WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS - Key Persons


Ana Rivera

Job Titles:
  • Medical Student Dean 's Summer Fellowship Awardee

Carrie Coughlin

Job Titles:
  • MPHS
Dr. Coughlin is a board-certified dermatologist with a passion for integrating shared decision-making and decision support tools with her patients and their guardians at St. Louis Children's Hospital. Her research and clinical practice is driven by the goal of improving care for immunosuppressed children and children with cancer and skin tumors. She serves as an assistant professor of dermatology in the Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics. She serves as a clinical advisor for the Center for Collaborative Care Decisions.

Dr. Mary Politi

Job Titles:
  • Principal Investigator
  • Division of Public Health Sciences
Dr. Politi is a health psychologist and behavioral scientist. Her primary research interests include health communication and shared decision-making. Her work helps patients and the public understand health information, explore what is important to them when making health decisions, and collaborate to make evidence-informed decisions that meet their needs. Dr. Politi also trains clinicians in shared decision making and patient engagement through a semester-long class on health literacy and shared decision-making and numerous conference presentations and short courses.

Eliana Goldstein

Job Titles:
  • Research Coordinator
  • Public Health Research Coordinator
Eliana Goldstein is a public health research coordinator who has worked in the lab since 2023. After graduating from Washington University in St Louis, she began working in health communication for both nonprofit clinical organizations and industry settings. She later completed an MPH degree and developed skills in public health research methods. She has expertise in project management, program evaluation, maternal and child health, and health communication.

Hannah Kinzer

Job Titles:
  • Student
Hannah Kinzer is a graduate student with interests in community-based participatory approaches to health communication and infectious disease research with a focus on advancing health equity in disease surveillance. She has worked on a variety of interdisciplinary, collaborative research projects. In the Politi lab, she works on projects associated with financial toxicity during preference-sensitive care choices.

Karishma Furtado

Job Titles:
  • Graduate Research Assistant

Krista Cooksey

Job Titles:
  • Public Health Research Coordinator
Krista Cooksey is a public health research coordinator who has worked in the lab since 2020 and in clinical research since 2015. She first learned the importance of community engagement, consensus building, and collaboration in her undergraduate area of concentration in Minority Health and Policy in Underserved Communities. She has expertise in quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis and project management.

Kylie Bushroe

Job Titles:
  • Postdoctoral Fellow

Meng-Ru Cheng

Job Titles:
  • Statistical Data Analyst

Monica Lim

Job Titles:
  • Student

Sarabjeet Seehra

Job Titles:
  • Student

Summer Roberts

Job Titles:
  • Project Coordinator

Tara Suresh

Job Titles:
  • Student

Viktoria Schmitz

Job Titles:
  • Public Health Research Coordinator
Viktoria Schmitz is a public health research coordinator who has worked in the lab since 2022 and in clinical research since 2020. She first started her work in clinical research recruiting for projects on fetal care development in the Department of OB/GYN. She has expertise in qualitative data collection and analysis and recruitment across multiple projects.

Zoe Troubh

Job Titles:
  • Undergraduate Research Assistant
Zoe Troubh is an undergraduate student at Washington University in St. Louis studying Anthropology: Global Health & Environment and History. As a pre-health student, she is interested in a career that meets at the intersection of pediatric medicine, public health, and education. In the Politi lab, she works on projects engaging patients and clinicians in decisions about antibiotics for urinary tract infections and asymptomatic bacteriuria.