Leadership & Staff

Lori Ann Post, PhD

Director

Dr. Post is the Buehler Professor of Geriatric Medicine, Departments of Emergency Medicine and Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine. She did her training in Anatomy and Toxicology at the Faculdade de Medicina - Câmpus de Botucatu, Brazi; Forensic Science and Osteology at the University of London and Cambridge University respectively; International Development, African Studies, Demography, and Applied Demography (Sociology) from MSU; and postdoc in a joint program at the Emory Rollins School of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control in Epidemiology.

Dr. Post is a lifelong student completing certificate programs at Carnegie Mellon University in Multiple System Estimation Techniques and Log Linear Modeling, Geographical Information Systems from both Penn State and Harvard University. She recently completed the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine from Drexel University. As a sociologist, Dr. Post studies the roll of Public and Political Will in social change, how to mobilize “will” to create better policy. She was a Rockefeller Fellow and served as a “scholar in residence” at the Bellagio Center in Italy where she worked on a body of science to define public and political will and its application in a variety of public health issues. Her Public and Political Will research has been funded by the USAID, USDA-International, the World Bank and the Department of Defense. Her injury prevention work has been funded by both Medicare and Medicaid, the Centers for Disease Control, Robert Wood Johnson, the Skillman Foundation, Department of Education, AHRQ, National Institute of Justice, and Office for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

Currently, Dr. Post’s injury work on Elder Abuse is funded by the Department of Justice- Office for Victims of Crime, Opioid impact on rural economies is funded by USDA, and her policy work on food security is funded by USAID. Before coming to Northwestern, Post was Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, Research Director and Section Chief of Research at the Yale School of Medicine, Faculty affiliate of the Yale Center for Informatics, and a Research Scientist at the Veterans Administration.

Maryann Mason, PhD

Associate Director

Maryann Mason, PhD is an Assistant Research Professor in thDr. Mason is the principal investigator for the Illinois Violent Death Reporting System (IVDRS) and works closely with the Illinois Department of Public Health to led work on the Statewide Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS), Illinois’ opioid overdose fatality tracking system. She received her PhD in Sociology from Loyola University of Chicago. Her areas of research include qualitative methods, public health surveillance systems, child health and well-being, community-engaged research and injury and violence prevention.

Dr. Mason is interested in health and well-being as fostered by community conditions. As a sociologist she work to understand environmental, cultural, institutional and social influences on health and well being across the life course especially in low resourced and communities of color. She has experience and interest in community engaged scholarship.

She has worked in the areas of injury and obesity prevention with a focus on community programming and environmental interventions. My focus is on collaborative research and evaluation to improve the health and well-being of children and their communities with emphasis on socio-ecological approaches to health.

Hannes Schwandt, PhD

Associate Director

Economist Hannes Schwandt’s research agenda lies at the intersection of health economics, labor economics, and economic demography. His work focuses on the role of health in determining economic inequality, covering threats to population health including car pollution, addiction, gun violence, infectious disease, and business cycle shocks.

Hannes’ research has been published in Science, JAMA, PNAS, the Review of Economic Studies, and the Harvard Business Review, and it is frequently covered in leading national and international media outlets. 

Hannes received his PhD in Economics at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, followed by a three-year postdoc at Princeton University. Before joining Northwestern, he spent three years as assistant professor at University of Zurich and one year at Stanford University.

Antigone Kouvelis

Program Administrator Senior

Antigone Kouvelis has worked in the fields of criminal justice and public health for over three decades. Before coming to Northwestern, she was employed by Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago since 2005 working on the Illinois Violent Death Reporting System (IVDRS) project. Her role consisted primarily of data collection in six Illinois counties. The project has grown to include eighty counties as abstraction sites, capturing more than 97% of violent deaths and unintentional overdoses in the state of Illinois. Her responsibilities currently include project management, data validation and cleaning, quality assurance, contributing to data analysis and dissemination, and establishing and maintaining relationships with data partners and advisory board members. She is also responsible for hiring, onboarding, and overseeing the work of the data abstractors team. She regularly fields questions and provides guidance regarding coding decisions. The IVDRS and SUDORS projects and team moved to Northwestern University’s Buehler Center as of February 2021. Previous employers include Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Chicago Department of Public Health, and Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority.

Nia Jovan Andrews, MJ

Communications Coordinator Senior

Nia Jovan Andrews is the Senior Communications Coordinator for the Illinois Violent Death Reporting System (IVDRS) and the State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS) at Northwestern University. Since September 2020, she has led communication strategy, digital content, and public-facing dissemination efforts, translating complex surveillance data into accessible reports, data briefs, and visual materials for public health partners, policymakers, and the public. Her work focuses on clarity, ethical storytelling, and strengthening the connection between data and community impact.

Melissa Imburgia, MA

Program Coordinator Senior/Center Administrator

Melissa Imburgia serves as the administrator for the Buehler Center. She handles the Center’s financial, HR, events, facilities, communications and administrative tasks. As a higher education administrator, she values the development and promotion of leadership and career development for students, staff and faculty. For any role, it is important for her to exercise a strong sense of emotional intelligence, compassion, and empathy in the workplace. The promotion of inclusive and progressive administrative practices are the main components of her professional goals and expectations.

Nyah Brown

Data Assistant Associate

Nyah Brown is a Data Assistant Associate with the Buehler Center. I recently graduated from Case Western Reserve University with a BA in Medical Anthropology. I also have minors in Public Health and Spanish. As a Chicago native, I am thrilled to be supporting the IVDRS and SUDORS projects! Outside of work, I love weight lifting, cooking, and (constantly) trying new restaurants.