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Members

Meet the members of the Simon lab below. We welcome requests for information about our work and collaboration opportunities. Please email SimonTeam@northwestern.edu if interested.

Principal Investigator

Melissa  Simon

Melissa Simon, MD MPH

Vice Chair of Research, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
George H. Gardner, MD, Professor of Clinical Gynecology
Professor in Obstetrics and Gynecology-General/Preventive Medicine and Medical Social Sciences
Director of the Center for Health Equity Transformation
Founder and Director of Chicago Cancer Health Equity Collaborative (ChicagoCHEC)

m-simon2( at )northwestern.edu
312-695-8486

View Simon's Faculty Profile

Research Staff

Samantha  Alonis

Samantha Alonis

Strategic Operations Director

samantha.alonis( at )northwestern.edu

Samantha Alonis leverages the leadership, project management, networking, and capacity-building skills that she developed through her cross-sector work experience to promote health equity and inclusion as the Strategic Operations Director at Northwestern’s Center for Health Equity Transformation. Additionally, she teaches Ethical Leadership in Public Service with a focus on inclusion and cultural awareness at DePaul University, where she obtained her Master’s in Leadership and Public Policy with distinction. In her free time, Samantha engages in civic leadership to assist in developing and promoting policies that aim to prevent child sexual abuse, such as youth development and equitable access to comprehensive sexual health education.
Rabih Dahdouh, MS

Rabih Dahdouh, MS

Clinical Research Associate

rabih.dahdouh( at )northwestern.edu

Rabih Dahdouh joins the Simon Lab with an extensive background in behavioral health, technology and preventive medicine. Most recently he worked with over 40 clinical partners delivering mental health services with an integrated digital platform to underserved populations across the country. Previously he’s worked in the Department of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine as research project manager for the Keep Your Heart Healthy (KYHH) program. He also served as Director of Communications & Engagement with the All of Us Research Program at Northwestern with a mission to enroll 1M people to speed up health research breakthroughs to advance precision medicine. Rabih completed his BS in Child Learning & Development and MS in Psychological Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas. He will be working on multiple projects at the Simon Lab under the Center for Health Equity Transformation.
Araceli Estrada

Araceli Estrada

Program Assistant

araceli.estrada( at )northwestern.edu

Araceli is a Program Assistant in the Simon Research Lab. She provides administrative, program and research support for the Center for Health Equity Transformation. Araceli received her B.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is a Chicago native and volunteers locally as a Spanish interpreter at CommunityHealth.
Ivy  Leung

Ivy Leung

Chinatown Patient Navigation Coordinator

ivy.leung( at )northwestern.edu

Prior to moving to Chicago, Ivy was a medical and court interpreter and a community organizer in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area and in Ohio. Through her experiences, she became particularly interested in medicine and health disparities. Joining the Simon Lab enabled her to fulfill her desire and passion for helping limited-English proficiency speakers become acclimated to their new lives in the United States. In addition to her efforts in improving access to healthcare and health education, she is also involved with educating and helping domestic violence survivors.
Maggie Nava

Maggie Nava, MPH

Sr. Program Administrator

magdalena.nava1( at )northwestern.edu

Maggie has an extensive background in community health within the realms of domestic violence, AIDS/HIV, diabetes education, cardiovascular disease and most currently cancer. She obtained her Master’s in Public Health from DePaul University and before joining the Simon Lab she was a Project Coordinator at the Ruth M. Rothstein Core Center. She has dedicated the last 25 years of her career working on making a tiny difference in the health of individuals living in underserved and underrepresented communities.
Catherine O'Brian

Catherine O'Brian, MS, PhD

Scientific Editor

catherine.obrian( at )northwestern.edu

Catherine O’Brian comes to the Simon Lab with a broad background in scientific research and writing in academic biomedicine, the pharmaceutical medical communications industry, and the nonprofit healthcare sector. In her role as Scientific Editor, she works in conjunction with other Simon Lab team members and collaborators to bring Simon Lab research findings to publication in a timely manner. She received her PhD from the University of Chicago and postdoctoral training from Columbia University in New York.

Edgardo Ramirez

Research Project Coordinator

edgardo.ramirez( at )northwestern.edu

Edgardo is a Research Project Coordinator in the Simon Lab working with the ChicagoCHEC and other projects. He holds a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Iowa and has spent the last 6 years working in the cancer research and health disparities realm. His exposure has ranged from basic science to behavioral, community-based, and population-based research. He previously served as a Research Specialist at the University of Illinois Cancer Center as well as an RA on a randomized trial aimed at reducing tobacco use disparities among smokers who attend FQHCs in Chicago. He also completed a yearlong cancer research training fellowship at the National Cancer Institute. Ultimately, he plans to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology and has interests in stress, sociocultural processes, and mental health inequities among underrepresented communities experiencing chronic illness.
Laura Tom

Laura Tom, MS

Clinical Research Associate

laura.tom( at )northwestern.edu

Laura Tom is a Clinical Research Associate who oversees the day-to-day operations of Dr. Simon’s research lab and team. Prior to joining the Simon Lab at Northwestern, she supported research projects in cancer prevention and control at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center. Laura received her MS in social and behavioral sciences and BA in sociology from Harvard University.
Ann Yau

Ann Yau

Chinatown Patient Navigator

Ann.Yau( at )mercy-chicago.org

Ann has worked at Mercy Hospital Medical Center for over four years as a Patient Navigator. In this role, she helps limited English proficiency speakers when they come to Mercy Hospital. Ann also assists community partners and conducts education sessions to showcase insurance options.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Lynn Yee

Lynn Yee, MD, MPH

Maternal Fetal Medicine Fellow Northwestern University

lynn.yee( at )northwestern.edu

View Yee's Faculty Profile

Dr. Lynn Yee is as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine. She is currently in the NICHD Women’s Reproductive Health Research (WRHR) Career Development Program at Northwestern. She has training in maternal health, behavioral health, research design and epidemiology through completion of an MPH. She is pursuing clinical research in several areas, including diabetes during pregnancy, health literacy, health disparities, health behavior and decision making, patient navigation, perinatal HIV, and obesity/weight gain. Her primary WRHR investigation is on the development, implementation, and assessment of an advanced mobile health technology tool to improve diabetes self-management during pregnancy.