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SOURCE Service-Learning Faculty & Community Fellows

2023-24 Faculty Fellows

Sarah Blenner

Sarah Blenner, JD, MPH

University of California-Los Angeles

Sarah Blenner, JD, MPH, is the Director of Field Studies and Applied Professional Training for UCLA Fielding School of Public Health’s Department of Community Health Sciences, where she develops, implements, and evaluates experiential learning, public health training programs, and interprofessional education. She is Co-Director of the Public Health Training Program on Population Health Advocacy and a faculty advisor for UCLA Mobile Clinic Project. Sarah’s areas of interest include workforce development, experiential education, and integrating health into laws and policies. Prior to joining UCLA, Sarah was the Director of the Center for Diabetes Research and Policy at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. Sarah is licensed to practice law in the State of Illinois and the United States District Court Northern District of Illinois.  Sarah received her JD from IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, MPH from UIC School of Public Health, and BA with High Honors from Emory University.

Jodie L. Guest

Jodie L. Guest, PhD, MPH

Emory University

Dr. Jodie Guest is a Professor and Senior Vice Chair of the Department of Epidemiology at Rollins School of Public Health, Co-Director of the Office of Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice at the Woodruff Health Sciences Center, and the Associate Program Director for the Physician Assistant Program in the School of Medicine at Emory University.  She has been the recipient of multiple awards at Emory, most recently the 2022 Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Alumni Award for Rollins School of Public Health, the 2022 and 2020 Rollins School of Public Health Professor of the Year, 2020 Teaching Excellence Award from the Department of Epidemiology, and the 2019 Emory School of Medicine Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion Award.  She is also the 2023 Society for Epidemiologic Research Kenneth Rothman Career Achievement Winner. Dr. Guest has a broad background in epidemiology and specific expertise in HIV cohorts and clinical trials and emergency preparedness and has focused her research in racial, sexual and gender minority populations in HIV care.  Dr. Guest is also the director of the Emory Farmworker Project, a multi-disciplinary program to provide healthcare to thousands of migrant farmworkers each year.  

Since March 2020, Dr. Guest has led Emory’s Outbreak Response Team for COVID-19, working with poultry plant workers, communities in middle Georgia, the Mexican Consulate in Atlanta, and communities with limited access to vaccines and testing due to unstable housing.  She has prepared public health plans for multiple community organizations including being the Iditarod COVID Czar for the 2021-2023 races. Dr. Guest also serves as the MPox advisor for the City of Atlanta. Dr. Guest has played a prominent role in engaging with local and national media since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and hosts Emory’s weekly video updates about COVID-19. She was awarded Emory’s 2021 MLK Community Service Award for her work with her Outbreak Response Team.

Dr. Guest serves on the Board of Trustees for Leadership Atlanta, the Leadership Council for Zoo Atlanta, is a Faculty Counselor for Emory Board of Trustees, secretary of the University Senate, serves on the Atlanta Mayor’s LGBTQ Advisory Council, and is the co-chair of the National LGBTQ Health Conference.  Additionally, Dr. Guest is the Founder and Executive Director of Teen Corp, a medical and philanthropy organization created to bring experiential learning to youth leaders.

Katherine Humphrey, DNP, FNP-BC

Johns Hopkins University

Katherine Humphrey is a clinical faculty member, clinical coordinator, simulation, and lab instructor in the Master’s Entry into Nursing program.  Her nursing experience includes work at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a clinical research nurse in hematology/oncology/bone marrow transplant. Dr. Humphrey has a background in cardiology research, emergency response and business management. She is passionate about mentoring new nurses entering practice and helping students develop the competencies needed to support our communities and their healthcare needs. Her clinical education and scholarship are focused on nurse retention, nurse mental health, and nurse leadership opportunities to enhance organizational culture and safety. Dr. Humphrey’s specialties include workplace violence, cardiology, psychiatric nursing, mental health, and substance use disorder. She is a certified Family Nurse Practitioner and completed her DNP at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. Dr. Humphrey is completing her Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse certificate at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. She is a member of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners and Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society.

Elizabeth Mackessy-Lloyd

Elizabeth Mackessy-Lloyd, RN, CNE

Hood College

I am a registered nurse and Certified Nurse Educator. My nursing practice has focused on both medical-surgical nursing and community health. At Hood, I work to connect students with service-learning experiences through partnership with several community agencies.

As a nurse educator, I strive to bridge the gap between learning in the lecture and clinical settings, and to help students transfer knowledge to real life situations using creative teaching methods.

