Skip to main content
Department of Family Medicine Department of Family Medicine
  1. HOME
  2. Divisions
  3. Preventive Medicine
  4. Education & Training
  5. Integrated Cardiovascular Epidemiology Fellowship - T32
  6. People
  7. Current Trainees

Current Trainees

Post-Docs

Jamie Corroon, ND, MPH is a licensed Naturopathic Doctor and a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health at University of California, San Diego where he investigates the impact of cannabis use on cardiovascular health. He earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Southern California where he majored in Political Science and minored in Business Administration. He earned a Doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine from Bastyr University in Seattle, WA and subsequently completed two years of residency training at the Bastyr Center for Natural Health; followed by two years as an adjunct faculty member at Bastyr University’s San Diego Campus. Dr. Corroon earned his Masters in Public Health at San Diego State University with a concentration in epidemiology. He is is committed to investigating the clinical and public health implications of the broadening acceptance of cannabis in society.

 Taynara Formagini, PhD, MSc earned her undergraduate and master’s degrees from the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF), a prestigious university in Brazil, her country of origin. She began her academic career as an undergraduate, supporting a series of research projects around public health, health policy, and behavior change. In 2012, Taynara received a competitive national fellowship called Science without Borders for a year-long experience in the U.S to gain research experience. After finishing her master’s thesis examining smoking patterns in Brazil, she moved to the U.S. again to pursue her doctoral education. Taynara received her PhD in Health Policy and Management from the Department of Population Health at the University of Kansas School of Medicine. Her dissertation utilized a mixed method design to understand the complex interplay of agency, structure, and socialization in the engagement and maintenance of health behaviors such as a healthy diet and physical activity, as well as engagement in the National Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) among Latinos. Taynara is trained in both qualitative and quantitative research and has considerable experience in different aspects of research methods. She has co-authored 13 manuscripts and was the first author of five of these. Taynara’s central research interest includes addressing chronic disease health disparities among Latinos and other minority and underserved populations. As part of her postdoctoral work, she is interested in supporting the implementation and sustainability of evidence-based interventions targeted at Latinos to increase physical activity and improve diet quality among this group.

Jeanean B. Naqvi, PhD received her BA in Psychology from UCLA (2014) and her PhD in Psychology from Carnegie Mellon University (2022). Her research centers around the question of how close relationships impact physical, behavioral, and psychological health, and how this link differs based on culture, race, and gender. She received an F31 from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities to support her dissertation work, which focused on race differences in the link between social support and health among Black and White individuals with type 2 diabetes. During her postdoctoral fellowship, she plans to expand upon this prior work by examining cultural values and norms as a potential mechanism for the link between social support and risk factors for cardiovascular disease among Hispanic/Latinx populations. In her free time, Jeanean enjoys playing music and lounging with her dog, Bailey.

Tara Shrout Allen, MD, MSc earned her undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University, where she double majored in Molecular & Cellular Biology and Political Science. She began her academic career while a student at Vanderbilt, publishing papers related to cardiac sarcomere physiology and protein regulation, and was selected for a paid internship at Duke University focused on improving methods for cardiac transplant procurement. Tara also studied abroad at University College London and worked as a swim instructor and MCAT course teacher for the Princeton Review during her time at Vanderbilt. After undergraduate studies, Tara returned home to Kentucky for medical school at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine where she was selected as the Saha Cardiovascular Medical Student of the Year and for an NIH CTSA TL1 Training Grant that afforded her the ability to earn a Master of Science Degree in Clinical & Translational Science with a prospective thesis project on improving risk-stratification for adverse outcomes in patients undergoing LVAD implantation. She then completed her Internal Medicine residency training at Boston Medical Center where she was selected for the Framingham Heart Study Pathway and developed a strong interest in epidemiology and improving ways we use already available clinical data for patient care. Amid the COVID pandemic, Tara connected with leaders in our program and applied to our two-year T32 in Integrated Cardiovascular Epidemiology. She is leading projects and statistical analyses related to subclinical atherosclerosis, nutritional epidemiology, and improving risk discrimination scores for cardiovascular disease. Tara plans to apply for clinical cardiology fellowship and pursue a career as an academic cardiologist. Outside of medicine, Tara enjoys scuba diving with her husband and trail running.

Pre-Docs

Eric T. Hyde, MPH earned his Bachelor of Science in Movement Science from the University of Michigan (2014) and Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from Emory University (2017) before working for three years as an epidemiologist in the Physical Activity and Health Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While there, he worked on national surveillance of physical activity and sedentary behavior while contributing to federal policy documents such as the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd edition and the National Youth Sports Strategy. Eric began the T32 Integrated Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology Predoctoral Fellowship in 2020, which was the same year he began the SDSU/UCSD joint doctoral program in Public Health – Epidemiology. Eric’s primary research interests are in the measurement of physical activity and sedentary behavior. In addition, he’s interested the associations between physical activity/sedentary behavior and chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer, as well as interventions that promote a physically active lifestyle.

Heidy Mendez-Rodriguez, BA earned her Bachelor of Arts in Health and Human Biology (2017) from Brown University and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the City University of New York (2022). Since graduating in 2017, she has been closely involved in behavioral and chronic disease management research in populations with reproductive cancers and populations with diabetes, including serving a supporting role on NIH-funded studies such as the Function and Emotion in Everyday Life With Type 1 Diabetes study. Heidy began the T32 Integrated Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology Predoctoral Fellowship in 2022 when she also began the SDSU/UC San Diego Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology. Heidy’s primary research interests are exploring 1) psychosocial, environmental, and biological mechanisms behind health behaviors for promoting healthy lifestyles, 2) how integrated models of care can reduce health disparities, and 3) how technology-based interventions and community-partnered interventions can improve chronic disease management, like CVD, and patient-provider communications.