Research Team
Dr. Lucie Kalousova
Co-Principal Investigator
Dr. Kalousová is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, Health & Society, and the Department of Sociology at Vanderbilt University. As a co-principal investigator, she co-leads all aspects of the project.
Dr. Kalousová received a PhD in Sociology and Health Services Organization and Policy and Sociology at the University of Michigan and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Nuffield College at University of Oxford. She received extensive training in quantitative methods and survey research and has a portfolio of independent and collaborative research on health disparities and policy.
At Vanderbilt, she teaches courses on social determinants of health, poverty and social programs, and disparities within the US healthcare system.
Dr. Deborah Carr
Co-Principal Investigator
Deborah Carr is director of the Center of Innovation in Social Science and a professor of sociology at Boston University. She has written extensively on inequality in old age, death and dying, bereavement, and end-of-life planning. She has published more than 120 articles and chapters, and several books including Aging in America (University of California Press, 2023) as well as several co-authored textbooks. Her 2019 book Golden Years? Social Inequality in Later Life (Russell Sage) received the 2020 Richard Kalish Innovative Publication Award from the Gerontological Society of America. She is also co-editor of the Handbook of Aging & Social Sciences, 9th ed. (Elsevier, 2021).
Dr. Clifford Ross
Postdoctoral Researcher
Clifford Ross is a medical sociologist whose research investigates the unique ways in which health disparities are socially patterned throughout the life course. Currently, his work emphasizes institutional level factors, and how these factors may influence the relationship between social environments and health.
Joya Mulheron
Consultant
Founder & Executive Director, Evermore
Ms. Mulheron spent twenty-five years advising high-ranking politicians, including governors and The White House, and translating basic science into public policy. She has enjoyed leading significant initiatives for the National Governors Association, the National Academies of Science, and the American Cancer Society. Ms. Mulheron holds a master’s in biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University, a degree in biochemistry and English from Virginia Tech, and a minor in chemistry. After a series of high-profile death events and the death of her daughter, Ms. Mulheron founded Evermore to change policy, advance research, and improve the lives of bereaved children and families.
Dr. Elizabeth Luth
Consultant
Assistant Professor, Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research, Rutgers University.
Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
Dr. Luth is a Core Faculty member at the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, & Aging Research and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at Rutgers University. Her research focuses on identifying racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in palliative and end-of-life care and developing practical, inclusive, and scalable tools to reduce disparities and promote health equity. Dr. Luth holds a PhD in Sociology from Rutgers University trained as a postdoctoral fellow at Weill Cornell Medicine.
Brooke Chepenik
Project Coordinator
Brooke Chepenik is an undergraduate student at Vanderbilt University studying Medicine, Health, and Society and Child Development. As Project Coordinator for the HEAL Project, she is interested in health equity, healthcare access, and how research can improve the experiences of patients and families. Her research experience includes work in the Children’s Healthcare, Illness, Legacy, and Loss (CHILL) Lab examining respite care access for families of medical complex children. Her work has strengthened her interest in caregiver support, access to respite services, and improving systems of care for families of children with complex medical needs.
Zhe Zhang
Graduate Student
Zhe Zhang is a Sociology Ph.D. Candidate at Vanderbilt University. He is a medical sociologist whose research examines the social determinants of health and health disparities across the life course, with particular attention to social relationships and networks, stress and adversity, and social and political contexts. One line of his current research investigates the rise of lifelong singlehood, the health and well-being of people who are single or live alone, and how policy institutions shape well-being. Another line of research examines whether state-level policies alleviate or exacerbate the mental health consequences of individual-level stressors.
Sarah Koch
Graduate Student
Sarah Koch is a second-year sociology PhD student at Vanderbilt (B.A. Anthropology/Sociology/Spanish, Centre College, 2025) who researches the intersections of identity, health, language, politics, and culture. Their past projects include studies of anti-queerness in education policy, anti-racist discourse on social media, wellbeing at the end of life, and clinical trajectories in electronic health records. Sarah led a qualitative analysis of HEAL project data and presented preliminary findings at ASA 2026. They are excited to continue working with HEAL as a qualitative data analyst and coauthor.
Zheng (Noah) Lian
Graduate Student
Noah is a first year PhD. Student in the sociology department at Vanderbilt University. His primary research interests are the ways in which different aspects of social relationships affect individuals’ health-related behaviors. His contemporary project looks at how social support, as a multidimensional construct, directly or indirectly affects end-of-life healthcare decision-making with a special focus on the moderation effect of racial-ethnic identity. He graduated from Emory University with a B.S. in Quantitative Sciences and a double major in Sociology.
