Directory

Lori Crane is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and professor of Community and Behavioral Health. She received her MPH and PhD in Public Health from UCLA, with an emphasis on behavioral science and health education. Lori is an expert in skin cancer prevention, having conducted numerous intervention and epidemiological studies in this area for over 25 years. She is also an expert in survey research and has led or collaborated in written, telephone, face-to-face, and internet surveys on numerous health related topics. Lori currently teaches courses in Program Planning and Implementation, Grant Writing for Public Health Professionals, and the MPH Capstone.

Dr. Levinson is a professor of community and behavioral health and a member of the University of Colorado Cancer Center, with more than 25 years of experience in public health practice and research. His interests include identifying, understanding, and reducing disparities in tobacco-related risks and behaviors among cultural minorities and people with lower socioeconomic status (SES). He also studies methods for detecting violation rates in retail tobacco sales to underage customers. His research has shown that three-fourths of current U.S. smokers have low-SES; Colorado adults with disabilities have severely elevated smoking prevalence; college students who smoke are likely to deny being smokers; that Colorado Latinx adults have higher smoking prevalence than non-Hispanic white adults, a U.S. anomaly; and federal protocols for monitoring underage tobacco sales grossly underestimate violation rates while effective protocols are feasible and practical. His findings led Colorado to prioritize tobacco programming to reach Latinx, disabled, and low-SES smokers, and were used in designing Colorado’s tobacco sales-license law enacted in 2020. Dr. Levinson has represented the University of Colorado Cancer Center on the Guidelines Panel for Smoking Cessation of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, and served six years as chair/vice chair of the Colorado Tobacco Grants Review Committee.

Dr. Whitesell's work focuses on child and adolescent development within the contexts of American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) communities. Her research projects apply developmental science to inform preventive interventions to improve outcomes for children birth through adolescence. 

Dr. Whitesell’s major current projects include prevention development, implementation evaluation, measure development and mentorship initiatives: 

A randomized controlled trial within a Northern Plains reservation funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to evaluate Thiwáhe Gluwáš'akapi, a family-based program for prevention of adolescent substance use developed with partners in this community (R37DA047926; Whitesell, PI).

The Multi-site Implementation Evaluation of Tribal Home Visiting (MUSE), funded by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). MUSE is a stakeholder-engaged study of implementation of home visiting within 17 tribes and urban Indian organizations around the country (HHSP2337004T; Whitesell, PI).

The Native Children’s Research Exchange (NCRE) is a national organization of researchers and students in academic and community settings who use science to support the health and well-being of children in Native communities. NCRE hosts conferences that facilitate the exchange of research findings and the establishment of collaborative relationships among researchers. Dr. Whitesell co-directs NCRE with Dr. Michelle Sarche.

The NCRE Scholars Program is a mentoring program funded by NIDA to support the career development of early stage American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian investigators (R25DA050645; Whitesell and Sarche, PIs).

The Tribal Early Childhood Research Center, funded by ACF to collaborate with early childhood programs in tribal communities around the country, including Home Visiting, Head Start, and Child Care programs The TRC facilitates research-to-practice connections, engages community stakeholders in research, and provides training to community partners and early-career researchers. Dr. Whitesell is Associate Director and Director of Research and Measurement of this Center (90PH0027; Sarche, PI). 

Two distinct areas of methodological expertise inform Dr. Whitesell’s work across these projects. The first is Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) approaches that engage AIAN community partners in all aspects of research, from the identification of study goals through the interpretation of data and dissemination of findings. This approach helps to ensure that research is relevant to local communities, methods are both culturally and scientifically rigorous, resulting data are reliable and valid, interpretations are complete and correct, and local capacity for research is developed. 

Dr. Whitesell’s second area of expertise is in statistical methodologies that support the application of rigorous research methodologies to the questions identified with community partners. Her expertise in latent variable statistical methods, including measure development (e.g., factor analysis, latent class models), structural equation modeling and longitudinal modeling (e.g., latent growth curve modeling) serves to support more accurate understanding of developmental processes that, in turn, inform intervention efforts.

Teresa Sharp is the director of the Colorado School of Public Health at the University of Northern Colorado, and an associate professor of Community Health Education. Prior to joining ColoradoSPH in 2011, she was a faculty member in the Department of Pediatrics in the CU School of Medicine at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus. Teresa has a PhD in Health and Behavioral Sciences from the University of Colorado, and a Master of Education degree from Vanderbilt University. Her scholarly interests target the development of community-based strategies and initiatives to improve health and reduce the incidence of disease in vulnerable populations.  

