Recent Graduates
Xi Cen
Xi Cen joined the HSR & Policy PhD program in 2013. She received a B.S. and an M.S. in Statistics from Xiamen University in China, as well as an M.A. in Economics in San Francisco State University. Xi is interested in health economics, quality of care and health disparities. Before coming to Rochester, she worked at UCSF Medical Center on evaluating health resource utilization in neurosciences clinics. Xi also interned at Amgen Global Health Economics Department, where she focused on an independent project evaluating the burden of skeletal related events on health recourse utilization among cancer patients with bone metastasis. She is currently working on racial disparities in Nursing Home care and impacts of state policies.
Michael Chen
Michael Chen joined the HSR & Policy PhD program in 2011. He completed his undergraduate studies in economics and community health at Brown University. Michael worked in community organizing, affordable housing advocacy, and public health consulting throughout the New England states. Michael is primarily interested in maternal and child health as well as household and family demography. In addition to working toward the development of his dissertation, Michael enjoys spending time with his family and supporting his hometown team, the Toronto Raptors.
Twylla Dillion
Twylla Dillion joined the HSR & Policy PhD program in 2011. She has a BA in Health and Society from The University of Rochester and an MBA from St. John Fisher College. She is interested in the complementary infant nutrition, breastfeeding, obesity, patient-provider relationship and social determinants of health.
Viji Kannan
Viji Kannan joined the HSR & Policy PhD program in 2010. She graduated from Emory University, with a MSPH in Health Policy and Management and the University of Georgia, with a BBA in Management Information Systems,. Her research interests include health choices and decision making, public opinion, media message framing, health communication, and psychology theory, pharmaceuticals, food, wellness, built environment, and healthcare utilization & access. Teaching interests are psychology theory, and statistics. Viji’s dissertation examines the phenomenon of care-seeking delay among people experiencing a myocardial infarction. Lack of success in intervening to reduce delay has prompted delay researchers to call for the use of psychology theory to explain patient delay. Viji’s dissertation identifies values, regulatory focus, and executive function theories as potential explanations for MI care-seeking delay.
Tiffany Lee
Tiffany Lee joined the HSR & Policy PhD program in 2014. Prior to entering the department, she received her BA and MPH from the University of South Florida. She also previously worked for a managed care organization for the quality department. Her research interests include quality assurance reporting, healthcare information technology, rural health and integrated delivery models.
Mechelle Sanders
Mechelle Sanders is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University, where she majored in psychology and sociology. After graduating, she completed a teaching fellowship through the NYC Board of Education. She has worked on several NIH funded studies in the areas of cancer screening disparities, patient portals, and provider--patient communication about physical activity. Mechelle’s research interests include racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in health outcomes; as well as health information technology (HIT) use in underserved populations.