Health through engineering and analytics.
RCHE Staff
Pavlos Vlachos
Director, Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering
St. Vincent Health Professor of Healthcare Engineering
pvlachos@purdue.edu
Dr. Vlachos received his Diploma in Mechanical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens (1995) and his MS (1998) and PhD (2000) in Engineering Science and Mechanics from Virginia Tech. He joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech as an assistant professor (2003), and he was promoted to associate (2007) and full professor (2011). In 2013, he joined the School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue. He is the St. Vincent Health Professor of Healthcare Engineering. He serves as Director of the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering and the Eli-Lilly and Company and Purdue Strategic Alliance Research Center. He is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Physical Society, the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers, and the American Heart Association.
Dr. Vlachos received his Diploma in Mechanical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens (1995) and his MS (1998) and PhD (2000) in Engineering Science and Mechanics from Virginia Tech. He joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech as an assistant professor (2003), and he was promoted to associate (2007) and full professor (2011). In 2013, he joined the School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue. He is the St. Vincent Health Professor of Healthcare Engineering. He serves as Director of the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering and the Eli-Lilly and Company and Purdue Strategic Alliance Research Center. He is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Physical Society, the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers, and the American Heart Association.
Allison Bryan Jungels
Director - Operations and Partnerships
Allison Bryan-Jungels, MS, serves as the Director of Operations and Outreach for the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering (RCHE) and the Eli Lilly Strategic Collaboration. In these roles, she oversees the daily operations, facilitates faculty and student engagement across campus, and coordinates with industry partners on strategic initiatives. Allison received both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Purdue University.
Milad Alucozai
RCHE/Bindley Entrepreneurship Fellow
Milad is head of Bio and Deep Tech at BoxOne Ventures, a privately held investment firm that focuses on early-stage companies. He is also a Venture Partner at Entrepreneur First, a global fund with a portfolio value of over $5 billion. In 2021, he was appointed as a Strategic Advisor to LifeOmic, and as an External Advisor to AstraZeneca in 2020, working on initiatives to partner more closely with startups. Milad began his career as a bench scientist working in translational neuroscience and multiphysics labs and transitioned into founding roles at multiple healthcare and bio startups. He was a National Science Foundation Scholar and Macklin Fellow at Johns Hopkins Medicine and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in Neuroscience from Purdue University’s Honors Program. As a George J. Mitchell Scholar, he completed graduate school in Immunology & Public Health.
Steve Ruberg
RCHE Fellow
Dr. Ruberg has published and presented extensively on a wide variety of statistical topics related to preclinical and clinical drug development. His current research interest include estimands, subgroup identification and Bayesian methods for clinical drug development. Steve received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Thomas More College, an MS in Statistics from Miami of Ohio, and a PhD in Biostatistics from the University of Cincinnati.
Nicole Adams
Associate Research Professor
Dr. Nicole Adams PhD, RN, CEN has a background in nursing and health policy with over 15 years of bedside and leadership experience in hospitals, primarily in the emergency department. As a Health Equity Faculty Champion and she incorporates community engagement and health equity into innovative care delivery models. Her work incorporates concepts from Systems Thinking and Complex Adaptive Models to evaluate community resources and build collaborations to create systems of care. Dr. Adams research generally falls along two lines: addressing substance use and mental health at the community level and the meaningful use of technology in healthcare. Her projects range from the developing on Cooperative Extension programming (TASC: Taking Action to Address Substance Use in Communities) to substance use education for nurses (NSUE and APROUD MOOCs, open access course work) and software design and development (Bridges social service referral software) to Narcan delivery drones.
Lily Darbishire
Senior Research Associate
Lily leads evaluation of the Indiana Healthy Opportunities for People Everywhere (I-HOPE) project, a statewide Centers for Disease Control (CDC)- funded health equity initiative. She uses her expertise in evaluation to enhance public health infrastructure and strengthen evaluation research across the state of Indiana, using both novel and evidence-based techniques. She also serves as a grantseeker and grant writer for community and health equity initiatives for RCHE. In addition to her research and grant writing, Lily analyzes and interprets data collected by grantees to assess community strengths and needs, to share findings across the state of Indiana, and to mobilize future partnerships and projects. Lily earned her PhD in nutrition science at Purdue University in 2022 and obtained her master’s in public health at Missouri State University in 2018.
Jennifer Goad
Project Coordinator
Jennifer Goad, Project Coordinator for the I-HOPE Team has been with Purdue since 2015 and was previously with Purdue Extension prior to coming to RCHE in 2020. She is responsible for the day-to-day operations for I-HOPE including social media, newsletter, and website content. Jennifer works with internal and external customers to handle the budget and invoicing for all seed funding through the I-HOPE grant.
Lauren Johannigman
Research Operations Administrator
Lauren Johannigman serves as a Research Operations Administrator for Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering (RCHE). In this role, she is responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations of research activities, centers, or sponsored programs. She has ten years of previous IT experience within the university where she discovered her love of problem solving and finding solutions that make work lives better for those she supports. Lauren earned bachelor’s degrees from Purdue University in English and psychology, and plans to pursue her master's degree in project management.
