Meet the TREC fellows

Dr. Shailesh Advani works as a Principal Data Scientist with the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation (TIBI). Prior to joining TIBI, Dr. Advani worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health and Georgetown University. Dr. Advani graduated with his PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Texas School of Public Health where he worked at the MD Anderson Cancer Center on cancer outcomes research. His research interests include transplant research, health education, and molecular epidemiology. He has published more than 55 peer-reviewed articles including 12 as first author and believes in collaborative science.

Dr. Wendy Balliet received her PhD in counseling psychology with a concentration in health psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Division of Bio-behavioral Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Balliet serves on several departmental and other hospital wide committees throughout the College of Medicine at MUSC. She specializes in clinical and research work in transplant psychology. She is also the Associate Co-Director of Clinical Operations for the Division of Bio-behavioral Medicine. Dr. Balliet is a supervisor and preceptor for interns in the Behavioral Medicine Clinic for the Charleston Consortium Psychology Internship Program, and supervises postdoctoral fellows and medical students interested in research. Dr. Balliet is currently active in clinical research, training, and providing clinical patient care.

Dr. Ashley Feinsinger is faculty in the David Geffen School of Medicine and the Department of Philosophy at UCLA. Her interests lie at the intersection of ethics, philosophy of language, and medicine, and she received her PhD in Philosophy from UCLA. Her current work falls into two areas: (1) the metaphysics of medical dialogue, including what makes some communication “patient-centered”, and (2) evaluations and discussions of societal benefit in research. This second area is pursued in collaboration with the Department of Neurosurgery, through work on invasive non-therapeutic human neuroscience research. This collaboration is currently supported by the NIH BRAIN Initiative.

Dr. Terri Menser is an Assistant Professor in the Center for Outcomes Research at the Houston Methodist Research Institute and in the Department of Surgery at Houston Methodist Hospital. She also is an Assistant Professor of Population Health Science at Cornell Medical School and holds adjunct appointments at Texas A&M University and St. Thomas University. Dr. Menser has a doctoral degree in health services research from Texas A&M University, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Ohio State University. Her research focuses on end stage renal disease in addition to transplant trends and health outcomes. Access to care and patient engagement are the central themes of her research.

As President and CEO, Dr. Catina O’Leary oversees Health Literacy Media’s core activities and works to set and maintain the strategic vision for the organization. She has steered the organization onto the course of becoming a true partner to a broad spectrum of health care organizations around the world. A primary goal is to empower people with health information they can use. Dr. O’Leary believes in the concept of changing health behaviors to improve quality of life. For more than a decade, she led research at Washington University School of Medicine focused on connecting people at-risk for health conditions with medical and social resources aimed at improving health behaviors, preventing illness, and improving health and well-being.

Jill Scherrey is the Consumer Education Specialist at the University of California Los Angeles, (UCLA) CENTER for Nursing Excellence. As a registered nurse with over 20 years of clinical experience, Ms. Scherrey has worked with patients of all ages in acute and intensive care settings. As a strong patient advocate, she considers patient education an invaluable part of health care.