Research Infrastructure Team

Serves as the hub to advance health in all communities at the Center, including basic biomedical, behavioral, clinical, and population health research. The team oversees five groups that each specialize in an area of research—biomedical methods, measurement methods, health sensor methods, intervention methods, and data analytic methods. Each group is developing resources and services that will facilitate research at SDSU.

Kristen “Kristi” Wells, MPH, MPI, PhD

Co-Director, SDSU HealthLINK Center Leader, Research Infrastructure Team Co-Leader, Measurement Methods Group

Dr. Kristen “Kristi” Wells is a Professor of Psychology at SDSU. She is also Director of the Cancer Disparities and Cancer Communication Lab. Her graduate training was in clinical psychology and public health, followed by post-doctoral training in behavioral oncology. Her research focuses on improving the quality of healthcare delivered to various populations, with a specific specialty in patient navigation. Since 2006, Dr. Wells has led or contributed to five studies which have developed and evaluated patient navigation interventions to improve quality of care. She also leads studies developing technological solutions to improve adherence to recommended cancer care and oral medications for cancer. In addition to her leadership as a Co-Director, Dr. Wells oversees the operations of the SDSU HealthLINK Center’s Research Infrastructure Team including five specialized research groups concentrating on measurement methods, health sensor methods, intervention methods, biomedical methods, and health data analytics. See Dr. Wells’ profile for details on publications and projects.

Guadalupe X. “Suchi” Ayala, PhD, MPH

Co-Director, SDSU HealthLINK Center Co-Leader, Community Engagement Team Co-Leader, Intervention Methods Group

Dr. Guadalupe X. “Suchi” Ayala is a Professor in the School of Public Health at SDSU, Director of the Institute for Behavioral and Community Health, Director of the SDSU HealthLINK endowment, and Co-Director of the SDSU HealthLINK Center. Her combination of masters’ degrees in experimental psychology and health promotion and doctoral degree in clinical health psychology reflect her interest in identifying effective solutions to improve health. Dr. Ayala’s research focuses on the development and adaptation of family and system-based interventions to prevent and control obesity, diabetes and asthma among various populations . She co-leads the Administrative and Community Engagement Teams and coordinates transdisciplinary intervention efforts under the Research Infrastructure Team of the SDSU HealthLINK Center. See Dr. Ayala’s profile for details on publications and projects.

Wendy Huang, PhD

Center Research Manager

Dr. Huang holds a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the University of California San Diego and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in cancer immunology at the New York University in 2015. Between 2016 and 2023, Dr. Huang was an assistant professor at the University of California San Diego, trained 3 postdoc fellows, 25 graduate students, and 13 undergraduate students on cutting-edge molecular & genomic techniques and in vivo disease models of autoimmune disease, tissue inflammation, and cancer. Dr. Huang was the senior and communicating author of eight recently published articles on mouse disease models and immunity.

Elva Arredondo, PhD

Co-Leader, Intervention Methods Group

Dr. Elva Arredondo is a Professor in the School of Public Health at SDSU. She is the Co-Leader of the Intervention Methods Group. Dr. Arredondo’s research is in the area of health disparities. Her research focuses on the development, implementation and evaluation of community-based interventions that improve the health of various communities. She has served as an investigator in studies that promoted healthy eating and physical activity behaviors in youth and in adult populations and in studies that identified effective and sustainable methods to prevent and control cancer in specific populations. She is a Co-Investigator for research projects at the SDSU HealthLINK Center. See Dr. Arredondo’s profile for details on publications and projects.

Scott Kelley, PhD

Leader, Biomedical MethodsΩGroup

Dr. Scott Kelley is a Professor in the Department of Biology at SDSU. His research focuses on the study of environmental microbiology. He has extensive experience analyzing microbial and viral diversity, including that of humans as part of the Human Microbiome Project, a research initiative to improve understanding of the microbial flora involved in human health and disease. Among other subjects, Dr. Kelley has investigated the role of the gut microbiome in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), the relationship between heart disease and periodontal disease and whether saliva bacterial profiles may be useful as biomarkers for pancreatic cancer. For the SDSU HealthLINK Center, Dr. Kelley leads biomedical research methods, bioinformatics data analysis, and provides direction to the Center’s biomedical laboratory. See Dr. Kelley’s profile for details on publications and projects.

Noe Crespo, MPH, PhD

Co-Investigator, Biomedical Methods Group

Dr. Noe Crespo is an Associate Professor in the Division of Health Promotion and Behavioral Science in the School of Public Health at SDSU. His research focuses on reducing health disparities and prevention of chronic disease through large scale community-based interventions that promote physical fitness, physical activity and healthy eating in schools and recreation centers. He also studies the health consequences of sedentary behaviors and conducts behavioral interventions to increase physical activity in the workplace. He is a Co-Investigator at the SDSU HealthLINK Center. See Dr. Crespo’s profile for details on publications and projects.

