Current Postdoctoral Fellows

Priyanka Chaudhary, PhD (Businelle Lab)

Priya began her role as a Postdoctoral Researcher at HPRC in April 2026. She earned her PhD in Biomechanics and Kinesiology from the University of Nebraska Omaha with a focus on physical activity. Her research focusses on pediatric obesity, physical activity, and health behavior change, with an emphasis on developing and evaluating technology-assisted interventions to promote healthy lifestyles among children and families. Her work integrates mobile health (mHealth), wearable technologies, and family-based approaches, alongside dissemination and implementation science, to enhance real-world impact and scalability. Priya aims to advance digital health interventions by incorporating real-time, adaptive approaches such as Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) and Just-In-Time Adaptive Interventions (JITAI) to deliver personalized, context-aware support for behavior change.

Gautham Chengizkhan, PhD (Queimado Lab)

Gautham embarked on his journey as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, in February 2024. Gautham earned his Ph.D. in endocrine oncology from the Department of Endocrinology at the University of Madras, India. Gautham's academic journey has been marked by a fervent dedication to understanding the intricacies of cellular mechanisms. At present, under Prof. Lurdes Queimado’s mentorship, Gautham, investigates the impacts of e-cigarette aerosols on human cells and explores the effects of cannabinoids and cannabis on inflammation, DNA damage, and stemness, employing in vitro models and samples from community volunteers to understand mechanisms influencing cancer risk and therapy outcomes. This comprehensive investigation not only seeks to unveil the underlying mechanisms but also aims to shed light on patient outcomes, underscoring Gautham’s commitment to translational research. Our research is prepared to make a significant contribution to our comprehension of the intricate interplay among environmental exposures, cellular responses, and human health.

Mayilvanan Chinnaiyan, PhD (Queimado Lab)

Mayil began his role as a Research Associate in 2018, later advancing to the role of Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, in January 2021. During his PhD in Biomedical Sciences-Endocrinology at the University of Madras, India, he focused on investigating the complex molecular mechanisms underlying GLUT4 translocation in type-2 diabetes, employing an animal model. Currently, under the mentorship of Dr. Lurdes Queimado, Mayil directs his research efforts towards unraveling cellular and molecular toxicology associated with the diverse use of tobacco products, encompassing combustible tobacco and electronic cigarettes. Beyond this focus, his research interests extend to exploring vape topography, assessing the impact of e-cigarette aerosols on tissue culture, and studying the effects of cannabis on oral inflammation and DNA damage. Our findings geared towards improving public health outcomes by addressing the harmful effects of tobacco products, electronic cigarettes, and cannabis use on both individual and population levels.

Derek Falk, PhD, MSW (Neil/Alexander Labs)

Dr. Falk joined TSET Health Promotion Research Center in May 2026 as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the HEROES Lab, working with Drs. Jordan Neil and Adam Alexander and collaborating with Dr. Mark Doescher at the Stephenson Cancer Center. He earned his PhD in Social Work from the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin and previously completed a National Cancer Institute-funded T32 fellowship at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. His research focuses on reducing cancer-related health disparities through tobacco control, cancer prevention and screening, rural health, implementation science, and digital health technologies. Dr. Falk is committed to developing scalable, culturally responsive approaches that improve access to care and advance health equity among underserved populations.

Deeksha Gupta, PhD (Kendzor Lab)

Deeksha Gupta joined the HPRC as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in November 2025. She earned her PhD in Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior from the University of South Carolina, where her dissertation examined the clinical and economic outcomes of health-related social needs interventions for individuals with chronic diseases. Her work sits at the intersection of health promotion, health equity, and implementation science. Broadly, Dr. Gupta aims to reduce health disparities through evidence-based interventions that support individuals with social needs.

Adele Hammoudi, PhD (Queimado Lab)

Adele Hammoudi earned her PhD in Cellular and molecular biology from Paris-Est Creteil University (UPEC), Creteil, France, on 24^th January 2024. Dr. Hammoudi’s PhD thesis focused on the structural basis for the development of an innovative HIV-1 vaccine designed to amplify humoral responses through the targeting of Langerhans cells (type of dendritic cells). Before her PhD, she earned an IDEX scholarship to perform her Master II degree in bio-health engineering at Grenoble Alpes University (UGA), Grenoble, France, she earned her degree in July 2020. She previously obtained her Master I and Bachelor’s degree in animal biology from the Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon (2015-2019). Her current focuses is on assessing the impact of external factors (e.g., tobacco, e-cigarettes, cannabis) on inflammation and DNA damage.

Brittany Hudson , PhD, MPH (CHERC)

Brittany joined the HPRC as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in May 2025. She earned her PhD in Health Promotion from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, where her dissertation explored the experiences of rural Black Oklahomans, including those residing in Oklahoma’s historical All Black towns, as well as the perspectives of the providers who serve them. Her work emphasized the cultural, structural, and interpersonal factors that shape engagement with mental health services. She also holds a Master of Public Health in Policy and Management from Boston University.

