The Board

the board

Traci a. ackron, do, mph, mat

Dr. Ackron is currently a Family Medicine Resident at Beaumont Health in Michigan. She received a Doctorate of Osteopathic Medicine from Pacific Northwest University in 2015. In 2010, she graduated with her Master of Public Health from DePaul University with a focus on community health. Additionally, she received her Master of Arts in Teaching from Dominican University in 2008. Dr. Ackron’s interest involves working with, urban, underserved populations through her work in medical clinics and as a researcher on HIV/AIDS intervention/prevention projects through the Adolescent Trails Network. She was also a teacher in Chicago Public Schools with Teach for America, and has international health experience working with a PEPFAR grant in Kenya and volunteering in El Salvador - promoting HIV education. As a Rafiki board member since 2008, Dr. Ackron has made several trips to Kenya, where she lead a team of medical and communication volunteers and completed a formative evaluation of our CHAT curriculum in 2012. Her efforts continue to support our mission in working as a team to promote the health and well-being of communities in Kenya affected by HIV/AIDS.

Kelly A. Bojan, DNP, APN, C-FNP

Kelly A. Bojan, RN, DNP, C-FNP received a Doctorate of Nursing from Rush University in 2008. The focus of her Family Nurse Practitioner degree was in Adolescent Health. In 2001, she began working as a Clinician and Researcher for the Adolescent Trials Network, in the Adolescent and Young Adult Clinic, at the John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital, at The CORE Center. In 2005, she collaborated with Drs. Gary Harper and Leah Neubauer in the development of HIV and STI educational materials for the Adolescents of Kenya. Later that year she took her first trip to Kenya with the Rafiki Collaborative Team to deliver the HIV/STI educational material, share in the medical care of HIV patients in the Thiago region and collaborate on several other developing projects. As a Rafiki Collaborative board member since 2011 she continues to work with the team to meet their mission of promoting well-being to the communities in Kenya affected by HIV and AIDS.

Gary W. Harper, PhD, MPH

Gary W. Harper, Ph.D., M.P.H. is a Professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. He is a founding member of the Behavioral Leadership Group within the National Institutes of Health's Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions, and a member of the American Psychological Association’s Board for the Advancement of Psychology in the Public Interest. He has been conducting HIV-related research and practice activities in Kenya since 2004, working in collaboration with community agencies and community members to develop and evaluate a range of youth-focused HIV prevention (primary and secondary) programs and other health promotion efforts for adolescents and young adults. Gary also conducts HIV-related research and practice activities in Botswana and Israel, and well as in various urban cities in the U.S. Gary began conducting HIV prevention work early in the epidemic and has been involved in various forms of adolescent-focused HIV prevention, treatment, research, advocacy, and community organizing for 30 years.

ROHAN D. JEREMIAH PhD, MPH

Dr. Rohan D. Jeremiah is an Assistant Professor of Community Health Sciences and affiliated faculty member at the Chicago Development Center for AIDS Research. As a global public health researcheruniquely trained within the disciplines of Medical Anthropology and Public Health, his focus is men’s health and health inequities in the US and abroad. Dr. Jeremiah has worked in numerous countries throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States, and served as a Technical Advisor to the United Nations, US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and US Agency for International Development (USAID). He hasalso held faculty positions at St. George’s University, School of Medicine (Grenada, West Indies) and University of West Indies (Trinidad, West Indies). He has completed research studies on various global health issues including, “Intimate Partner Violence from a Male Perpetrator’s Perspective,”“Risk Behavioral Patterns among Men who have Sex with Men within the Caribbean,” and “The Intersections between HIV/AIDS and Intimate Partner Violence among Commercial Sex Workers.” His research has been featured in several academic journals such as the American Journal of Men’s Health, International Journal of Men’s Health, and Global Health Perspectives.

Jason Johnson

Jason Johnson is a Research Study Coordinator at Rush Neurobehavioral Center (RNBC). Research at RNBC is focused on working to identify the key thinking, feeling, and regulatory processes that affect children’s peer relationships and to understand how those processes influence children’s friendships; developing and rigorously evaluating improved methods of assessing the skills that contribute to social success when they are present and to social impairment when they are not; and developing and rigorously evaluating interventions that help a child make and keep friends. Jason previously worked at DePaul University on HIV/AIDS and sexual health community-based research projects in urban cities in the United States and in Kenya.

