Our Team
Marni Sommer, Professor of Sociomedical Sciences, Director of GATE
Marni Sommer, DrPH, MSN, RN, has worked in global health and development on issues ranging from improving access to essential medicines to humanitarian relief in conflict settings. Dr. Sommer's particular areas of expertise include conducting participatory research with adolescents, understanding and promoting healthy transitions to adulthood, the intersection of public health and education, gender and sexual health, and the implementation and evaluation of adolescent-focused interventions. Dr. Sommer presently leads the Gender, Adolescent Transitions and Environment (GATE) Program, based in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences. GATE explores the intersections of gender, health, education and the environment for girls and boys transitioning into adulthood in low-income countries and in the United States. GATE also generates research and practical resources focused on improving the integration of menstrual hygiene management and gender-supportive sanitation solutions into global humanitarian response.
Sarah Combs, Associate Director of GATE
Sarah Combs, PhD, MPH, MSW, is a community psychologist who blends approaches from psychology, public health, and social work to adopt a holistic approach to research and evaluation. Her work concentrates on understanding issues surrounding reproductive health, housing insecurity, and well-being through an ecological framework. Sarah is a qualitative researcher who draws from decolonizing and participatory methods and her background reflects a balanced focus on research and program management. She has worked in domestic and international settings including New York, California, Hawaiʻi, and Southeast Asia. Sarah is particularly passionate about ensuring research is translated into digestible and actionable materials that can be used to affect change. Sarah holds a PhD in Community Psychology and MSW from the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa, and a MPH from the Sociomedical Sciences Department at Columbia University.
Sarah Blake, Senior Research Program Manager
Sarah Blake, PhD, MPH, MSc has worked at the intersections of research and programming in gender, adolescent health and well-being and rights across diverse global contexts, including West Africa and Central Asia. Her research focuses on qualitative and participatory research on the health and social dimensions of adolescents’ transitions to adulthood. Dr. Blake has contributed to policy and evidence reviews, and program evaluations of health and educational interventions in school and community settings. In addition, she has worked with community, national, and international non-governmental organizations to gather and translate evidence into adolescent-centered, community-based programming. Dr. Blake holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of California, San Francisco, an MPH in Population and Family Health from Columbia University, and an MSc in Gender, Development, and Globalisation from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Angela Nguyen, Postdoctoral Research Scientist
Angela Nguyen, DrPH, MPH, is a postdoctoral research scientist for the GATE Program. She earned her doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health and her MPH from the New York University School of Global Public Health. Angela’s interdisciplinary research to date has focused on vulnerable populations, social determinants of health, and environmental exposures. Her dissertation centered on the epidemiology of disaster mental health, particularly the community- and individual-level factors associated with mental health recovery among displaced women survivors. More recently, she collaborated on a quantitative research study on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on period poverty in the U.S. With GATE, Angela will engage on several research projects ranging from examining the dissemination of puberty educational content to young people, to assessing the impact of menstrual health on the daily lives of those with periods.
Mallary Taylor, Research Assistant
Mallary Taylor (she/they) is pursuing her Master of Public Health at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health in the Department of Population and Family Health. She has a background in grants, operations, and business development for sexual and reproductive health programs in humanitarian settings. Most recently, Mallary worked with the International Rescue Committee as a Research Program Coordinator for a research consortium generating evidence on effective approaches to deliver life-saving maternal and newborn health care in DRC, Nigeria, Somalia, and South Sudan. Mallary has a BA in Political Science and a BS in Psychology from Furman University.
Isabella Brocato, Menstrual Health Fellow
Isabella Brocato is a first-year MPH student in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences with a certificate in Sexuality, Sexual and Reproductive Health. As a certified puberty and adolescence educator with a background in survivor advocacy and violence prevention, Bella is passionate about advancing menstrual health equity and literacy as a means of ensuring agency for women, girls, and others who menstruate. Her research interests include global menstrual health, adolescent sexual development, comprehensive body literacy program design, and the restoration of sexual agency through an embodiment framework. Bella is from Louisiana and has a BA in Political Science from the University of Southern Mississippi.
Carolyn Martinez Jorge, Menstrual Health Fellow
Carolyn Martinez is pursuing her Master of Public Health at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences. She has experience with program planning and implementation for adolescent girls within Harlem high schools and qualitative research on housing quality and smoking cessation in New York City Housing Authority developments. With additional training in applied biostatistics and data science, she hopes to combine her interests in data science, reproductive justice, and equity to support public health research, implementation, and evaluation efforts within women’s and adolescent sexual and reproductive health. Carolyn was raised in the South Bronx and has a BA in Medical Humanities and Public Health from Columbia University.
Bhavana Huliyar, The Sid Lerner Women’s and Adolescent Health Fellow
Bhavana Huliyar is a student in the Population and Family Health Department, with a certificate in Public Health Research Methods. She graduated from Denison University with a BA in Global Health and a BS in Biology in 2023. Bhavana’s previous experience has included supporting a COVID-19 response project to uplift vulnerable populations at Swasti Health Catalyst in India. She also worked at SAHDES, an organization in Argentina focused on maternal and child health. Bhavana is interested in public health program design and sexual and reproductive health, with a specific interest in menstrual equity. She currently works on an mHealth and maternal health research program at the Columbia School of Nursing.
Elizabeth Knox, Menstrual Health Intern
Lizzy is an incoming senior at Cornell University studying Global and Public Health Sciences with minors in Inequality Studies and Business. At Cornell, Lizzy is a research assistant in the Odoms-Young Nutrition Liberation, Food Sovereignty, and Justice Lab where she has assisted in screening for a health equity and precision nutrition scoping review. Last summer, Lizzy interned at Weill Cornell’s Clinical and Translation Science Center, engaging with community members across NYC, training them to treat opioid overdoses, and gathering health and demographic data. Lizzy is particularly interested in social determinants of health, culturally sensitive care and education, the links between mental and physical health, and access to menstrual education and resources.