Brittany’s research interests lie at the intersection of health equity, multilevel disparities, and community-engaged research. She applies qualitative methods and the Social Determinants of Health framework to examine how structural, cultural, and contextual factors influence health care access and utilization in historically underserved populations. At the HPRC, her work focuses on advancing equity-driven research to inform policies and interventions aimed at reducing cancer-related disparities across diverse communities.

Elena Kalina, PhD, CHES (Businelle Lab)

Elena Kalina began as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the TSET Health Promotion Research Center at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences in August 2026. She received her PhD in Health Education and Behavior from the University of Florida, where she completed an NIH F31 Predoctoral Fellowship funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).

Her research uses ecological momentary assessment and other intensive longitudinal methods to understand the real-time cognitive, behavioral, and contextual processes that influence substance use (e.g., alcohol, cannabis, tobacco) and health behavior change. She is particularly interested in identifying modifiable risk and protective factors that can inform the development of personalized digital health interventions.

Under the mentorship of Drs. Michael Businelle and Emily Hébert, Elena is expanding her research to leverage mobile health technologies and just-in-time adaptive interventions to promote healthy behavior change and reduce substance use and related harms. Her long-term goal is to establish an independent research program focused on developing precision behavioral interventions that improve health outcomes across diverse populations.

Gaurav Kumar, PhD (Adedipe Lab)

Gaurav Kumar joined the Health Promotion Research Center (HPRC) team in August 2024 as a Postdoctoral Fellow. He earned his PhD in Health Promotion from the University of Nebraska Medical Center, where he focused on physical activity among cancer survivors using a mixed-methods approach. In addition to his PhD, he holds a Master’s in Public Health (MPH) with a major in Epidemiology from the University of Nebraska Medical Center. His research focuses on health promotion among diverse communities, cancer care, management, and behavior change research. His work aims to address health disparities and promote equitable health practices.

Andrea Milstread, PhD (Cohn Lab)

Andrea earned her Ph.D. in Behavioral Neuroscience from West Virginia University in May 2025. Her dissertation examined the differential impact of tobacco taxes for rural populations. Andrea is interest in tobacco regulatory science and minoritized populations. Specifically, both the intended and unintended consequences of tobacco regulation and legislation for these populations. Her work aims to inform tobacco regulatory efforts and address health disparities.

Hoang Van (Michelle) Nguyen (Borengasser Lab)

Hoang Van (Michelle) Nguyen is a post-doctoral research fellow with a PhD in Allied Health, specializing in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Oklahoma Health Campus (OUHC) and Master's in Exercise Physiology from the University of Oklahoma. Her main interest is in aging/geroscience research, including the impact of mitochondrial DNA and sex on changes that occur with age using multi-omics approaches in the translationally relevant OKC-HET rats. In addition, she is performing secondary analysis on the impact of dietary interventions (DRIFT, daily caloric restriction and intermittent fasting) on epigenetic age and time of day of exercise on plasma metabolomics. She has published several articles in scientific journals, available on platforms like Google Scholar.

Evaniya Shakya, PhD (Borengasser Lab)

Evaniya began her role as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the HPRC in October 2024. She completed her PhD in Nutritional Sciences and Clinical and Translational Sciences at The Pennsylvania State University. Evaniya uses epidemiological research methods to study maternal and child health and nutrition. Her dissertation focused on evaluating a program assessing multisectoral interventions aimed at improving maternal and child nutrition in rural Niger. Dr. Shakya’s work at the HPRC will involve understanding the impact of exposures such as nutrition, climate change, and heat stress on maternal and infant epigenomes, as well as other health outcomes.

Hayley Svensson, PhD (vanDellen Lab)

Hayley started as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the HPRC in July 2025. She earned her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Rutgers University in 2025 and her B.A. in Psychology at The Ohio State University in 2019. Dr. Svensson broadly studies goal pursuit, self-regulation, and motivation. More specifically, her main lines of research focus on understanding how people respond to setbacks and obstacles they are likely to experience during goal pursuit. She also studies the antecedents and consequences of goal disengagement (i.e., choosing to no longer pursue a goal), which can result from goal disruption. At the HPRC, Dr. Svensson will harness motivation science to investigate health behaviors and outcomes, like smoking behavior and cessation, and also consider how interpersonal factors shape these processes. With her work, she seeks to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of goal pursuit that considers understudied goal processes and populations. 

Sulfath Thottungal Parambil , PhD (Queimado Lab)

Sulfath Thottungal Parambil began her role as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, in October 2024. She received her Ph.D. in Biotechnology from the University of Kerala, India, in 2024. Her doctoral thesis focused on evaluating the translational potential of atypical signaling molecules in triple-negative breast cancer and how they are conducive to an aggressive phenotype. She is keenly interested in the intricacies of cellular signaling and how cells are rewiring and reconnecting the pathways and translating into oncogenic sustenance. Under the supervision of Prof. Lurdes Queimado, she will be investigating the molecular mechanism of cancer cell stemness and therapeutic resistance in response to e-cigarette and cannabis use. Besides, her research will focus on transcriptome reprograming in tobacco/cannabis-associated neoplastic or malignant settings. Our investigations will shed light on the hitherto unknown underlying science of neoplastic progression in response to persistent vaping and cannabis exposure and will also provide insights into better therapeutic opportunities for managing drug resistance in cancer patients.