DGSOM Longitudinal Research

Dr. Shant Shekherdimian’s research portfolio is closely aligned with the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Armenia’s strategic priorities for advancing universal health coverage. Working in collaboration with government partners, Yerevan State Medical University, and UCLA colleagues, Dr. Shekherdimian’s work focuses on three interconnected areas of health system strengthening in Armenia:

1. Primary care strengthening, including evaluating and redesigning Armenia’s primary care system to support a more equitable and efficient foundation for universal health coverage. As head of the Ministry’s Primary Care Strengthening Task Force, Dr. Shekherdimian leads multidisciplinary assessments focused on workforce capacity, care delivery models, financing mechanisms, and quality improvement. This work directly informs national policy decisions and the development of a stronger primary care-oriented health system.

2. Development of National Cancer Screening Programs, including collaborating with Yerevan State Medical University’s school of Public Health to generate evidence on the feasibility and implementation needs of organized cancer screening programs. Studies have examined gaps in screening infrastructure, diagnostic pathways, patient navigation, and program governance, contributing to the Ministry’s ongoing efforts to establish population-based screening for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancers. 

3. Diaspora Engagement in Health System Strengthening, including conceptualizing and evaluating models of sustainable diaspora engagement to examine how diaspora expertise, networks, and resources can be better integrated into national priorities. 

Recent publications include:

1. Breast Cancer Awareness and Screening Perceptions of Women in Yerevan, Armenia. Int J Public Health.
2. Can Armenia's refugee crisis catalyse health-system reforms? Lancet.
3. Medical Education in Armenia: An Overview. J Med Educ Curric Dev.
4. Lung cancer screening beliefs in Armenia. S. Front Oncol.
5. Validation of an Eastern Armenian breast cancer health belief survey. PLOS Glob Public Health. 

Dr. Kate Dovel is a behavioral scientist whose work focuses on scalable, sustainable health service delivery strategies that empower local health care workers and clients to take ownership of their health. Based in Malawi for 9 years, Dr. Dovel works in partnership with Partners In Hope, a PEPFAR implementing partner, and the Malawi Ministry of Health. Her work optimizes delivery of HIV services to populations often not reached by health systems, building equitable, community-driven approaches—from HIV self-testing to tailored counseling—to make HIV services more accessible, compassionate, and effective.  

Dr. Dovel's work has three focal points: 1) develop person-centered HIV services that are scalable within routine settings; 2) design decision-making tools that combine HIV epidemiology models with local community insights to guide national geographic priorities and tailored solutions for the HIV response; and 3) train the next generation of health researchers dedicated to sustainable, locally owned solutions.  

The research of Dr. Dovel and colleagues has directly shaped policy: they co-led development of Malawi's National Guidelines for HIV Self-Testing (2018), the World Health Organization's Men and HIV: Evidence-Based Approaches and Interventions framework (2023), and the World Health Organization's Implementation Brief for scaling these strategies (2025). Their team has published extensively in leading journals including The Lancet Global Health and PLOS Medicine, translating research into practice across sub-Saharan Africa. 
 
Select recent publications include:

1. Reaching men with person-centred health services through evidence-based approaches and interventions. World Health Organization.
2. Practical approaches and case-based models for reaching men and boys with integrated HIV services. World Health Organization.
3. Effect of facility-based HIV self-testing on uptake of testing among outpatients in Malawi: a cluster-randomised trial. The Lancet Global Health.
4. Frequency of visits to health facilities and HIV services offered to men, Malawi. Bull World Health Organ.

Dr. Omai Garner’s focus includes collaborating with partners in low and middle income settings to increase laboratory diagnostic access. His work has focused on three countries in sub-Saharan Africa; The Gambia, Kenya, and Malawi, where he and his colleagues have long standing partnerships with clinical microbiology laboratories. Dr. Omai and partners focus their activities on three objectives/goals: 1) Increasing access to modern diagnostic tests, 2) increasing educational opportunities for laboratory workers and leaders, and 3) researching the clinical impact of diagnostic access.  

Dr. Karin Nielsen is Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases/ Department of Pediatrics at the UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital and Associate Vice-Chair for Clinical Research in Pediatrics. She is an attending physician at UCLA and co-directs the HIV CARE4Familias Clinic. Dr. Nielsen's research work has focused on studies of HIV prevention and treatment in several populations, both pediatric and adult, with a main focus on perinatal studies for prevention of HIV acquisition. Dr. Nielsen’s field of expertise includes perinatal infections due to HIV, CMV, Syphilis, Zika virus, SARS CoV-2 and other pathogens as well as studies in global health, tuberculosis, arboviruses and tropical infections. Her recent work has focused on maternal immune activation and repercussions of antenatal SARS CoV-2 exposure and other viruses on infant neurodevelopment. She has authored 423 scientific publications to date. 

