Georgiy Bobashev is a Senior Fellow at RTI International with more than 20 years of experience in health research. His current research interests follow two major areas: predictive modeling and studies of substance use and risky behaviors. Dr. Bobashev has applied modeling, statistical analysis and experimental design to a variety of health- and policy-related areas, including substance use, HIV, child/maternal health, influenza, cancer, diabetes, and violent behavior.

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Aiden Chauntry is a clinical research scientist whose work focuses on cardiovascular health and physiological monitoring. His research examines how psychological stress, sedentary behavior, and other lifestyle factors contribute to cardiometabolic disease risk. He also investigates how wearable technologies—particularly near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and photoplethysmography (PPG)—can quantify relevant physiological responses in applied and clinical settings. He is especially interested in translating these methods into scalable tools that improve detection and monitoring of cardiovascular compromise in high-risk patients.

Sydney Churchill's research focuses on understanding how modifiable health behaviors, such as increasing physical activity and reducing sedentary behavior, can be leveraged to improve mental health, physical health, and clinical outcomes in people with chronic conditions. Her work primarily targets two populations: people with epilepsy and those affected by substance use disorders. She uses large-scale data analytics to inform the design of behavioral interventions, with the goal of developing evidence-based treatment options that support long-term health and engagement.

David Conroy, PhD, is professor and Bickner Chair of Applied Exercise Science at the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology. He is also director of the Motivation Lab and Roybal Center for Promoting Adherence to Behavior Change & Enhancing Cognitive Function. His primary interest involves developing behavioral interventions that target motivational processes to promote health behaviors that enable people to live long, health filled and happy lives. The goal of these interventions is to make healthy lifestyles less effortful and more enjoyable.

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Melissa Cox is a behavioral scientist with a program of research centered on the social ecology of youth and young adult alcohol misuse. Her primary focus has been understanding the complex relationships and environments that young people occupy and that shape their alcohol use behaviors. Dr. Cox’s work represents an intersection of public health approaches, principles of developmental science, quantitative methodologies and prevention science. 

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Genevieve Dunton’s research tries to explain and promote participation in physical activity and healthy dietary behaviors in children, adults, and families. This work is guided by a social-ecological perspective of behavior change, which takes into account the interplay between environmental, social, and individual variables. Her research considers how policy, community, neighborhood, and school contexts can influence physical activity either independently or through their impact on more proximal social and psychological factors.

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Marissa Hall's overarching career goal is to design and evaluate evidence-based food, tobacco, and alcohol policies. Much of her research focuses on policies in retail environments, including warning labels, product availability regulation, and marketing restrictions. Dr. Hall applies a range of methodological approaches to explore policy-related research questions, including online experiments, randomized trials, and qualitative research. 

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Sarah is a research project manager working on the team’s TIIP-funded project. She earned her MA in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy from Pepperdine University and her BS in Psychology from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Her research interests center on psychological stress, socioemotional risk and resilience, and mental health promotion, with particular interests in qualitative research and prevention-focused intervention development.

Kurt Ribisl’s primary research interest is evaluating and improving the reach of population-level efforts to reduce tobacco use with a particular emphasis on policy and information technology. He specializes in studying policy issues related to the sales and marketing of tobacco products at the point of sale and on the Internet. He has researched tobacco product marketing, pricing, promotions and youth access as well as use of geographic information systems in tobacco control.

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Caroline Ritchie is a project manager who supports different research related to cancer prevention and control. Her research interests are health equity, community-based interventions, and health promotion behaviors. She received her Master of Public Health in Health Equity, Social Justice, and Human Rights from the Gillings School of Global Public Health at UNC.

Mike Russell's research focuses on connections between stress, affect, and health behaviors in the day-to-day lives of adolescents/young adults, using advanced statistical modeling and ambulatory assessment methods.

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Paschal Sheeran is a social psychologist whose research concerns self-regulation – how people direct their thoughts, feelings and actions to achieve their goals. His particular interests are health behavior change and emotion regulation with research on the intention-behavior ‘gap' and the use of implementation intentions to reduce the intention-behavior ‘gap’ and improve rates of performance of health behaviors.

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Dr. Smith is a research scientist with UNC-CH’s Community Health and Wellness Resource Team and director of Go NAPSACC, a health promotion quality improvement framework. Her work focuses on the development, implementation, and dissemination of evidence-based practices to promote health and well-being across care settings. She uses qualitative and community-engaged research approaches to better understand the experiences, needs, and contexts of communities and organizations, with a particular interest in building sustainable partnerships.