Robin McGee

Robin McGee, PhD, MPH

Emory University

Dr. Robin McGee is Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of Behavioral, Social, and Health Education Sciences (BSHES) at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. As a behavioral scientist, she uses mixed-methods to evaluate practice-based interventions and training programs. In collaboration with the Emory Prevention Research Center, Dr. McGee is leading a project that evaluates interventions developed by community-based organizations throughout Georgia. This project aims to contribute to the dissemination of practice-based evidence. Additionally, Dr. McGee has focused on the adaptation and implementation of an evidence-based self-management program for people with epilepsy. Most recently, she led an evaluation assessing adoption and implementation of the program among trained providers to facilitate understanding about translation to the community. 

In her role as the Assistant Director of the Office of Evidence-based Learning, she evaluates teaching approaches and contributes to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). Dr. McGee teaches several classes in the BSHES Master of Public Health program, including Theory Driven Research and Practice and Program Evaluation. In her teaching, she engages with community partners and develops learning opportunities that connect academic and practice-based public health. 

Taylor Tresatti

Taylor Tresatti, MPH

George Washington University

Taylor Tresatti is a Program Manager in the Office of Applied Public Health at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University.  She received her Master’s Degree in Public Health with a concentration in Global Health Program Design, Monitoring and Evaluation from GW and a Global Health Certificate from the University of Copenhagen. After spending the first few years of her career in international humanitarian health and assistance, she is most passionate about contributing to improving health equity outcomes and social justice in DC, the place she has called home for nearly a decade. Her current work centers on building sustainable academic-community partnership through various programs including the GW Urban Health Program, a public-health focused, community engagement and service-learning initiative for public health students serving organizations and agencies in the DC Metro Area. 

Elizabeth Wall-Bassett

Elizabeth Wall-Bassett, PhD, RDN, FAND

Western Carolina University

Elizabeth Wall-Bassett is professor of nutrition and dietetics in the School of Health Sciences at Western Carolina University. Simply stated, I highly value pedagogy with engaged scholarship. I aim to create and transmit knowledge with meaning to ensure relevant and authentic teaching and learning experiences through engagement and interdisciplinary activities. My vitae demonstrates my coherent focus on collaborating, partnering, presenting and publishing with others in industry, education, government, and communities to nutritionally assess the population and provide educational interventions to better understand, address, and improve community issues. I use the infrastructure of SLCE to guide my work as well as my being a role model to others. These reciprocal [co-created] partnerships engage students, faculty/staff, and community members to achieve academic, civic, and personal [growth] learning objectives as well as to advance public purposes. I depend on building trusting relationships with not only the community, colleagues, and other partners but also the students and vulnerable populations that we serve. I have actively incorporated SLCE concepts in my courses, helped other faculty and students understand SLCE key concepts through successful application and scholarship with local and overseas partners, and been recognized through the SLCE teaching and leadership awards and fellowships. By developing capacity (academic, civic, and/or personal), the hope is to have investment, appreciation, and realization of the change that occurs through intentional forethought, engagement, and reflection.

Sara Wilensky

Sara Wilensky, JD, PhD

George Washington University

Dr. Wilensky focuses on financing, access and health care needs of the medically underserved, with an emphasis on issues relating to Medicaid. After completing her undergraduate work, Dr. Wilensky served as a fellow at Plan de Salud del Valle Community Health Center, located in rural Colorado, gaining first-hand insights into the needs of these populations. Subsequently, she pursued a law degree, clerked for a federal judge, and worked briefly at a law firm, before becoming a member of the GW health policy faculty in 2002. 

Dr. Wilensky has taught in both the undergraduate and graduate public health programs and has co-authored a textbook, Essentials of Health Policy and Law, which is used at both levels of study. Dr. Wilensky currently serves on two Department committees – Curriculum and Faculty and Staff Affairs -- and on the School's SPH Curriculum Committee, BSPH Curriculum Committee, and Undergraduate Planning and Practice Committee. She also participates in the GW committee for Undergraduate Deans.

Dr. Wilensky is the Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Education. In this role, she oversees programming and development for all of SPH's undergraduate offerings, including our three majors and four minors.  In addition, she works with partners across the university to improve the experience for SPH's undergraduate students.

