Our Team

Who we are

The HEAT Lab is a multidisciplinary team with extensive experience conceptualizing, designing, and conducting community-engaged, mixed-methods research and disseminating results as evidence for action.

Click on a name or photo to learn more.

Director

Kevin Lanza, PhD
Assistant Professor, Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences and Epidemiology
UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, Austin Campus

Team Members

Baojiang Chen, PhD
Professor, Biostatistics and Data Science
UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, Austin Campus

Julia M. Gohlke, PhD
Professor, Population Health Sciences
Virginia Tech

Tyson Murray, MS
PhD Student, Epidemiology
UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, Austin Campus

Patricia Mwangi, PhD
Lecturer, Spatial and Environmental Planning
Kenyatta University

Fikile Nxumalo, PhD
Associate Professor, Curriculum, Teaching & Learning
University of Toronto

Perry E. Sheffield, MD, MPH
Professor, Environmental Medicine
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Past Team Members

Brian Call
MPH Student, Customized
UTHealth Houston School of Public Health

Sierra Ehlers
AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America)
City of Austin

Léa Feuerbacher
MPH Student, Epidemiology
UTHealth Houston School of Public Health

Tara Hazarika
MPH Student, Health Promotion & Behavioral Sciences
UTHealth Houston School of Public Health

Jessica Jones
Master of Public Affairs Student
The University of Texas at Austin

Elena Luna
PhD Student, Health Promotion & Behavioral Sciences
UTHealth Houston School of Public Health

Neliswa Mkhatshwa
PhD Student, Geography, Archeology and Environmental Studies
University of the Witwatersrand

Kimberley Morgan
MPH Student, Health Promotion & Behavioral Sciences
UTHealth Houston School of Public Health

Alexis Phelps
MPH Student, Customized
UTHealth Houston School of Public Health