Dr. Nielsen participated in many collaborative studies funded by the NIH and other agencies across the Americas, Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe & Asia, with strong collaborative ties with the Institute for Acute Febrile Illnesses at the Rio de Janeiro Fiocruz Institute, the ID/ HIV Department at the Hospital Federal dos Servidores do Estado of Rio de Janeiro, and the Institute for Research in AIDS and Infectious Diseases (IPARGS) in Porto Alegre, Brazil among others. Dr. Nielsen has mentored 150 trainees worldwide.



 
Select recent publications include:

1. Zika Virus Infection in Pregnant Women in Rio de Janeiro. The New England Journal of Medicine.
2. Delayed childhood neurodevelopment and neurosensory alterations in the second year of life in a prospective cohort of ZIKV-exposed children. Nature Medicine.
3. Extensive serum proteomic profiling of mother-infant dyads with in-utero SARS-CoV-2. Cell Medicine Reports.
4. Respiratory distress in SARS-CoV-2 exposed uninfected neonates followed in the COVID Outcomes in Mother-Infant Pairs (COMP) Study. Nature Communications.
5. Contribution of syphilis to adverse pregnancy outcomes in people living with and without HIV in south Brazil: 2008-2018. Sexually Transmitted Diseases.
6. Leptospirosis? An Epidemiologic Investigation Following the Historic 2024 Floods in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. One Health. 

Dr. Dvora Joseph Davey is an infectious disease epidemiologist and Associate Professor of Infectious Disease Medicine and Epidemiology at UCLA who leads long-standing global health partnerships with the University of Cape Town (UCT) and the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation in South Africa.  She focuses on HIV and maternal–child health clinical and implementation science alongside South African epidemiologists, clinicians, and community researchers on NIH and Gates-funded studies.  Dr. Joseph Davey’s mentorship model emphasizes equity, capacity building, and real-world global health training, preparing the next generation of interdisciplinary global health leaders.  

Select recent publications include:

1. PrEP preferences and early acceptability of injectable cabotegravir among pregnant and lactating people in Cape Town, South Africa: findings from the PrEPared to Choose study. J Int AIDS Soc.
2. Preferences and acceptability for long-acting PrEP agents among pregnant and postpartum women with experience using daily oral PrEP in South Africa and Kenya. J Int AIDS Soc.
3. Transforming HIV prevention: the promise of long-acting preexposure prophylaxis in high HIV burden settings. Curr Opin HIV AIDS.
4. Prevention of congenital syphilis within antenatal PrEP services in South Africa: missed opportunities. Lancet Infect Dis.
5. Evaluation of pharmacokinetics of Tenofovir Alafenamide (TAF) and Tenofovir Disoproxil (TDF) in pregnant and postpartum women in South Africa: PrEP-PP PK study. Antiviral Res.

Dr. Fola May is an Associate Professor of Medicine at DGSOM with formal training in internal medicine, gastroenterology, and health services research. Dr. May leads an interdisciplinary portfolio focused on equitable health care delivery in the United States and internationally. She has designed and executed multiple studies to examine the impact of patient, provider, and system factors on many chronic disease states, including obesity, colorectal cancer, chronic liver disease, and hepatocellular carcinoma. She utilizes both qualitative and quantitative approaches to design, implement, and evaluate population health strategies to increase access to primary care and preventive services. Her work emphasizes partnerships with community organizations, health systems, and policy makers to scale evidence-based interventions that improve access to care and health outcomes in vulnerable and underserved populations. Prior experience in global health includes clinical work and research in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Mexico, Nigeria, Uganda, Malawi, Tanzania and South Africa.

Select recent publications include:

Barriers and Facilitators to Risk Reduction of Cardiovascular Disease in Hypertensive Patients in Nigeria. Ann Glob Health. 

Impact and Sustainability of Foreign Medical Aid: A Qualitative Study with Honduran Healthcare Providers. Ann Glob Health. 

Reducing Health Disparities Requires Financing People-Centered Primary Care. JAMA Health Forum. 

Decreased Cephalosporin Susceptibility of Oropharyngeal Neisseria Species in Antibiotic-using Men Who Have Sex With Men in Hanoi, Vietnam. Clin Infect Dis. 

Colon cancer in Africa: Primetime for screening? Gastrointest Endosc.