Claudia Carrizosa, MD, MPH

Research Associate, Biomedical Methods Group

Dr. Claudia Carrizosa is a Research Associate at the SDSU HealthLINK Center. She has years of experience in research studies among medically underserved and populations affected by chronic disease and cancer. Her foreign degree in medicine and Master of Public Health with a health promotion emphasis has shaped her interest in interventions that offer more than clinical services to prevent and control disease. She has a strong background in qualitative data collection and as a research interventionist. She is part of the Research Infrastructure Team at the SDSU HealthLINK Center. See Dr. Carrizosa’s profile for details on publications and projects.

Shih-Fan “Sam” Lin, DrPH

Co-Leader, Measurement Methods Group Co-Leader, Health Data Analytics Group

Dr. Shih-Fan “Sam” Lin co-leads the Center’s Measurement Methods Group and Health Data Analytics Group at the SDSU HealthLINK Center. He is also a Research Associate Professor in the School of Public Health at SDSU. He has ample experience in data analysis, data management, and statistical programming. Dr. Lin works closely with investigators holding research projects and pilot projects within the SDSU HealthLINK Center to ensure methodological and data quality and integrity. See Dr. Lin’s profile for details on publications and projects.

Jerel Calzo, PhD, MPH

Co-Investigator, Measurement Methods Group

Dr. Jerel Calzo in an Associate Professor of Health Promotion and Behavioral Science in the School of Public Health at SDSU. He is a developmental psychologist with postdoctoral training in social epidemiology. He is a Co-Investigator at the SDSU HealthLINK Center studying health behaviors through the use of ecological momentary assessment technology and CBPR. See Dr. Calzo’s profile for details on publications and projects.

Kee Moon, PhD

Co-Leader, Health Sensor Methods Group

Dr. Kee Moon is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at SDSU. His current research activities include the development of ultrasonic recharging technology for implantable medical devices as well as brain-computer-interface technology. Dr. Moon is a Co-Leader of the Research Infrastructure Team’s Health Sensor Methods Group at the SDSU HealthLINK Center. He guides researchers on the development of portable, wearable health sensor technologies that can provide real-time health monitoring. His primary research interests are in smart sensor and actuator technology. See Dr. Moon’s profile for details on publications and projects.

Yusuf Ozturk, PhD

Co-Leader, Health Sensor Methods Group

Dr. Yusuf Ozturk is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at SDSU. His research focus is on wearable and ambient sensors, human centric sensors, medical informatics and mobile computing. He is the founding member of the Smart Health Institute. Dr. Ozturk leads the engineering and development of wireless wearable sensors for research projects and pilot projects within the SDSU HealthLINK Center. See Dr. Ozturk’s profile for details on publications and projects.

Christopher Paolini, PhD

Co-Investigator, Sensor Methods Group and Health Data Analytics Group

Dr. Christopher Paolini is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at SDSU. Dr. Paolini is the recipient of grants from the Department of Energy and NASA, and five NSF Office of CyberInfrastructure awards, most recently the current NSF CC* Storage Grant 1659169 Implementation of a Distributed, Shareable, and Parallel Storage Resource at SDSU to Facilitate High-Performance Computing for Climate Science. Dr. Paolini’s doctoral and post-doctoral research has been in the areas of combustion engineering, computational thermodynamics, and chemical kinetics. His current research interests include Internet of Things device development, machine learning, embedded systems, cloud computing, big data analytics, deep learning, software engineering, numerical chemical thermodynamics, numerical chemical kinetics, numerical geochemistry, high performance computing, scientific computing and numerical modeling, high speed (100gbps) networking, cyberinfrastructure development, and cybersecurity. The SDSU HealthLINK Center has granted Dr. Paolini a pilot research project award to design and manufacture a prototype of a wireless, wearable, low power, fall prediction and detection device for at-risk older adults. The device uses a small field-programmable gate array that executes a machine learning model to detect when the device wearer has fallen. Dr. Paolini received a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science in 1991, an Master of Science in Computer Science in 1998, and his Doctor of Philosophy in Computational Science in 2007, all from SDSU. See Dr. Paolini’s profile for details on publications and projects.

