Fellow Spotlights

Dr. Charisse Ahmed is a nurse scientist and global health researcher with an interest in HIV prevention and reducing mental health disparities in sub-Saharan Africa. She is a registered nurse who earned her PhD in Nursing Science from the University of Pennsylvania. She is also a research fellow at the Southern African Institute for Policy and Research in Lusaka, Zambia, where she contributes to improving policymaking, research capacity, and governance. Prior to her nursing education, she was a Fulbright research grantee in Eswatini where she conducted a qualitative study of adolescent HIV service delivery practices among community health workers.

Dr. Ahmed has a decade of experience conducting HIV treatment and prevention research among adolescents and young adults in African countries. She integrates community-based participatory approaches and implementation science to develop sustainable, lay-delivered interventions to promote adolescent health. She is currently leading a pilot study that will introduce the Friendship Bench, a counseling intervention, to adolescent girls and young women in Zambia who have experienced gender-based violence. Recognizing the community's need to reduce mental health stigma and improve culturally appropriate access to care, she founded Mind Changers-Pals 4 Life (MCP4L), a mental health working group in Lusaka that was named by its members. Passionate about developing trauma-informed, culturally sensitive interventions, Dr. Ahmed aims to improve HIV and HIV-related (mental health, STIs, etc.) outcomes for individuals facing social and economic challenges globally.

Dr. Kendall Ota is a postdoctoral trainee in UCLA’s Division of Infectious Diseases studying inequities in access to HIV prevention and care for racial/sexual minority men. He is trained as a social scientist, having graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 2024 with a PhD in Sociology where he studied transformations in men’s same-sex cruising practices and spaces in Los Angeles. Using qualitative approaches, Kendall is interested in several topics including diversifying our understanding of “risk” as both a healthcare framework and discourse of sexual pleasure, the racialization of substance use, and how perceptions of space influence healthcare behaviors.

While at UCLA, Dr. Ota is under the mentorship of Dr. Pamina Gorbach and continues to work closely with Dr. Terrell Winder at UCSB. He is currently contributing to their research project examining the impact of historical racist policies on contemporary contextual determinants of health and how territorial stigma affects the healthcare experiences of Black and Latino sexual minority men. Dr. Ota is excited to continue his research career, mobilizing his background in the sociology of sexualities towards projects and interventions that improve HIV related health outcomes for those in his communities.

Dr. Marguerite Thorp is a postdoctoral researcher studying mobility and access to healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa. She completed medical school and a master’s degree in international development (MPA/ID) at Harvard University and residency in internal medicine and pediatrics at UCLA. She has been working in Malawi since 2009, first as a volunteer and intern, later as a medical student and resident, and now as a researcher with UCLA and Partners in Hope, a PEPFAR implementing partner supporting over 120 health facilities across the country.

Dr. Thorp is mentored by Dr. Kate Dovel, Dr. Risa Hoffman, and Dr. Tom Coates. She is currently studying the effect of temporary mobility on HIV care outcomes. Mobility in Malawi, especially labor mobility, is often necessary for survival, but Dr. Thorp’s research describes how unpredictable travel conflicts with access to HIV treatment. In future projects, Dr. Thorp hopes to test interventions that would improve access to care for mobile people.