Members

Log in

Launch

Launch Faculty

Katy Suellentrop

she/her

Senior Program Manager at RTI International

Expertise: Adolescent Sexual Health

Experience: 19 years

Key Achievements:

  • Human-Centered Design training Stanford d.school
  • Master of Public Health

Dr. Felicia Browne

she/her

Evaluation Lead at RTI International

Expertise: Sexual and Reproductive Health Interventions, Health Disparities, mHealth, Social Determinants of Health, Adolescent Health

Experience: 18+ years

Key Achievements:

  • ScD, Social Epidemiology
  • Leads sexual health projects in the U.S. South and South Africa
  • 18+ years of experience in intervention adaptation and evaluation

Shwetha Maddur

she/her

Innovation Advisor at RTI Innovation Advisors 

Expertise: Medical Device Design and Development; Human Centered Design; Social Entrepreneurship

Experience: 12 years

Key Achievements:

  • Fellowship in Pediatric Surgical Innovation from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor
  • LUMA Institute Certified Practitioner – Human-Centered Design

Brailey Faris

she/her

Innovation Analyst at RTI Innovation Advisors

Expertise: Lab to Market/Commercialization, Facilitation, Human Centered Design

Experience: 2.5 years

Key Achievements:

Received LUMA training certification

Elise Schuster

they/them

Co-Founder and Executive Director at OkaySo

Expertise: Innovation, Youth Development, Sexuality Education

Experience: 20+ years

Key Achievements:

  • Roddenberry fellow
  • Ashoka fellow
  • Featured in the book LeapFrog: The New Revolution for Women Entrepreneurs, by Nathalie Molina Niño

Aaron Plant

he/him/his

Vice President at Sentient Research

Expertise: Program Development, Technology, Entertainment-Education, Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health

Experience: 20+ years

Key Achievements:

Led the development of numerous technology and entertainment-education interventions, three of which are on CDC/HHS lists of evidence-based interventions

Sarah M. Axelson,

DrPH(C), MSW

she/her/hers

Senior Director, Innovation, Training, and Technical Assistance at Power to Decide

Expertise: Innovation, Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health, Education and Training

Experience: 20+ years

Key Achievements:

  • Published peer-reviewed articles on innovation in adolescent sexual and reproductive health in Prevention Science
  • Presented on innovation at numerous state and national conferences, including on federal panels with the Office of Population Affairs
  • Finalist in the HHS Ignites Innovation Program, a federal program designed to catalyze innovation in the government sector
  • Completed the Stanford d. School Designing for Social Systems Program

Milagros Garrido

she/they

Director, Innovation & Research at Healthy Teen Network

Expertise: Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health, Human-Centered Design

Experience: 17+ years

Key Achievements:

  • Master’s degree in Social Science from Towson University
  • BA in International Affairs and Economics
  • Post-Baccalaureate in Family Professional Collaboration
  • Project Management Professional Certification from the Project Management Institute
  • Human-Centered Design and Human-Centered Service Design Certifications from IDEO
  • Spearheaded the development of a voice-activated Alexa skill assisting young women in finding birth control, recognized as a finalist in the Amazon Alexa Tech Education Challenge

Diamond Dumas

they/them

Training & Capacity Building Manager at Youth Collaboratory

Expertise: Youth Housing Justice

Experience: 4 years

Key Achievements:

  • BA in Anthropology
  • Mental Health First Aid

Dahsuri Dash Togi

she/her

Training & Capacity Building Manager at Youth Collaboratory

Expertise: Youth Housing Justice, Authentic Youth Collaboration

Experience: 6 years

Key Achievements:

  • Youth Thrive Certificate – Facing Foster Care
  • Changemaker “Reimagining Childrens Rights” with UCLA
  • Opportunity Youth Congressional Liaison

Meredith Crews

she/her

Associate Project Director at RTI International

Expertise: Adolescent Sexual Health and Pregnancy Prevention, Fovernment Contracts, USAID Funding

Experience: 12+ years

Key Achievements:

  • Master of Public Health, Project Management Professional (PMP)

Ashton Johnson

she/her

Project Manager at RTI International

Expertise: Project Management, Adolescent Sexual Health, Reproductive Health, Maternal and Child Health

Experience: 9 years

Key Achievements:

