Marynia Kolak, PhD, MFA, MS
Director | Principal Investigator

Marynia is a health geographer / spatial epidemiologist integrating a socio-ecological view of health, spatial data science, and a human-centered design approach to investigate regional and neighborhood health equity. Kolak is an Assistant Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies at the Department of Geography & GIScience at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Fellow at the Center for Spatial Data Science at the University of Chicago, Associate Editor at Preventing Chronic Disease, Journal of Maps, and Cartography and Geographic Information Science, and is a member of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee at the Society for Epidemiological Research.

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Marc A. Astacio-Palmer, MS
Research Coordinator

Marc received his Master of Science in Experimental Psychology from Nova Southeastern University. His previous work was in the area of cognitive psychology, specifically, on attention and memory. He is interested in open science, and how our environment shapes our cognition. Astacio leads day-to-day operations of multiple projects at HEROP, guides communications & community engagement, and collaborates on how affect may influence user-experience and decision-making.

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Kamaria Barronville, MFA, EdDc
Instructional Design Specialist

Kamaria is pursuing her doctoral degree in Urban Educational Leadership at Morgan State University. Drawing on her interdisciplinary expertise, Kamaria focuses on bridging the gap between urban education and policy by exploring innovative approaches to promote equitable and inclusive educational practices. At HEROP, Kamaria leverages her knowledge and skills to contribute to the development and implementation of effective instructional strategies within the lab’s research initiatives.

Adam Cox, MS, MLIS
Senior Research Software Engineer

Adam is a geospatial developer with a background in geographic information systems and archaeology, and a passion for open source software. Originally from southwestern Wisconsin, he lives in New Orleans, Louisiana. Adam leads engineering and infrastructure development at HEROP, supporting projects like the US Covid Atlas, OEPS, ChiVes, and the SDOH Place Project, as well as facilitating open source collaboration with our partners and adjacent community projects like GeoBlacklight. He also manages a crowdsourcing project, OldInsuranceMaps.net, which allows citizens and institutions to georeference historical maps, creating opportunities for historical research as well as community engagement.

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Shubham Kumar, MSIM
Product Designer

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Sara Lambert
Sr Research Software Engineer @NCSA

Pengyin Shan, MBA
Research Software Engineer @NCSA

Andre Vines
Graphic Designer & Illustrator

Andre is a self employed branding designer and artist from Maryland who had a deep interest in the field as early as middle school. He is passionate about creating designs that are visually appealing yet highly functional. He also enjoys helping people do what they love by connecting them with others through branding and art.

José Alavez, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate

José holds a Ph.D. in Geography from Concordia University (Montreal). His research integrates diverse contemporary mapping theories and practices to gain insights into human experiences and narratives. During his doctoral dissertation, he charted the global and intimate posthumous geographies of migrants who faced the loss of a loved one in Quebec, Canada. In his earlier academic pursuits, he examined the domestic spaces inhabited by the homeless community in Mexico City, and he also developed methodological frameworks to bridge the realms of digital humanities and cartography.

Catherine Discenza
Masters Student

Catherine recently graduated from the University of Florida with a BS in Geography with a specialization in Medical Geography in Global Health. Their research interests lie at the intersection of place, health, and identity, with particular interest in how urban development patterns interact with health and identity factors.

Laila Ismail
Undergraduate Scholar

Laila is a senior majoring in Human Geography as well as Earth, Society, and Environmental Sustainability. She supported public health communications and community building within the Atlas Stories project (ie. oral histories of the Pandemic), and is currently researching the political ecology of water and colonialism in the Middle East.

Mandela Kwame Gadri, MS
PhD Student

Ph.D. student Mandela Gadri has a BS in urban planning from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana, and an MS in community and regional planning from Iowa State University. He also has a certificate in GIS and worked as a planner with the city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa prior to joining UIUC. Mandela is interested in GIS and transport poverty.

Jack Lia
Undergraduate Research Assistant

Diego Lopez
Roepke Scholar

Yilin Lyu, MS
PhD Student

Yilin is interested in interdisciplinary research on integrating geospatial science, urban health, and network analysis to identify vulnerable groups and optimize health resource distribution in the cities. She is focused on identifying how spatial, social, and structural determinants impact community health. Also, she’s interested in exploring the relationships between people’s mobility within cities, including healthcare-seeking behaviors, and resource accessibility.

Wataru Morioka, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate

Wataru Morioka is a PhD graduate in the Department of Geography and GIScience, UIUC. His research interests cover GIScience and spatial analysis. Developing new analytical methods of geospatial data, he is aiming to evaluate people’s living environment such as accessibility to public amenities in order to enhance public life.

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