Rebecca Wright

Rebecca Wright, PhD, BSC (HONS), RN

Johns Hopkins University

Rebecca Wright has worked in health care since 2004. Her program of research focuses on principles of justice and equity within palliative care, and development and application of qualitative, participatory methodologies within a diverse range of settings and with vulnerable populations. She was a nurse at St. Christopher's Hospice in London and a research assistant at King's College London on local, national, and international projects. Dr. Wright earned her doctoral degree in nursing research and her bachelor's degree from the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery at King's College London and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the New York University School of Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine. Her doctoral research demonstrated mechanisms or improving clinical practice in the emergency department (ED) through partnership with older adults with palliative care needs using the methodology Experience-based Co-design (EBCD).

Dr. Wright works with national and international inter-professional and trans-disciplinary teams from schools of nursing, medicine, and public health, and local Baltimore community members to advance participatory, co-design approaches to improve experiences of access and delivery to palliative and end-of-life care. She is a founding member of the Palliative Interprofessional Collaborative for Action Research (PICAR), and a founding member of the Qualitative Core at the JHSON. Her current research applies an equity and access focus and approach to improving palliative care in a range of settings. She is working with clinical and supportive care staff across inpatient, outpatient, and ED settings, and partnering with Black, Korean, and Puerto Rican populations specifically, as well as those with palliative and end-of-life needs more broadly.

2023-2024 Community Fellows

Jayson Green

Jayson Green

Executive Director, New Song Community Learning Center

Jayson Jarual Green is the Executive Director of New Song Community Learning Center, Baltimore City Public Charter School Operator of New Song Academy #322, a PreK-8th charter school located in the heart of Sandtown-Winchester. Jayson has spent his career working with young people and their families to expand their educational and employment opportunities building strong community connections. Previously, Jayson served as the Executive Director of the Y in Druid Hill in West Baltimore.  

Born in the Bronx, NY, Jayson grew up in a community much like West Baltimore understanding the critical importance of education and equity. Jayson has led organizations by raising and stewarding the critical funds needed to accomplish their missions.  

Jayson also serves as Secretary on the Board of Directors for B-CIITY (Baltimore City Intergenerational Initiatives for Trauma & Youth). He is a devoted Husband to his beautiful Wife, proud Father of two amazing young women, and loving Grandfather of two precious little girls. 

Ciara Huff

Ciara Huff

CASA

Ciara M. Huff is a Baltimore native whose passion for child welfare started very early. As a young girl, she observed her mother, a devoted childcare provider, care for and nurture children in the community, which sparked her interest in child advocacy. Ms. Huff entered her academic career intending to advocate for at-risk youth. She holds a B.A. in Criminology & Criminal Justice from the University of Maryland, College Park, with a minor in Human Development, an M.A. in Legal & Ethical Studies, and an M.S. in Negotiations & Conflict Management from the University of Baltimore.

Ms. Huff started as a volunteer advocate for CASA of Baltimore in 2014. As a volunteer, she supported children in five cases, in which one closed due to the child being placed in a safe and permanent home. Additionally, due to the conflict she experienced among the parties of this case, she developed and implemented Conflict Management and Effective Communication training for other CASA volunteers. She became CASA's Executive Director in 2019.

Ms. Huff believes that children are our most vulnerable population, especially those abused and neglected, and it is an obligation of those with the capacity and ability to make a difference, give children a voice, and help them reach their full potential. She takes the necessary actions daily to make a difference in a child's life. Ms. Huff serves on the CLIA Youth and Phase 3 Training Corporation boards and the Selection Advisory Council for GreenLight Fund.

Sandra Hunsicker

Sandra Hunsicker

The Esperanza Center

Sandra Hunsicker (she/her) is the Volunteer Coordinator and Educational Services Co-Coordinator at the Esperanza Center. She has a B.A. in Communication and Spanish Language, Literatures, and Culture from the University of Maryland, College Park. Sandra joined the Esperanza Center team in 2021 as an AmeriCorps VISTA member working with the Educational Services Team. Through this experience, Sandra discovered her passion for placing volunteers in meaningful volunteer positions that could help them grow both professionally and personally. In August 2022, Sandra began her current positions at the Esperanza Center. As the Volunteer Coordinator, Sandra has the opportunity to recruit volunteers for Esperanza Center’s diverse programs, build and strengthen volunteer partnerships with local organizations and universities, and match volunteers to appropriate positions. As the Educational Services Co-Coordinator, Sandra recruits, trains, and supervises over 25 volunteer teachers a quarter for Esperanza Center’s English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program. Outside of her work with the Esperanza Center, Sandra loves spending time with her spouse, listening to audiobooks, and baking.