Casey Kinderman
Lead Project Manager
Cassondra "Casey" Kinderman serves as a Lead Project Manager. She supports a statewide opportunity designed to address the effects of health disparities for better health outcomes. Her journey includes public health program management specifically within comprehensive maternal and child health systems, coupled with performance management and quality improvement. Casey earned a Bachelor of Science in Community Health with a minor in Human Development and Family Studies from the Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health.
Aikaterini "Katerina" Logkaki
Senior Data Scientist
Aikaterini joined RCHE as a junior data scientist in December 2021. She received her undergraduate degree in Applied Mathematics from the National Technical University of Athens, majoring in Statistics. She also holds a Master of Business Administration from Purdue University, Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business. She is interested in storytelling through visualizations and exploring/analyzing data to uncover valuable insights.
Patrick Mulligan
Senior Research Software Engineer
Patrick Mulligan has 9 years of web development experience, with much of the experience focused on science/research related web projects. In 2015, he started his web development journey working as a web administrator for College of Science at Purdue University. He joined the HUBzero team in 2017 as a "full stack" developer, providing features and improvements to the HUBzero collaborative research web platform. He later joined Research Computing at Purdue University in 2021 which included developing a web front end for various 3D simulation projects developed through the Envision Center. Starting in May of 2024, he is the Senior Research Software Engineer with RCHE.
Michelle Pearson
Research Operations Administrator
Michelle Pearson, Research Operations Administrator, Eli Lilly Strategic Partnership and Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering (RCHE) has been at Purdue since 2017. She was hired to lead the financial responsibilities of the Eli Lilly Strategic Partnership. She now has oversite of the day-to-day operations and research activities for both the Lilly Strategic Partnership and RCHE. She facilitates communication among multiple departments, faculty, research teams, and external constituents. She approves sponsor required fiscal and management reports and makes recommendations to facilitate effective processes and procedures in collaboration with leadership.
Tisha Reid
Assistant Director, Health Transformation Initiatives
Tisha Reid is the Assistant Director for Health Transformation Initiatives at the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering (RCHE). In this role, she oversees Purdue University’s health equity work for systems/policy change across the state of Indiana. Tisha works with community stakeholders to address health disparities, facilitate strategic action plans, and implement process improvement strategies to improve health-related conditions within their respective communities. Additionally, she provides training for clinical, social service organizations, local governmental agencies, and others to build organizational capacity, promote humility, and address the social drivers of health. With over 25 years in public health, Tisha is recognized as a health equity advocate and community mobilizer. She is also a respected leader on local, state, and national boards; an author, a certified community health worker, and coach who strives for transformative results.
Shawn Rice
Lead Software Engineer
Shawn Rice is a lead software engineer for RCHE. With over 25 years of web development experience, his skills and interest run the gamut from programming to graphic design to accessibility & usability testing. In spring of 2005 he joined the Network for Computational Nanotechnology as a web developer, working primarily on nanoHUB.org, contributing to both the visual design and code. With the creation of HUBzero, Shawn took on the role of senior web developer, spending his time writing code, doing graphic design, and offering support for various projects. He went on to manage HUBzero's web development efforts for several years before eventually joining Research Computing's team. He developed the Research Computing web portal, used for managing HPC center operations, as well as providing various research software engineering and graphic design services until he joined RCHE in 2024.
Patty Rose
Lead Project Manager
Patty Rose, serves as Lead Senior Health Equity Analyst with the Community Engagement Team at Purdue University. In this role, Patty develops statewide partnerships with community collaborators seeking opportunities to provide support in capacity building for addressing health disparities. Patty joined the Purdue Team in May 2014, serving as a Quality Analyst in Health IT and supported Indiana clinicians in understanding and meeting the requirements of numerous national and state quality initiatives, to improve health outcomes. Patty also served as Facilitator for the Healthy Hearts in the Heartland (H3) research project focused on quality improvement and the prevention of cardiovascular diseases; passionate about Quality Improvement, Social Determinants of Health, and Telemedicine.
Patty earned her bachelor’s degree from Indiana University in health care administration, and holds certifications in Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, Master Adverse Childhood Experience (ACEs) facilitator, and Strategic Doing Workshop Practitioner.
Sylvia Saxena
Senior Health Equity Analyst
Sylvia Saxena is a Senior Health Equity Analyst for the Community Transformation Team at Purdue University. She earned her Master's in Nursing as a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) from Purdue University in 2018. Sylvia began her career as an FNP specializing in Prenatal and Women's Health at a federally qualified health center (FQHC). After gaining valuable clinical experience, she shifted her focus to community-based initiatives aimed at enhancing health equity.
Sylvia has developed a robust skill set that includes working with diverse and rural populations, promoting health education and prevention, and educating communities about chronic diseases. She has made significant contributions in the areas of infant and maternal health and has been instrumental in building collaborations, capacity, and partnerships to bolster community health.
Deeply committed to addressing the social determinants of health, particularly in rural areas, Sylvia received a full scholarship to pursue her Master's in the Rural Health Innovation Program at UC Berkeley's School of Public Health. She is focusing on Health Policy and Management, equipping her further to drive change and improve health outcomes in rural and underserved communities.
Angela Washburn
Senior Health Equity Analyst
Angie Washburn serves as a Senior Health Equity Analyst with the Community Transformation Team at Purdue University. She engages with communities to support capacity building in addressing health disparities. Angie is a Respiratory Care Practitioner and Certified Community Healthcare Worker (CCHW) currently pursuing her Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from Purdue University.