DianA Lemos, PhD

Diana Lemos is currently a senior project director at the John H. Stroger Hospital of Cook County in the Department of Psychiatry. She oversees several NIH-funded multi-site psychosocial interventions for youth living with HIV or at-risk for HIV. She is also currently pursuing a doctoral degree in community psychology at DePaul University. Her research experience includes collaborative intervention development, tailoring or evaluation of culturally and developmentally appropriate community-based prevention interventions, with a focus on HIV prevention, depression and other health issues primarily affecting young adults. Her goal is to continue pursuing partnerships and opportunities to promote community-based participatory efforts to improve the well-being of urban, primarily minority, families and youth. She also teaches Community Psychology at University of Illinois at Chicago.

Alexandra Murphy, PhD

Alexandra (Lexa) Murphy, Ph.D. is a Professor and Associate Dean in the College of Communication at DePaul University. Her research centers on analyzing the problems that can occur when dominant, taken-for-granted communication practices are unquestioningly reproduced and institutionalized. In particular, she has a strong interest in organizational and community contexts where lives are on the line. She has explored issues of culture, gender, and power in the communication practices of airline crews and medical staff in hospital emergency rooms. She has also worked extensively on organizational development and communication programs for HIV/AIDS education with several nonprofits based in Nairobi, Kenya where HIV/AIDS is prevalent, but dominant patterns of communication based on gender, cultural, and religious norms, continue to silence the topic. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in communication and community service studies that focus on cultural and political issues within organizations, cultures and communities.

Leah Christina Neubauer, EdD, MA

Dr. Leah Christina Neubauer has been working in the field of public health as an educator, evaluator, and researcher for the last sixteen years. She is the Interim Executive Director of the Rafiki Collaborative. Her research is focused on continuing/professional education and sexual and reproductive health. As a researcher-practitioner, she examines intersections of critical theory, social determinants of health, theories of adult learning and indigenous community practice . Leah has been working in Kenya since 2005 with many Kenyan and global partners on a variety of endeavors. She has delivered 90+ peer-reviewed presentations and co-authored numerous publications on global health and community-based evaluation, education and research. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. She received her EdD in Adult and Continuing Education in 2013 from National Louis University.

Jaclyn shea

Jaclyn is a Data Specialist at Chicago Public Schools (CPS) for a longitudinal study on Child Parent Centers. Her research is focused on sexual health; HIV/AIDS; program evaluation; health disparities among gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men; and the roles of volunteerism and capacity building in school based HIV prevention in Kenya. Jaclyn has worked with Peer Health Exchange, the Chicago Women's AIDS Project, Broadway Youth Center, and DePaul University on a range of sexual health and HIV/AIDS related projects. She has also previously worked in Uganda on community based income generating projects. Jaclyn is passionate about empowering communities and improving health sustainability.

April Timmons Tyler, PhD

April Timmons Tyler, Ph.D. received her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Lincoln University of Pennsylvania, her Masters of Arts in Applied Psychology from Teachers College Columbia University and a second Masters of Arts as well as her Doctor of Philosophyin Clinical-Community Psychology from DePaul University. Dr. Timmons Tyler has been working in the HIV/AIDS field since 2000 conducting community-based research, assisting in creating, testing, and implementing interventions, and providing therapy services for people living with and affected by HIV and AIDS. April’s work has focused on adolescents, LGBTQ populations, and women of color. Dr. Timmons Tyler is passionate about promoting the health and well-being of people living with HIV and AIDS as well as aiding individuals and communities at increased risk for acquiring HIV to implement strategies that will promote health and decrease risk. Over the years, April has also increasingly focused her work on sexual health promotion and sexual health education broadly. Dr. Timmons Tyler’s most recent research has focused on examining the sexual narratives of African American adolescent females paying particular attention to the socialization factors which influence their sexual identity. April hopes her work with Rafiki Collaborative will aid in promoting sexual health, awareness,and creating innovative programming for underserved international populations in need of empowerment based sexual health promotion and HIV prevention interventions, education, and services.Dr. Timmons Tyler is currently a post-doctoral fellow at an HIV primary care service organization in Chicago, Illinois.

Terri Williams-Powell, PHD

Dr. Terri Williams-Powell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health and a core faculty in the Center for Adolescent Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She earned her PhD in Community Psychology from DePaul University and completed a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship with the Kellogg Health Scholars Program at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Dr. Williams’ career path has been driven by her desire to bolster the positive health outcomes of vulnerable young people by improving the places where they live, learn and pray. Accordingly, she has worked with and in underserved communities to better understand the social and interpersonal factors that influence individuals who are at risk of acquiring HIV. Findings from Dr. Williams’ research have been disseminated through peer-reviewed publication, as well as professional conference and community presentations.