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Michelle Bedoya is a PhD student in Health and Public Policy within the Department of Health Policy and Management. Her research explores how the legal and policy landscape shapes health outcomes, with a focus on behavioral health. Drawing on her experience as a practicing attorney, she applies a legal lens to examine the structure of the U.S. health system and the broader legal determinants of health, investigating how laws and policies can be designed or reformed to improve public health and promote equity. Prior to her doctoral studies, Michelle earned an LLM in Health Law and Policy with Highest Honors from George Washington University and a JD from Barry University. She also holds a BA in International Relations, with a minor in Health Services Administration, from Florida International University.

Leslie Carson is a second-year PhD student in the Department of Mental Health. Her research interests include neighborhood-level influences on substance use, spatial analysis, caregiver and family health, and implementation science. Leslie previously worked at the Health Resources and Services Administration and National Highway Traffic Administration, where she managed community-based COVID-19 vaccine promotion and impaired driving prevention programs, respectively. Prior to her federal service, Leslie worked in college health promotion. She received her master's degrees in public health and social work from the Ohio State University and her bachelor's degree in biological sciences from Cornell University.

Maria Cruz is a doctoral candidate in Health Services Research and Policy in the department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½. Cruz's research interests include public involvement in mental health policy and research, examining mental health service disparities in underserved populations, and transforming the widening gap of mental health inequity across marginalized groups. Prior to coming to Hopkins, she was a research associate at the University of Miami’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, where she served as a clinical and research coordinator for the Tics, OCD, and Related Disorders clinic. She received her BA in psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2018.

Valerie Ganetsky is a doctoral candidate in Health Services Research and Policy in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½. Her research focuses on expanding access to evidence-based medications for individuals with opioid use disorder, with a particular emphasis on pregnant and parenting populations. Valerie earned her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Temple University in 2008 and holds a Master’s degree in Health Policy Research from the University of Pennsylvania. Before pursuing her PhD, she worked in the Division of Addiction Medicine at Cooper University Health Care in Camden, New Jersey. In that role, she provided clinical care in a perinatal substance use disorder clinic, conducted research in perinatal substance use disorders, and led additional projects aimed at improving access to medications for opioid use disorder.

Yimin Ge is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Health Policy and Management. Her current work focuses on analyzing the impact of healthcare and social policies on mental health and substance use disorder treatment supply, utilization, and quality. 

Victoria Green is a PhD student in the Department of Mental Health. She is broadly interested in behavioral health policy and evaluation, with a specific focus on the intersection of substance use and physical disability policy. She is also interested in evaluating public communication strategies that can reduce stigma associated with mental health and substance use disorders. Green previously worked at the Congressional Research Service as a health policy analyst and at the National Institute on Drug Abuse as a tobacco research analyst. She received her MHS in mental health from the Johns ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ and her BA in psychology from Gettysburg College.

Sarah Henderson is a PhD student in the Department of Health Policy and Management. Sarah’s interests include health services research, population mental health, Medicaid reform, and state health policy. Before her training at Hopkins, Sarah worked as an analyst at Vanderbilt's Department of Health Policy and The Sycamore Institute, a state-level policy research center. Sarah received her Master of Public Health degree from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health and BS/BA degrees from Furman University.

Maya Lakshman is a PhD student in the Department of Mental Health at Johns ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½. Her research focuses on the impact of violence on the development and mental health of marginalized youth and families, and on how policy can be leveraged to address structural determinants of health, prevent violence, and advance equity. Maya previously worked at Chapin Hall, where she helped manage a portfolio of multiple states—guiding each through implementation of Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA), and monitoring and evaluating its impact on youth and family outcomes. She earned both her MPH and BS from Emory University and is an Oak Foundation Fellow with MOORE and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Research Scholar.

Kyle Moon is a PhD student in the Department of Mental Health, focusing on the social epidemiology of behavioral health. His research evaluates how social policies, particularly those related to housing and homelessness, shape substance use, overdose risk, and access to care. Prior to entering the doctoral program, he worked at Dartmouth College and the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Evaluation Studies. Kyle earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame.

Iraj Qureshi is a statistical programmer and specializes in processing and analyzing datasets for several projects. She is leading the work on Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project dataset at CMAP and works on other datasets that contain hospital records and claims records for mental health and addiction patients, providers, and policies. 

Hridika Shah is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½. Her research is focused on policy to lower barriers to harm reduction and treatment for substance use disorder. Prior to starting in the PhD program, Hridika was a research coordinator within the Bloomberg Overdose Prevention Initiative. She received her MSPH in Health Policy from the Johns ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ and her BA in Public Health and Economics from Johns Hopkins University.

Jirka Taylor is a doctoral candidate in Health and Public Policy in the department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½. His research interests include the intersection of health, social, and criminal legal policy and how interventions in these domains can improve health, well-being, and other outcomes for various populations, including marginalized individuals. His dissertation focuses on improving linkage to care after non-fatal opioid overdoses. Prior to coming to Hopkins, Jirka was a senior policy analyst at the RAND Corporation working on drug, social, and criminal legal policy. Jirka earned his M.A. at Charles University (Czech Republic) and his M.Phil. at the University of Cambridge (UK).

Ben Thornburg is a 3rd-year PhD candidate specializing in health economics within the Department of Health Policy and Management. His research focuses on using applied microeconomics to study behavioral healthcare, including patient outcomes and the incentives that determine provider decision-making. His dissertation examines the impact of the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade on population mental health, the outcomes of the National Residency Match for behavioral healthcare providers, and the dynamics of private equity investment in behavioral health treatment facilities. Before his graduate training at Johns Hopkins, Ben studied economics & mathematics at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro where he received his BS in 2020.

Linh Tran is a PhD student in the Department of Health Policy and Management. She is interested in access to mental health services and labor supply of mental health providers. Prior to Hopkins, Linh was a pre-doctoral fellow at Stanford Law School before working in the private sector. She earned her bachelor’s degree in economics from Princeton University.