  • Certified Doula
  • Trained in various adolescent health curricula

Samantha Charm

she/her

Evaluation and Learning at RTI International

Expertise: Maternal and Child Health, Sexual and Reproductive Health, Public Health, Justice, Family Planning

Experience: 15 years

Key Achievements:

  • Master’s degree in Maternal and Child Health, specializing in Sexual and Reproductive Health

Kaitlin Dixon

she/her

Dissemination Co-Lead at RTI International

Expertise: Social Media, Digital Products, Youth Empowerment, Content Strategy, Communication Strategy

Experience: 10+ years

Key Achievements:

  • Leads social media and digital products team for We Think Twice, a youth empowerment program
  • Contributes to content strategy and creation for NIH’s RECOVER initiative
  • Formerly led communication strategy for a data analytics and technology startup

Accelerator Coaches

Dr. Courtney Bonner

she/her

Senior Manager and Research Psychologist at RTI International
Recruitment and Coaching Co-Lead

Coach – Media Aware

Expertise: Sexual and Reproductive Health, Integrated Healthcare, Digital Provider Support Strategies, Behavioral Health, Biomedical HIV Prevention, Implementation Science

Experience: 15+ years

Key Achievements:

Experience in biomedical HIV prevention and implementation science

Dr. Kineka J. Hull

she/her

Manager, Public Health at RTI International
Recruitment and Coaching Lead

Coach – Teen Talk Foster Youth

Expertise: Sexual and Reproductive Health, Maternal and Child Health, Health Equity, Program Planning, Implementation, and Management, Community Organizing and Building, Community-Based Participatory Research, Instructional Technology, Adult Education, Training and Technical Assistance, Sexual Abuse and Human Trafficking Prevention

Experience: 17+ years

Key Achievements:

Certified trainer on several evidenced-based sexual and reproductive health curricula, Equity and Diversity certification, sexual abuse and human trafficking prevention certification

Stephen Levin

he/him

Senior User Experience Strategist at RTI International

Coach – Selfsea

Expertise: Human Centered Design; User Experience Design; Rapid Prototyping

Experience: 7 years

Key Achievements:

  • leads muti-discipline teams in the creation of government webs and applications; User Experience Research lead for the BioData Catalyst ecosystem
  • 8 years experience in Human Center Design digital product creation

Darigg Brown, PHD, MPH

he/him

Program Manager and Behavioral Scientist at RTI International

Coach – Empowering K.I.N.G.S.

Expertise: Substance Abuse and Harm Reduction, HIV, Violence Prevention, Health Equity

Experience: 18 years

Key Achievements:

  • Provided technical assistance to grantees on sexual health and pregnancy prevention program activities
  • National Security Boren Fellowship on International HIV and Public Health

Ariana Katz, MPH

she/her

Research Public Health Analyst at RTI International

Coach – Let’s Talk

Expertise: Sexual and Reproductive Health, Health Equity for LGBTQIA+ Communities, Substance Use and Harm Reduction, Public Health, Training and Capacity Building

Experience: 14 years

Key Achievements:

  • MPH in Health Behavior
  • chair of RTI’s LGBTQIA+ Rising Working Group of the Global Gender Center
  • Pleasure Champion as part of 2024’s Breakthrough ACTION, USAID’s flagship SBC project, and The Pleasure Project’s global Social and Behavior Change (SBC) Cohort

Sarah T. Roberts, PhD, MPH

she/her

Senior Research Epidemiologist at RTI International

Coach

Expertise: Sexual and Reproductive Health, Adolescent Girls and Young Women, Gender-Based Violence, Stigma, HIV Prevention, Acceptability and Preference Studies, Sociobehavioral Intervention Development and Evaluation, Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research

Experience: 20 years

Key Achievements:

  • Leads 2 NIH-funded studies evaluating interventions to support HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis use among adolescent girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa
  • Mentor to early-career researchers to guide proposals, manuscripts, study management, and career advancement

Ayanna Smith, MPH, IBCLC, PMP

she/her

Research Public Health Analyst at RTI International

Coach

Expertise: Maternal and Child Health, Sexual and Reproductive Health, Breastfeeding and Human Lactation, Project Management, HIV prevention, Integrated Healthcare, Implementation Science, Qualitative Data Collection and Analysis

Experience: 5 years

Key Achievements:

  • Project Management Professional (PMP)
  • International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC)
  • Qualitative researcher currently focused on sexual and reproductive health and the integration of healthcare services to improve health outcomes.