Chii-Dean “Joey” Lin, PhD

Co-Leader, Health Data Analytics Group Lead Biostatistician

Dr. Chii-Dean “Joey” Lin is the Associate Chair in Statistics in the Department of Mathematics & Statistics at SDSU, an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Language and Communicative Disorders, and the Co-Director of the Statistical Consulting Center. He is the Lead Biostatistician and Co-Leader of the Health Data Analytics Group at the SDSU HealthLINK Center. Dr. Lin provides statistical expertise for health-related research on study design, data management including management of missing data, statistical data analysis, and protocol development for research projects and pilot projects within the SDSU HealthLINK Center. His research areas include statistical computing, longitudinal data analysis, spatial-temporal statistics, mixed modeling, statistical methodologies in clinical trials, and global optimization. See Dr. Lin’s profile for details on publications and projects.

Jose Castillo, PhD

Co-Investigator, Health Data Analytics Group

Dr. Jose Castillo is a Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics and Director of the Computational Science Research Center (CSRC) at SDSU. He leads several initiatives of CSRC to provide computational infrastructure for the SDSU community and to bring together researchers in different disciplines who have a common interest in modern scientific computation. Dr. Castillo has an extensive experience in applied mathematics and has received numerous grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy and other various agencies and foundations. He serves as a Co-Investigator on the SDSU HealthLINK Center’s Research Infrastructure Team and responds to computational infrastructure needs at the SDSU HealthLINK Center. See Dr. Castillo’s profile for details on publications and projects.

Hee-Jin Jun, PhD

Co-Investigator, Health Data Analytics Group

Dr. Hee-Jin Jun is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the School of Public Health at SDSU, an affiliated Investigator at the Institute of Behavior and Community Health, and a participating scholar of the SDSU Center for Research on Sexuality and Sexual Health. She is a social and behavioral epidemiologist with expertise in population health, health behavior, including weight-related outcomes, substance use, child and adolescent health. She also has expertise in methods for designing and analyzing large representative health surveys and intervention studies. She provides statistical support to the Research Infrastructure Team investigators at the SDSU HealthLINK Center. See Dr. Jun’s profile for details on publications and projects

Atsushi Nara, PhD

Co-Investigator, Health Data Analytics Group

Dr. Atsushi Nara is a Co-Investigator and a member of the Health Data Analytics Group at the SDSU HealthLINK Center. He is an Associate Professor of Geography at SDSU and the Associate Director of the Center for Human Dynamics in the Mobile Age. He has expertise in geographic information systems, data mining, and spatial statistics to research on health in geographic space. He provides guidance and leads efforts on spatiotemporal database management and geospatial data analytics, and geovisualization methods. Dr. Nara also contributes to the development of an open data center and health science knowledge repository for the SDSU HealthLINK Center. See Dr. Nara’s profile for details on publications and projects.

Lance Norita

Server and Database Administrator

Mr. Lance Norita is a Server and Database Administrator at the SDSU HealthLINK Center. He has a Bachelor of Science from San Diego State University. Mr. Norita oversees the Center’s physical and virtual server infrastructure including implementation, security, and management of the Center’s data analytic infrastructure and associated databases for the Center’s programs and affiliated projects.

Yaritza Benitez, MPH Candidate

Research Assistant, Health Data Analytics Group

In her role, Ms. Yaritza Benitez assists in different tasks of data management. These would include but are not limited to the development of data management protocols, data entry, data verification and data cleaning as a Research Assistant at the SDSU HealthLINK Center. She graduated from SDSU with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and is now working towards her master’s degree in public health with a concentration in epidemiology at SDSU School of Public Health. She has volunteered and worked at the Research Foundation since 2014 in different projects at the Institute for Behavioral and Community Health, and at South Bay Latino Research Center. See Ms. Benitez’s profile for details on publications and projects.

Doug Neary

Health Sensors Methods Group Coordinator

Doug Neary is the Wireless Sensor Technology Coordinator for the SDSU HealthLINK Center’s Research Infrastructure Core. Doug has 30+ years of engineering and management experience. Doug has worked in the process and chemical fields, as well as the architecture, design, implementation, and management of complex software systems.

Yessenia Hernandez, MPH

Intervention Methods Group Coordinator

Yessenia Hernandez is the Project Manager for Research Project: Goal Oriented Activities for Latinos with Chronic Spine Pain (GOALS/Metas), one of the research projects funded through the first fund cycle of SDSU HealthLINK Center. She also currently serves as the Intervention Methods Core Coordinator, assisting projects with intervention development and adaptation, and utilizing mixed methods approaches such as focus groups and in-depth interviews. She completed the dual Master of Public Health and Master of Social Work program at SDSU. She has extensive experience working with Latino communities in both research and clinical settings. Yessenia has also provided project management to other research projects in the areas of chronic pain and youth mental health.