training and expertise in qualitative methodologies (individual interviews) including hermeneutic phenomenology, grounded theory, and ethnography. She recently completed studies to investigate health concerns, health care utilization, and health-seeking behaviors among Asian nail salon workers in NYC. Currently, she is actively involved in breast cancer and cervical cancer screening projects with the Korean Community Service, INC. (KCS), The Greater New York Korean Nurses Association, and religious organizations as a consultant, clinician, and health educator. Dr. Seo has also been developing, implementing, and evaluating culturally sensitive cancer prevention education for Asian immigrant women. As PI of a current grant from the New York State Department of Health, Dr. Seo has developed, pilot tested, and is now implementing an educational program to reduce breast cancer risk among high-risk Korean immigrant women in New York City.

Dr. Trasino's research focuses on the role of retinoids (natural and synthetic analogues of vitamin A) in the pathogenesis of fatty liver disease, and liver injury (fibrosis), including non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and type 2 diabetes (T2D). He has also characterized a role for hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) in early fatty liver and injury. HSCs are the primary cells responsible for storage of retinoids, but also for liver fibrosis and scaring in acute and chronic liver diseases, including NAFLD and ALD, which are strong risk factor for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The anti-cancer properties of retinoids have been well characterized and utilizing a range of dietary and genetic in vivo mouse models and molecular techniques, Dr. Trasino's research has extended our understanding of the pharmacological properties of synthetic retinoids in the treatment of chronic liver and kidney diseases. As a PI under his current NIH grant, Dr. Trasino has collaborated extensively with experts in liver cancer and retinoid pharmacology. Dr. Trasino's basic research relates both to dietary and substance abuse-related risk factors for the development of cancer. 

Despite a misconception of being generally healthy, Asians exhibit a high prevalence of many diseases. For example, Asians have a higher rate of hepatitis B virus-related cancer risks compared with other ethnic groups. Dr. Yeh’s extensive training has enabled him to conduct interventions on health promotion and disease prevention using a mixed method approach involving qualitative and quantitative research in this often overlooked and underserved population. Dr. Yeh is a co-leader of the Community Outreach Core of the 5-year project. The main goal of the Community Outreach Core is to strengthen community engagement in outreach research and cancer control through effective community cancer education initiatives and outreach activities to reduce cancer disparities among underserved African Americans, Asian Pacific Americans and Hispanic populations in PA, NJ, NYC region. In addition to cancer-related research, one of Dr. Yeh’s main research interests is in obesity and diabetes prevention and management among multi-ethnic populations. Specifically, building on the success of a prior NIH R34 pilot project exploring the translation of diabetes prevention program (DPP) for Chinese immigrants, he is currently the PI of a NIH funded project that investigates an online DPP curriculum for diabetes prevention in Chinese Americans.