The Evidence for Action (E4A) National Program Office works closely with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to guide overall program direction, develop and implement initiatives, and support grantees.
Evidence for action team
Amani Nuru-Jeter, PhD, MPH
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Dr. Nuru-Jeter provides the overarching vision and direction for E4A and its administration, sets program priorities, and participates in reviews of applications to recommend for funding. Her own research examines the relationship between social and environmental stressors, such as racism, and health outcomes across the lifespan, particularly among African American women.
I’m excited about working with the E4A team, RWJF, and the National Advisory Committee to explore how we may push the boundaries even further to support equitable and innovative research that will advance health and racial equity.”
Lacinda Benjamin
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Ms. Benjamin plays an essential role within the E4A program, providing administrative support, aiding in grant coordination, and actively contributing to program initiatives. She focuses on streamlining processes, enhancing efficiency, and upholding program objectives with clarity, ensuring seamless operations.
Funding action-based research to better understand racial and health disparities in marginalized groups is impactful and transformative for everyday lives. It's an honor to be part of a team dedicated to creating positive change.
Elissa Carey
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Ms. Carey coordinates program communications to translate action-oriented research into accessible, cohesive messaging that advances racial and Indigenous health equity. Responsibilities include monitoring website and social media content and analytics, drafting newsletters and digital content, and collaborating with grantees on dissemination of research findings.
I am eager to learn, grow, and support research that strives assiduously to create change from inequities caused by structural racism.
Steph Chernitskiy, MA
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Ms. Chernitskiy oversees the communications and dissemination activities of the program and grantees. In her role, she leads the development and implementation of program and grantee communication strategies, development of program materials, and management of the website, blog, and social media platforms. Ms. Chernitskiy has a BA from the University of California, Berkeley and a Masters in Communication from Arizona State University.
The commitment to funding research with the explicit aim of informing real-world decision-making and getting the evidence into the hands of those decision-makers is really inspiring to me.
Natalie DiRocco, MPH
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Natalie DiRocco is the Strategic Initiatives Manager at Evidence for Action, where she oversees the execution of large-scale projects such as the Ways of Knowing Symposia. She also plays a key role in crafting and launching calls for proposals. For over a decade she’s been providing strategy and program management services for the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors in the social impact space. She holds an MPH from Boston University School of Public Health and a BS in BioBehavioral Health from Pennsylvania State University.
I’m inspired by the game changing ways E4A grantees are looking at health impacts, and by E4A’s commitment to support grantees in translating their research in actionable ways that influence decision makers to improve population health.
Claire B. Gibbons, PhD, MPH
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Dr. Gibbons is a senior program officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and contributes in setting E4A program priorities. She also reviews and recommends applications for funding. Dr. Gibbons has authored numerous papers and presented widely in the areas of health care quality, disparities, evaluation and research methods and approaches, child welfare services, substance abuse, child victimization, diabetes, and end of life care.
I’m inspired by the creative policies and programs that people all over the United States are implementing to achieve a Culture of Health, in which all people have a chance to live a healthy life. The opportunity to support research that tests whether those policies and programs have the intended impact is a privilege.
Erin Hagan, PhD, MBA
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Dr. Hagan is responsible for the day-to-day operations of E4A, including managing the proposal submission and review process, providing assistance to applicants and grantees, coordinating with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and overseeing administrative and programmatic activities. She also reviews and recommends applications for funding. Over the course of her career Dr. Hagan has worked across a variety of sectors including non-profit, academic, and public. She brings experience in social, economic, and health equity, cultural humility, public policy, business, and evaluation.
I really appreciate that E4A prioritizes action-oriented research. We don’t need to keep describing the problems, we need to intervene to change the outcomes; and while we’re doing that, we need to evaluate whether the intervention is working.
Ye Ji Kim, PhD
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Dr. Kim primarily contributes to the E4A Methods Laboratory. She assesses the use of causal inference methods in understanding social and political determinants of health and health disparities. Dr. Kim’s research explores documentation status, social and health policies, and neighborhood structures to identify areas of structural-level intervention and health equity innovation, particularly among immigrant populations.
I am excited to be a part of the E4A team, whose mission is to merge rigorous, scientific methods and actionable change to influence public health and reach health equity. I am constantly inspired by the research of the grantees who have aimed to provide actionable change in our society through their scientific rigor.
Jeana E. Morrison, PhD
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Dr. Morrison is responsible for the operation of multiple initiatives that are core to E4A’s mission and goals. This includes grantee management where she is the primary point of contact, works closely with prospective applicants, and oversees a portfolio of over 30 active research grants. She also maintains the Technical Assistance (TA) program where she provides research support and capacity building. Dr. Morrison's scholarship is informed by critical epistemologies to investigate the points at which higher education, policy, and racial identity intersect to influence Black student experiences across the African diaspora.
The thing that excites me most about the work that E4A is doing is the purposeful orientation toward action. It is too often that research focused on racially minoritized groups does not move beyond study findings. Helping to address this challenge is powerful for understanding and applying racial equity.
Jennifer Taggart
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Ms. Taggart supports E4A by providing budgetary assistance to applicants and grantees and managing site reporting. She has extensive financial management and grants administration experience.
E4A continues to inspire me because of its focus on funding research that evaluates interventions to learn what makes a difference to the health of our communities and for its commitment to getting that information to the public to promote change.