Scott Harpin joined the CU College of Nursing as an assistant professor in 2011, and holds an affiliate faculty position in the Colorado School of Public Health. Harpin received dual masters degrees and PhD from the University of Minnesota and hold the advanced public health nursing certification from ANCC. He was awarded “Fellow” status in the Society of Adolescent Health and Medicine in 2015. His research focuses on the health outcomes and mental health promotion of vulnerable adolescent and young-adult populations, specifically runaway/homeless youth and those transitioning out of foster care. Areas of teaching include epidemiology, health promotion, nursing research, and public health nursing.

Harpin has worked as an advanced-practice public health nurse since the early 2000s. His long-time practice was at St. Joseph’s Home for Children in Minneapolis, which served as the central intake site for children entering the Hennepin County Child Protection System. Since joining the faculty at CU, Harpin has partnered with Urban Peak (Denver, CO) to investigate health utilization patterns of homeless youth and the effectiveness of a tailored screening and brief intervention for newly homeless youth. His research expertise extends to secondary data analyses of datasets, as well as using mixed methods for exploratory research to understand marginalized public health populations.

Harpin is the co-director of the DNP/MPH “Dual Degree” and DNP-PHN programs in the College of Nursing. He also serves as co-chair of the Colorado Child Fatality Review Team (Governor’s appointment), is a College of Nursing representative to the CU Community-Campus Partnership Initiative, and volunteers with the Rocky Mountain Medical Reserve Corps. He lives with his wife and 2 daughters in southeast Denver.

Vladka Kovar is a board-certified preventive medicine physician and epidemiologist with a background in psychiatry and a “side” degree in Art History, Theory, and Criticism.  Vladka’s unique background allows her to conduct research and evaluation in a variety of areas including public health, behavioral health, medical education, and systems design and implementation evaluation.  

Vladka brings a breadth of practical theory-driven knowledge and experience to her evaluation work. Current efforts are focused on partnering with local public health agencies to pilot test standardized process and evaluation measures for project monitoring and quality improvement. She is also leading the comprehensive evaluation of the All-patient Cancer Center Expansion of Supportive Services (ACCESS) for Tobacco Cessation Treatment at the University of Colorado Cancer Center, a multi-site program development and implementation study. Vladka is part of CEPEG’s Evaluation Training and Technical Assistance Team where she provides tailored training for local public health agencies, non-profits, government agencies, foundations, and community organizations to build research and evaluation capacity.  Vladka’s professional interests stem from her extensive volunteer efforts in Africa working in health care system design and quality improvement projects as well as disease prevention and health promotion campaigns.  
Before joining CEPEG, Vladka acted as a consultant for the Pediatric Injury Prevention, Education and Research Program conducting qualitative research related to mental health services, and as an assistant program director in the Preventive Medicine Residency Program at the University of Colorado Anschutz. 

Shannon Pray is a Senior Evaluation Specialist with 12 years of experience working in chronic disease. With a background in Epidemiology, Shannon is able to assist partners in applying theoretical evidence to practical program implementation and process measures to improve health outcomes.  

For the past ten years, Shannon has partnered with the University of Colorado Cancer Center working with groups in tobacco prevention, patient navigation and colorectal cancer screening. Currently, Shannon leads CEPEGs survey design and programming, report building, and evaluation tools development efforts.  She has extensive analytic and programming skills across multiple data collection, analysis and reporting platforms. Shannon is a member of CEPEG’s Evaluation Training and Technical Assistance Team providing evaluation support, and online and in-person trainings. She is also part of the data visualization learning group, which provides peer-to-peer learning and collaboration opportunities. 

As a Senior Evaluator for CEPEG, Nicole is motivated by her desire to make data more useful, accessible and understandable for a broad range of audiences and stakeholders. Nicole is especially interested in providing actionable, evidence-based data to help guide policy and program sustainability. Currently, Nicole serves as a program development and implementation liaison to grantees, and provides technical assistance and evaluation support.  Her work with community-based interventions and innovative policy initiatives allows Nicole the opportunity to combine professional interest and personal commitment to increasing access to care for our most vulnerable populations. Her expertise in both qualitative and quantitative methods, and her leadership in CEPEG’s data visualization learning group, ensures that results from evaluation efforts provide meaningful results.

Prior to working for CEPEG, Nicole was the project coordinator for an NIH-funded research study to measure cannabis exposure during gestation, and the effect cannabis use on the neurological development of infants. She received her MPH from the University of Colorado Anschutz, and degrees in Bioanalytical Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Cultural Anthropology from Arizona State University.