Meet the Team
Dr. Marcia Tan
Principal Investigator/Assistant Professor
Dr. Tan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Chicago. Her background is in clinical health psychology and epidemiology, and her work focuses on health disparities in modifiable cancer risk factors, including tobacco use and obesity, and cancer prevention among underserved populations. Dr. Tan’s specific research interests are 1) examining biopsychosocial and behavioral factors that contribute to disparities in cancer, and 2) conducting community-based health behavior interventions to reduce risk factors among disparity populations. She received a PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Miami, an MPH from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, and a BS in Psychology from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. She completed postdoctoral training at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine as an NCI T32 fellow in Cancer Prevention and Control. Dr. Tan enjoys baking, eating baked goods, going to bakeries, reading sci-fi/fantasy novels, dancing, and playing make believe with her kids.
Anna Veluz-Wilkins
Research Consultant
Anna is a health psychologist by training whose research focuses on the motivation of health behavior change and how that affects the treatment of addictive substances, particularly tobacco use and dependence in adults, especially among disadvantaged and underserved populations. She has a master’s in clinical health psychology from University of Illinois at Chicago and has been a clinical psychology researcher at the Northwestern University, University of San Francisco, and the Howard Brown Health Center. Anna was also involved in the smoking cessation through the Illinois Tobacco Prevention and Control Work Group.
Dedeepya Konuthula
Postdoctoral Fellow
Dedeepya Konuthula is a primary care research fellow through the University of Chicago HRSA T32 Primary care Investigators Training in Chronic disease & Health disparities fellowship and a MSCP (Master of Science in Public Health Sciences for Clinical Professionals) student. She received her undergraduate degree in Neuroscience from Dartmouth College and completed medical school at Yale followed by residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. She loves providing primary care across the lifespan. She is interested in implementing and studying community-engaged and health policy interventions to decrease cardiometabolic disparities in marginalized communities. Dedeepya and her husband are enjoying living so close to Chinatown and are happily making their way through the many amazing bubble tea and Asian food options here in Chicago.
Andres Mauricio Garcia Sierra
Postdoctoral Fellow
Andres is a Colombian physician with a master’s degree in public health and a master’s degree in public policy. He has been focused on health access analysis in chronic non-communicable diseases. He received a Ph.D. in Public Affairs, Health Services Research Track at the University of Central Florida. He has worked on the analysis of the utilization and costs of renal replacement therapies in patients with end-stage chronic kidney disease. In his spare time, he enjoys playing tennis, soccer, and basketball. He also enjoys theater and Stand-Up Comedy.
Allie Yan
Research Assistant
Allie is a medical student at the University of Chicago with an undergraduate background in biological sciences and health justice & disparities from Vanderbilt University. Her clinical and research interests include community health interventions in vulnerable populations, oncology, and narrative medicine. She is an avid bookworm, artist, and video-gamer as well as a doting cat and plant mom.
Plamena Powla
Educational Trainee
Plamena is an educational trainee at the C.H.A.T. lab working on a project related to advance care planning and code status documentation in women with breast cancer. She received her undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of Rochester (‘21) and an M.S. degree in Biostatistics with a concentration in Statistical Bioinformatics from Northwestern University (’22). At the University of Chicago, she is also on the neurocritical care research team as a coordinator. Her research background is in predictive models, and she is interested in survival analysis and causal inference in healthcare. In her free time, she enjoys jet skiing, kayaking, and spending time with her pet Leopard tortoise named Strawberry.