We are proud to announce our first cohort of REACH scholars!
We would like to welcome:
- Margaret Fitzpatrick, PhD, RN
- Sarah Schott, MD, MSc
- Ryan Assaf, PhD, MPH
- Amrita Rao, PhD, ScM
- Jane Leer, PhD
Margaret Fitzpatrick, PhD, RN
Margaret Fitzpatrick, PhD, RN, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Connecticut School of Nursing whose research is driven by a commitment to improving the health and well-being of youth and young adults experiencing homelessness and housing instability. Drawing on her background as a registered nurse and community-engaged researcher, she partners with youth, service providers, and community organizations to develop strengths-based approaches that promote health equity and reduce substance-related harms. Her work focuses on understanding how supportive relationships, community-connected care, and structural interventions can help young people thrive despite adversity. As a REACH Scholar, Dr. Fitzpatrick is advancing research to design and implement innovative models of care that support housing stability, resilience, and long-term health among young people experiencing homelessness.
Sarah Scott, MD, MSc
Sarah Scott, MD, MSc is an Assistant Professor of Infectious Diseases at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. She completed college, medical school, and a combined Internal Medicine–Pediatrics residency at Vanderbilt. She then served as a CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer with the Arizona Department of Health Services and Maricopa County Department of Public Health (2018–2020) and stayed on at Maricopa County as a Medical Epidemiologist through the COVID-19 pandemic. She completed her Infectious Diseases fellowship at Emory University, where she also earned a master’s in clinical research. As a REACH Scholar, she will use simulation modeling to evaluate housing and public health interventions that could most effectively stop a local HIV outbreak among people experiencing homelessness who inject drugs.
Ryan Assaf, PhD, MPH
Dr. Ryan Assaf is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Health and Society. He received his PhD and MPH in Epidemiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, Fielding School of Public Health and earned his BS at the University of California, Irvine. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative.
Dr. Assaf is a social epidemiologist with expertise in substance use among socially marginalized populations. He uses social determinants of health frameworks and epidemiological methods to examine the intersections of substance use, treatment, and drug-related overdose among people experiencing and exiting homelessness. He has worked directly with community-based organizations serving people experiencing homelessness, people who use drugs, and sexual and gender diverse communities for nearly 10 years which has informed his research.
Amrita Rao, PhD, ScM
Amrita Rao, PhD ScM, is an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she completed her doctoral training in 2022. She is a social epidemiologist whose research focuses on the intersection of housing and HIV in the United States, with expertise in longitudinal data analysis, quasi-experimental designs, and the use of real-world data to inform public health research. Her work examines how social and structural determinants, particularly housing instability and homelessness, shape health outcomes and access to quality care. Her current research focuses on implementing and evaluating interventions to address housing-related vulnerabilities among young people. Through partnerships with community-based organizations, service providers, and government agencies across the United States, she works to evaluate programs to reduce housing-related barriers to care, improve health outcomes, and generate evidence to inform implementation and policy in real-world settings.
Jane Leer, PhD
Dr. Jane Leer is a developmental psychologist with interdisciplinary training in education and policy research. She joined the Psychology Department at San Diego State University as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Fall 2024, and she is also a faculty member of the joint University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University doctoral programs in Clinical Psychology and Public Health. Dr. Leer’s research examines how environmental and institutional factors influence adolescent mental and behavioral health, with an emphasis on evaluating the effectiveness of interventions designed to support young people affected by housing insecurity, homelessness, and neighborhood disadvantage. She has expertise in human development, neighborhood effects, housing, and education policy. Her work has been supported by pilot awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIDA/NIMHD), the American Psychological Association, the Society for Research in Child Development, and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, as well as multiple competitive awards from UC Berkeley, Stanford, Duke University, and San Diego State University. As a REACH Scholar, she is excited to co-develop a school-based substance use prevention intervention for adolescents experiencing homelessness.