Shervin Churchill, MPH

I have a background in anthropology and epidemiology and have worked as an epidemiologist in local government and hospital settings. The focus of my work and research has been pediatric health. Specifically, I have worked on issues related to children with special health care needs and developmental delay for the past 8 years at the Center for Children with Special Needs at Seattle Children’s Hospital. My goal is to prevent secondary conditions in this population of children and to improve their quality of life, and that of their families, through family-based interventions. In particular, I would like to study the sleep and activity patterns of children with Down syndrome and gain insight into the associations between these patterns and health and functional status. This information will help with the design of future interventions that maximize health in this population.

Christopher Imes, BSN

Christopher graduated from Case Western Reserve University with his BSN in 2000. After graduation, he spent seven years in the Army as a critical care nurse and nurse manager. He started his PhD in Nursing at The University of Washington in 2007. He is interested in if and how genetic information of cardiovascular disease (CVD) can be used to influence behavior change in young adults with a family history of CVD. Additionally, he is interested in the use of apolipoprotein B (APOB) as a biomarker for predicting CVD and would like to examine the prevalence of common single nucleotide polymorphisms in the APOB gene in young adults with a family history of CVD. Christopher enjoys traveling, the outdoors, and good beer, wine, and food.

Amy Knopf, BSN, MPH

After I earned a B.S.N. from Western Kentucky University, I worked for three years as a clinical research nurse at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center. I ultimately decided I wanted to work with marginalized populations, and left NIH to work for a small medical clinic affiliated with a social service agency called So Others Might Eat (SOME). At SOME I had the privilege of working in a very collaborative and challenging environment in which I saw how poverty, infectious disease, and mental illness combined to negatively impact my patients’ health. I became especially aware of the disproportionate incidence of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections in our patients, which piqued my interest in population level interventions to prevent these infections. I will study sexual network and community-based behavioral interventions for HIV prevention, with a particular emphasis on measuring the impact of an intervention through biomarkers such as incident infections.

Rebecca O’Connor, RN, BSN

Rebecca has worked in healthcare for more than 10 years, including 5 ½ years as a Registered Nurse. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from the University of Washington. During this time, her interest in medical ethics and global health flourished while studying abroad in South Africa. In 2003, Rebecca earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from New York University, where she was an Rudin, Hillman and Honors scholar.

Currently, Rebecca is a Research Nurse Coordinator for Seattle Children’s Hospital in the Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes. Rebecca’s prior nursing experience includes work as a PICU, NICU and pediatric nurse at New York Presbyterian Hospital and work in public health and home health in the Seattle area. She was also Executive Director for a 501c3 non-profit organization that she founded after assisting victims of the Asian tsunami in Sri Lanka. Her prior research experience includes work with pediatric and adult outpatients and pediatric inpatients at New York Presbyterian Hospital. The focus of Rebecca’s current research interest relates to global health and the genetic predisposition of immigrant populations to develop particular diseases upon relocation.

When not contemplating the scientific puzzles of our time, Rebecca enjoys skiing, hiking, gardening, and cooking with her lovely partner, friends and 2 (perfect) cats.