School of Medicine
Showing 1-10 of 24 Results
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Cellas Ari'ka Hayes
Postdoctoral Scholar, Epidemiology
BioDr. Cellas Hayes is a first-generation college graduate, neuroscientist, and postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Biology and minors in Classics, and Latin from the University of Mississippi (2019) and earned his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences with an emphasis in Pharmacology (2022), where he received advanced neuroscience research training under Dr. Nicole Ashpole’s guidance.
At Stanford, Dr. Hayes employs cutting-edge epidemiological and biostatistical methods with high-dimensional biological data to investigate the impact of cerebrovascular and Alzheimer’s disease pathologies on age-related outcomes such as cognitive decline and dementia. He has established national collaborations including the Strong Heart Study, Cardiovascular Health Study, Healthy Aging Brain Study - Health Disparities, and the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center.
Dr. Hayes is becoming a recognized leader in his field and beyond, serving as a Stanford Propel Postdoctoral Fellowship Alumni, a Burroughs Wellcome Fund PDEP Fellow, and a HABS-HD Health Enhancement Scientifist Program Fellow, and diversity supplement recipient. He is the founder and chair of the National Black Postdocs Emergency Support Program and a former co-president of the Stanford Black Postdocs Association. As a postdoc, Dr. Hayes has accrued over 500K in fellowship funds while participating in notable professional development programs like the NIH NIMHD HDRI and NIA Butler Williams Scholars Program. At UM, Dr. Hayes was the first recipient to receive a NIH NRSA F31 in 37 years while also being a Southern Regional Education Board Scholar and UMMC-GTEC Smith Scholars Program.
Passionate about mentorship and education, Dr. Hayes develops innovative resources and curricula through the Stanford Grant Writing Academy, where he has trained postbaccalaureate, Ph.D., and postdoctoral scholars in grant writing and career development. -
Chris Heitzig
Postdoctoral Scholar, Epidemiology
BioChris Heitzig is a New Map of Life Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health. An economist by training, his research develops models to examine healthy aging across the life course, with a particular emphasis on identifying causal pathways and key points of policy intervention to improve well-being in later life. A central focus of his work is the socioeconomic impact of undiagnosed metabolic disorders—how these conditions manifest, the costs of leaving them untreated, and the potential for interventions to improve detection and outcomes. His research combines insights from economics and public health with machine learning methods for causal inference.
Before joining Stanford, Chris served in research roles at the Brookings Institution and the World Bank. At Brookings, he managed a $1.5 million research grant investigating how technological change is reshaping employment in Africa. At the World Bank, he designed randomized controlled trials to measure the causal effects of health and employment programs and served in an operational role as the day-to-day lead for a $20 million job transition program. Chris holds a PhD in Economics from the Institute of Development Studies, an MPhil in Economics from the University of Oxford, and a BA in Economics from Saint John’s University. -
Alyssa Michelle Howren
Postdoctoral Scholar, Epidemiology
BioAlyssa Howren is a Postdoctoral Scholar at Stanford University’s Department of Epidemiology and Population Health in the School of Medicine. She completed her MSc and PhD training at the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences during which she was a trainee at Arthritis Research Canada. Her PhD training was supported by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Doctoral Award, along with UBC’s Wayne Riggs Interdisciplinary Scholarship in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Andrew Nord Fellowship in Rheumatology. Her research focuses on using multiple data sources to provide evidence to disentangle the complex relationship between depression and anxiety with inflammatory arthritis and assess how people living with inflammatory arthritis are treated for their comorbid mental disorders. Methodological approaches in Dr. Howren’s work have included systematic reviews, qualitative research, mixed methods, and population-based studies using linked administrative health databases. She was awarded a CIHR Fellowship for her postdoctoral research at Stanford University which aims to evaluate whether biases in clinical decision-making contribute to the sex and gender differences observed in the diagnosis of major depressive disorder.
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Amy M Inkster
Postdoctoral Scholar, Epidemiology
BioAmy Inkster, PhD is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health at Stanford University. She conducts research on epigenetic alterations in pregnancy and early life to understand the molecular levers affecting healthy development. She primarily uses large 'omics datasets to study the effect of environmental exposures on pregnancy outcomes and maternal health.
Dr. Inkster received her PhD in Medical Genetics from the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada), where her research focused on evaluating DNA methylation variation in prenatal life, primarily in the context of placental epigenetics, sex differences, prenatal exposures, and X-chromosome inactivation. She holds a BSc in Chemistry. As a cross-disciplinary researcher, her work and research interests lie at the intersection of molecular mechanisms and their impacts on human health and disease at the population level.
