Current Trainees

Kristina Hasanaj is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the NCI-funded T32 Behavioral and Psychosocial Research Training Program in Cancer Prevention and Control in the Department of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Kristina’s research areas of interest include: 1) better understanding the interrelatedness among behaviors in the 24-hour day, which includes recreational sedentary screen time, sedentary time, physical activity, and sleep, and how time spent among these behaviors is associated with cardiometabolic and cancer-related health outcomes; and 2) the use of mHealth approaches in intervention work to promote healthy lifestyles. Kristina is working with Siobhan Phillips (primary mentor) and Elizabeth Hibler (secondary mentor) on projects related to promoting healthy lifestyles and the use of mhealth interventions in cancer survivors. Kristina completed a PhD in Nursing and Healthcare Innovation at Arizona State University.

Raymond A. Ruiz, PhD is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine as part of the NCI-funded T32 Behavioral and Psychosocial Research Training Program in Cancer Prevention and Control. Dr. Ruiz’s research focuses on tobacco use disparities and smoking cessation efforts among individuals with minoritized sexual orientation identities and minoritized gender identities. During his fellowship, he will work with Brian L. Hitsman, PhD in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Betina R. Yanez, PhD in the Department of Medical Social Sciences. Dr. Ruiz holds a BA from The Johns Hopkins University, a MA from Columbia University in the City of New York, and a PhD from the University of Washington, Seattle.

Jessica Powers, PhD is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the NCI-funded T32 Behavioral and Psychosocial Research Training Program in Cancer Prevention and Control in the Department of Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. Powers’ research is broadly focused on pain, substance use (e.g., nicotine/tobacco, alcohol, opioids), and other health behavior in the context of cancer or chronic/serious illness. Her research program utilizes a multi-method approach to identify pain-related psychological mechanisms to ultimately inform development of tailored and accessible intervention approaches. Dr. Powers is currently working with Christine Rini, PhD (primary mentor) and Brian Hitsman, PhD (secondary mentor) on several projects related to pain, substance use, and cancer survivorship, including evaluating an internet-based pain coping skills training program for breast cancer survivors. Dr. Powers earned her BA in Psychology from Northwestern University and MS in Clinical Psychology from Syracuse University. She completed her Pre-Doctoral Clinical Internship at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in the Health Psychology/Behavioral Medicine Track and earned her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Syracuse University in 2023.

Jean M. Reading is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the NCI-funded T32 Behavioral and Psychosocial Research Training Program in Cancer Prevention and Control in the Department of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Jean’s specific areas of interest include: 1) identifying strategies to engage individuals with health behaviors that reduce obesity and cancer risk and 2) designing, implementing, and evaluating digital health interventions using mixed method approaches. Jean is working with Siobhan Phillips (primary mentor) and David Victorson (secondary mentor) on projects related to the dissemination and implementation of comprehensive digital health interventions addressing behavioral risk factors in cancer survivors. Jean received a BS and MA in Psychology from Penn State University. She completed a PhD in Social and Behavioral Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and an NCI-funded T32 predoctoral fellowship in Cancer Prevention and Control at Massey Cancer Center in 2022. 

Kyle Nolla is a postdoctoral fellow in the NCI-funded T32 Behavioral and Psychosocial Research Training Program in Cancer Prevention and Control at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Medical Social Sciences. Kyle works with Drs. David Cella and Devin Peipert on development and validation of patient-reported outcomes for use in cancer populations. Kyle is especially interested in mHealth to improve health-related quality of life, the use of gamification to motivate symptom monitoring behaviors, and how clinicians implement PROs for treatment decision-making. Kyle received their BA in Psychology from the University of Chicago (2015), and their PhD in Psychology (Cognitive Neuroscience) and MS in Statistics from Northwestern University (2021

Shirlene Wang, PhD is a a Postdoctoral Fellow in the NCI-funded T32 Behavioral and Psychosocial Research Training Program in Cancer Prevention and Control in the Department of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Her research focuses on studying response patterns in longitudinal health behavior data. She is currently working with Siobhan Phillips, PhD and Juned Siddique, DrPH focusing on symptom monitoring among adults with cancer and using analysis methods to understand variability in physical activity. Dr. Wang earned her BA in Psychology and Medicine, Health, and Behavior from Vanderbilt University.  She completed a PhD in Preventive Medicine (Health Behavior Research) from the University of Southern California in 2023.