Our Team

Anton Avanceña, Ph.D., is a decision scientist and health policy researcher with expertise in mental and behavioral health, pediatrics, oncology, and infectious diseases. He conducts evaluations of treatments and interventions using real-world data analysis and simulation modeling. Anton’s main area of research involves understanding and addressing the health, economic, and social consequences of mental and behavioral conditions such as alcohol misuse, substance use disorders, depression, and PTSD. Anton is especially focused on evaluating the costs, benefits, cost-effectiveness, and equity impacts of new and existing treatments, pharmacotherapies, and population-level interventions through real-world data analysis, simulation modeling, and economic evaluation.

See current and ongoing research.

Nazan Aksan is a senior biostatistician in Dell Medical School’s Office of Research. The substantive focus of her training in developmental psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison was on children’s development at multiple levels of analyses including emotion, behavior and cognition from infancy through school years with implications for mental health outcomes. This focus from functional outcomes early in life shifted to developmental declines associated with disease and healthy aging, exploring implications for mobility and higher-order cognition while at University of Iowa-Neurology. Lifespan developmental behavioral sciences coupled with a graduate minor in Statistics at UW-Madison gives her a deep appreciation of investigator questions around behavioral change in addition to quantitative skills to model and test ideas concerning change.

Jessica Calderón-Mora, DrPH, earned her master’s and doctoral degrees from the UTHealth School of Public Health, focusing on health promotion and behavioral sciences with a particular emphasis on health disparities and cancer prevention within the Latinx community. Her research centers on health disparities and cancer prevention in the Latinx community, particularly in cervical cancer screening and HPV vaccination. Calderón-Mora seeks to expand her work in HPV self-sampling and cervical cancer prevention among Latinx populations in Texas.

See current and ongoing research.

Dr. Ciszek’s is a leader in strategic communication on LGBTQ research and queer theories research. They are committed to advocacy and broader social change in public relations and strategic communication. Ciszek’s research engages in theoretically and empirically rigorous work with hard-to-reach populations and hard-to-study publics…publics that are historically marginalized, vulnerable and difficult to represent. Their work has received national and international recognition, with topical expertise in: Strategic Comms; PR; Prosocial Communication; Public Interest Communication; Advocacy/Activism; Health Communication; Historically marginalized & minority populations; Gender, race & sexuality research; Intersectionality; and Sexual & gender minority populations; as well as LGBTQ+ studies.

Nessette Falu is an Assistant Professor of African and Africa Diaspora studies in the College of Liberal Arts at UT Austin. Her work examines the intersections of anti-Blackness, heteronormativity, medicine, trauma, resistance, and freedom. She seeks to expose and challenge hidden and silenced forms of power, focusing particularly on abuses within gynecology and medicine. Her past work in neurosurgery, internal medicine, HIV care, hematology/oncology, and pain management critically informs her research, collaborations, and design work.

Tres Hinds, Ph.D., uses mixed methods to identify and explain LGBTQ+ tobacco and substance use disparities. Tres received a BS from The U.S. Military Academy at West Point and a PhD in Health Behavior & Health Education from UT Austin, with specialized training in Tobacco Regulatory Science. Following a T32 postdoc focused on cardiovascular health equity, Tres received a K01 award focused on the intersection of tobacco use and multidimensional queer identity development. Over the long term, Dr. Hinds intends to develop identity- affirming initiatives and communications designed to reduce SM tobacco and other substance use disparities. 

Maria C. Monge, M.D., previously served as director of adolescent medicine at Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas and as an adolescent physician at People’s Community Clinic in Austin and Lone Star Circle of Care. Monge is director of the adolescent medicine rotation for the Pediatrics Residency at Dell Medical School and is a member of both the UT Austin Pediatrics Resident Clinical Competency Committee and the Program Evaluation Committee.

S. Henry (Hank) Sherwood is a Sociologist and postdoctoral fellow at The University of Texas at Austin, affiliated with the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences under the mentorship of Dr. Stephen Russell. He obtained his PhD from New York University Steinhardt in the sociology of education. His research centers on sexual and gender minority youth (SGMY) in educational settings, exploring their mental well-being, health equity, and outcomes associated with SGM identity disclosure.

Jenny Spencer, Ph.D., employs econometric and decision science methods to improve health equity in cancer screening and prevention, including disparities in cervical, breast, and colorectal cancer. This includes projects in HPV vaccination and cervical cancer screening with NCI’s CISNET cervical collaborative, modeling approaches to improve colorectal cancer screening in Texas, and a K01 award to study breast and cervical cancer screening disparities for LGBQ+ women. Spencer earned her master’s and Ph.D. from UNC Chapel Hill and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Mark H. Townsend, MD, MS, is a board-certified psychiatrist in the UT Health Austin Adult Psychiatry Clinic. He specializes in treating patients with more than one psychiatric condition and is also board-certified in addiction medicine disorder. Dr. Townsend is professor in the Dell Medical School Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, where he is also Associate Chair of Education. Prior to joining Dell Medical School, he was Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Tulane School of Medicine and Executive Vice Chair & George C Dunn Professor of Psychiatry at the LSUHSC School of Medicine New Orleans, where he is currently Professor Emeritus. He has been the principal or co-investigator in numerous psychopharmacology clinical trials in the treatment of anxiety, mood, and psychotic disorders.

Dr. Wenger is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice at The University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy. He earned his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Butler University in 2020, followed by two years of residency training in Indianapolis, IN. Dr. Wenger's practice interests include adult medicine, transitions of care, and medication access/affordability. He is passionate about advancing health equity for marginalized groups, particularly for the LGBTQ+ and limited-English proficiency (LEP) communities. He practices in Internal Medicine at Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin, and teaches a variety of courses at the College of Pharmacy in addition to pursuing both clinical and academic research and quality improvement projects.

Dr. Julie Zuniga is an associate professor whose research focuses on self-management of stigmatized illnesses alongside co-morbid conditions, particularly HIV and diabetes. She earned her doctorate in nursing from The University of Texas at Austin and completed her post-doctoral fellowship at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.