OUR RESEARCH STAFF
Dr. Kaesha Thomas, MBBS, is a Research Associate at the Harvard/MGH Center on Genomics, Vulnerable Populations, and Health Disparities and Project Manager of the Jamaica Cancer Care & Research Institute (JACCRI). Graduating as proxime accessit of her medical class, she obtained her medical degree with Distinction from the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus. Her work with JACCRI encompasses the recognition of disparities in healthcare, with the aim of contributing to critical medical advancements in prevention, screening, detection, and palliation in Jamaica as well as the Caribbean.
Kaesha Thomas, MBBS
Dr. Kammar Segree, MBBS, is a Research Associate at the Jamaica Cancer Care & Research Institute (JACCRI). He attained his medical degree from the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus. His research interests include the advancement of cancer treatment through the identification of various barriers along the clinical care pathway. His current work with JACCRI is focused on assessing the quality of palliative care being offered to the underprivileged population within the region as a part of the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Evaluation of Palliative Care of Six Countries.
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Kammar Segree, MBBS
Mr. Argentieri is a Research Associate at the Harvard/MGH Center on Genomics, Vulnerable Populations, and Health Disparities, where he serves as the Project Manager for the National Consortium on Psychosocial Stress, Spirituality, and Health. He is also a PhD candidate at the University of Oxford, where his research focuses on understanding the embodiment of social inequality at both the phenomenological and molecular level among low-income and disadvantaged populations, and how this may then contribute to health inequality persistent throughout the United States. In particular, he is interested in the epigenetic mechanisms that mediate stress, adversity, poverty, trauma, and health. Mr. Argentieri also holds an MPhil in Medical Anthropology from the University of Oxford, and has held research and teaching positions at the University of Oxford and the Baruch S. Blumberg Institute. A full research profile for Mr. Argentieri’s work can be found on his University of Oxford page.
Austin Argentieri, MPhil
Ms. Schachter is Deputy Director of the Harvard/MGH Center on Genomics, Vulnerable Populations, and Health Disparities. She holds an MPH (Health Behavior and Health Education) and a BS with Honors (Biopsychology and Cognitive Science) from the University of Michigan. Ms. Schachter has over 10 years of experience managing complex multi-year, multi-institutional research initiatives, with research experience in the areas of gene-environment interactions, epigenomics, nicotine addiction, smoking cessation, survey design, religiosity/spirituality, asthma management, health education program development, traffic safety, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases. Before joining the Center in 2008, she served as Research Coordinator and Smoking Cessation Counselor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Nicotine Addiction (formerly the Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center).
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Anna B. Schachter, MPH
Dr. Garrett-Dijan Fairclough (MBBS) is a Research Associate at the Jamaica Cancer Care & Research Institute (JACCRI). After graduating from the Faculty of Medical Sciences (at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Kingston Jamaica), Dr. Fairclough realised his passion for medicine stretched beyond the typical care of ailments and sickness (in Jamaica). He views healthcare through the microscope of the youth: an environment that needs to improve with technology and evolve with social and environmental changes globally. He sees this approach as essential to promote health and well-being to the younger generation in an effort to reduce chronic disease burden and complications in the population.