Faculty Spotlight
Dr. Sarah Rodriguez was a finalist for the Fletcher Prize for Excellence in Research Mentorship, honoring mentors who go above and beyond in training undergraduate Research Assistants. She was nominated by her mentee, Zori Warren, who wrote in her nomination letter, “Coming away from working with Professor Rodriguez, I feel confident in my ability to search databases for literature, organize works based on themes and keywords that I pull from my analysis, use first-person accounts to make a historical analysis stronger, and make a stronger argument for the importance of policies and practices in obstetrics today.” Dr. Rodriguez was also invited to be on the editorial board of Journal of Medical Regulation, a role she takes up in September 2025.
Dr. Noelle Sullivan published an open-source article, “Pushpin Memoir: Making Meaning out of Murder,” in anthropology’s flagship journal American Anthropologist, in February. The paper documents the process of combining personal and professional insights in writing a memoir in the aftermath of the death of her brother, who was a gun homicide victim in 2018.
Dr Elham Hoominfar gave a talk (flyer pictured bottom right) entitled “Bridging Continents: Social Movements against Water Transfer Projects for Community and Ecological Health in Western Iran and Colorado” on Jan 8th and Dr. Charlayne Mitchell (pictured left) gave a talk entitled “No Praxis without Struggle: Confronting ‘Othering’ through (Re)languaging HealthCircumstances in Medical Settings,” on Feb. 5th, both at the Havey Institute for Global Health at Feinberg School of Medicine. 
Dr. Bill Leonard received a Teaching Excellence Award from Feinberg’s Program in Public Health this spring.
Dr. Peter Locke successfully coordinated our second annual GHS Speaker Series, which between winter and spring brought in three guest experts speaking on their cutting edge research: Dr. William Garriott spoke about Cannabis Legalization and Justice Reform; Dr. Nadia El-Shaarawi spoke about Debts and Displacements of the Iraq War; and Dr. Duana Fullwiley spoke about the Cartographic Stakes of Racialized Wellbeing in a Global World. We’re tremendously grateful to Dr. Locke for organizing this series for the second year in a row, and to the NU Provost’s Hollister Fund for supporting the GHS speaker series.
Finally, in spring 2025 we received the very happy news that Dr. Beatriz Reyes has been promoted to Associate Professor of Instruction after years of dedicated service to GHS and the Native American and Indigenous Studies minor. Meanwhile, both Drs. Charlayne Mitchell and Elham Hoominfar were reappointed to our program after stellar reviews of their contributions to our students, our program, the college, the wider university, and the profession. We’re incredibly thrilled to have them on our team!