Meet the members of our project team. We are an interdisciplinary team of researchers and practitioners dedicated to supporting young adults in staying connected with their mental health treatment to support their recovery. Our team conducts quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research.
Michelle R. Munson, PhD, LMSW | Faculty
Dr. Munson is a Professor at NYU Silver. She has professional interests in mental health services research and intervention development and testing, and her work centers on adolescents and young adults. Dr. Munson’s research seeks to understand how society’s structural conditions and social relationships, through both verbal and non-verbal communication, shape young adults’ decisions to seek (or not seek) professional mental health services. Her research and scholarship also seeks to develop, refine, adapt, and test engagement and treatment interventions for adolescents and young adults with serious mental health conditions.
James Jaccard, PhD | Faculty
Dr. James Jaccard is a professor of social work with a long history of collaborating with social work and public health to help resolve significant behavioral health challenges among youth and young adults within complex organizations and low-resourced communities. He is an expert in attitude change, decision-making and communication strategies, among others.
Kiara Moore, PhD, LCSW | Faculty
Kiara Moore, PhD, LCSW is an Assistant Professor at New York University Silver School of Social Work. . Dr. Moore’s areas of specialization are mental health services and marginalized youth during the transition to adulthood. Dr. Moore’s work examines major barriers to treatment, such as access, stigma, and health decision-making among youth of color, youth from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, and LGBTQ youth. Her research aims to develop an in-depth understanding of the complicated processes by which young people’s identities shape their participation in mental health care and to apply those insights to improving service use through a culturally-responsive intervention.
Andrea Cole, PhD, LCSW | Faculty
Andrea Cole, PhD, LCSW is an Assistant Professor at the School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Fairleigh Dickinson University. Andrea completed her PhD at NYU Silver School of Social Work in 2017. Her research interests include youth and young adult trauma, exposure to community violence, intervention research, and implementation science.
Rei Shimizu, PhD, LMSW | Faculty
Rei Shimizu is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage. She has a clinical background in trauma-focused therapy for survivors of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in the United States and Japan. Her research interest is in health behaviors, specifically focusing on decision making related to food preferences and eating behavior and its intersections with trauma for low-income women.
Aaron H. Rodwin, LCSW | Doctoral Candidate
Aaron Rodwin is a PhD candidate at NYU’s Silver School of Social Work. Aaron’s research interests focus on mental health services and interventions for marginalized young adults experiencing serious mental illnesses (SMI). More specifically, Aaron is committed to developing services and interventions that use culturally and developmentally responsive modalities to maximize engagement, involvement, and ultimately enhance personal recovery. A significant focus of Aaron’s research investigates how music and expressive strategies can be integrated and embedded into mental health services as a novel youth-oriented medium to improve engagement and recovery (i.e., personal and clinical).
Moiyattu Banya, LMSW | Doctoral Student
Moiyattu Banya is a PhD student at NYU Silver School of Social Work. She has 15 years of clinical experience working with women and girls across Africa and the U.S. She Co-Founded the nonprofit organization Girls Empowerment Sierra Leone. Moiyattu’s research interests focus on global mental health and interventions, mental health outcomes, youth empowerment, life course perspectives and social determinants of health. Moiyattu has particular interest in communities that have histories of trauma and gender based violence, and in implementing girl centered and culturally relevant interventions that foster and nurture mental health and wellbeing.