Blake Powell
Graduate Student
Blake is second-year Sociology Ph.D. Student at Vanderbilt University. His research focuses on the social determinants of health and health disparities throughout the life course, with a particular interest in mental health, chronic disease, and the roles of policy contexts and social networks. One line of his research explores how U.S. State policy contexts shape mental health outcomes, including anxiety, depression, and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. In another line of research, Blake examines how state policies impact social networks, family structures, and the experience of chronic disease. Prior to joining Vanderbilt, Blake earned his bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Tulane University.
Dr. Kafayat O. Mahmoud
Research Fellow
Kafayat O. Mahmoud holds a Dual Title Ph.D in Sociology and Gerontology from the University of Kansas (2023). Her research interests broadly medical sociology, life course and aging, population health, social relationships, and end of life. Her research broadly involves the application and testing of sociological theories and life course perspectives, as well as quantitative and qualitative methods to explore social and health disparities among the rapidly aging population. She has been a Policy Fellow at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Doctoral Research Fellow, and Institute for Policy and Social Research Fellow, University of Kansas.
Emmy S. Schuler
Qualitative Research Specialist
Emmy is a first-year sociology PhD student at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests include illness experience & identity, health system navigation, and patient-provider communication, with a special interest in how these develop across the life course. Recent work at the HEAL Project examines the role of patient-provider communication in end-of-life decision-making and advance care planning. Prior to joining the HEAL Project, she conducted research at the San Francisco Department of Health and the Children’s Healthcare, Illness, Legacy, and Loss (CHILL) Lab examining psychosocial and relational influences on health behaviors and wellbeing. Emmy is a graduate of Vanderbilt University, where she received a B.A. and M.A. in Medicine, Health, and Society.
Alumni
Bennie Damul
Project Coordinator
Bennie Damul is a graduate of Vanderbilt University’s Master of Public Health (MPH) program with a concentration in Global Health. Her research interest is in healthcare disparities and mental health, with a particular focus on how stigma, discrimination, and systemic inequalities impact health outcomes in marginalized communities. She is also interested in how emerging technologies can be utilized to improve health outcomes. Bennie earned her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Xavier University, where she was both a Community-Engaged Fellow and a Brueggeman Research Fellow.
Brina Ratangee
Research Assistant
Brina Ratangee was a member of the HEAL Project team while completing her master’s degree in Medicine, Health and Society (MHS) at Vanderbilt University. Her thesis investigated the association between decedents’ use of advance care planning and their bereaved caregivers’ mental health. She also earned her B.A. In MHS and Neuroscience from Vanderbilt, where she researched mental health disparities among caregivers for people with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. She is now studying medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where she hopes to bridge population and policy research with clinical care.
Iliana Behague-Mentzel
Intern
Iliana completed a summer internship at the HEAL Project in 2024. During her time at the HEAL Project, she created several infographics and educational materials about advance care planning, hospice and palliative care, care disparities, and end-of-life and caregiving policy news.
Jazzlynn Temple
Research Assistant
Jazzlynn Temple is an undergraduate senior at Vanderbilt University. She is a pre-medical student studying French and Medicine, Health, and Society with a concentration in health behaviors and health sciences. Jazzlynn is passionate about mental health, health equity, and language. During her time with the HEAL Project, she assisted with qualitative data analysis, social media, and literature review. She most enjoyed learning qualitative research skills and appreciated the drive of the HEAL team as they work to identify and understand disparities in healthcare.
Nashell Wilson
Graduate Student
Nashell is a first-year Master of Public Health (MPH) student at Vanderbilt University, concentrating in Health Policy. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Health and Rehabilitation Sciences with a minor in Business from The Ohio State University.
Nashell is passionate about increasing healthcare access for vulnerable populations, with a particular focus on communities of color. She aims to advance health equity in a scholarly and culturally relevant way, through local community engagement and policies that directly reflect the needs of the populations served.
Colette C. Ezeanyim
Research Assistant
Colette C. Ezeanyim is an undergraduate student at Vanderbilt University studying child development and Medicine, Health and Society (MHS). She is interested in learning about the intricacies of the healthcare system, and her academic and research interests involve an intersection of clinical care, developmental psychology, and systemic health inequities. She is a recipient of the 2026 VUSRP, and her project focuses on understanding the narrative and perspectives of “good death” across different disciplines and groups, and the extent to which social and structural factors constrain the ability of individuals to obtain their preferred end-of-life care (EOLs) or desired death.
Call
615-343-2636
healproject@vanderbilt.edu