Center for Population Behavioral Health

Through innovative digital health interventions and culturally tailored solutions, CPBH research addresses the root causes of health disparities in the fields of behavioral health, aging, and substance use.

Overview

The Center for Population Behavioral Health (CPBH) is devoted to securing funding to advance pioneering research aimed at mitigating health inequities among diverse populations. CPBH’s primary focus is on recognizing and contextualizing health disparities, particularly within marginalized communities, and formulating culturally attuned, enduring remedies. The Center’s scope encompasses behavioral health, aging, substance use, mental health, and chronic disease management, utilizing sophisticated methodologies such as just-in-time adaptive interventions (JITAI) and ecological momentary assessments (EMA), including digital interventions.

This research is sustained by substantial external funding from entities like the National Institutes of Health (NIH), ensuring CPBH’s capacity to sustain its innovative initiatives and provide pragmatic health solutions customized for underserved populations. Through collaborative interdisciplinary efforts and a dedication to mentorship, CPBH is at the forefront of shaping the landscape of population health research while addressing the social and cultural determinants influencing health outcomes.

 

“Our goal at CPBH is to expand IFH’s behavioral health research infrastructure to support real-time, remote data collection, and integration of diverse data types to enable cutting-edge assessment and clinical trials methods that can be scaled to the population-level, and align with a precision medicine approach to population health.”

 

Tammy Chung, PhD
Director, Center for Population Behavioral Health Professor, Department of
Psychiatry, Rutgers University

Our Research

Our research focuses on four key thematic areas: healthy aging, health equity, health policy, and health technology with the central aim of improving population health.

  • In the area of healthy aging, Center research will increasingly use real-time data collection (e.g., phone survey/intervention, wearable device) to provide the “right treatment, to the right person, at the right time.”
  • In the area of health equity, Center projects examine social determinants of health, and how multi-level (e.g., structural, community-level, individual-level) interventions are often needed to observe improvements in most health outcomes.
  • In the area of health policy, Center activities evaluate and address the impacts of health policy at local, national, and international levels.
  • In the area of health technology, the Center plays a key role in advancing data science and health technology to support integrated, personalized behavioral healthcare that scales to the population level.

Research & Projects

Core Members

Tammy Chung, PhD

Director, Rutgers Center for Population Behavioral Health

Yanping Jiang, PhD

Core Member, Rutgers Center for Population Behavioral Health

Brett Millar, PhD

Core Member, Rutgers Center for Population Behavioral Health

Carolyn E. Sartor, PhD

Core Member, Rutgers Center for Population Behavioral Health

K. Marie Sizemore, PhD, RYT

Core Member, Rutgers Center for Population Behavioral Health

Research Staff

Nicole Kennelly, MS

Research Specialist-Data Analyst, Center of Population Behavioral Health & Center for Health Services Research

Joel St. Germain

Research Assistant, Rutgers Center for Population Behavioral Health

Anxhela Kalia

Research Assistant, Rutgers Center for Population Behavioral Health

Postdoctoral Researchers

Soonhyung Kwon, PhD, MSW, MA, BA

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Rutgers Center for Population Behavioral Health

Students


Curie Ahn, MD, PGY-1

Yuyang Zhu

Research Analyst, Center for Pharmacoepidemiology and Treatment Science

Linqi Xiao

Aila Altinbulek, BS

Laurie Herrick, MPH

Modupe Akinmade, MPH

Ashley Chin, MPH

Nathan Stewart, M.S.

Lindsay Berg, MPH

Lara Fougnies, BA

Zeyneb Aamer, BS

Kathryn Abbott, MS

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