Who We Are

Program Manager and Co-Principal Investigator
mann0255@umn.edu

Erin Mann, MPH, is the Program Manager and co-principal investigator for the National Resource Center for Refugees, Immigrants, and Migrants. Erin also serves as the Global Collaborations Coordinator for the Center for Global Health and Social Responsibility at the University of Minnesota where she manages a partnership between the University of Minnesota, the International Organization for Migration and the CDC. Prior to these roles, Erin has managed global health and public health projects related to public health emergency preparedness and response, global medical supply chains, and bio-surveillance. Erin received her Master’s in Public Health from Boston University. 

Co-Principal Investigator
stauf005@umn.edu

Dr. William Stauffer is a professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and International Medicine and also holds appointments in the Pediatrics, Infectious Diseases & in the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota. He is the Director of Human Migration and Health at the Center for Global Health and Social Responsibility. He is a co-PI on the COVID National Resource Center for Refugees, Immigrants and Migrants. 

Co-Principal Investigator
shailey@umn.edu

In addition to serving as the Executive Director of the Center for Global Health and Social Responsibility at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Prasad is the Vice Chair for Education in Family Medicine & Community Health, Adjunct Professor at the School of Public Health and serves as the faculty lead for the Rothenberger Leadership Academy within the UMN School of Medicine. He is also a visiting professor at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and Udayana University, Bali. 

He is the co-PI of the National Resource Center for Refugees, Immigrants and Migrants (NRC-RIM). He is also the co-PI of the Northern Pacific Global Health Consortium that has global health training programs in Peru, Liberia, Ghana, Cameroon, Uganda, Kenya, India, Nepal and Thailand through the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health. 

Communications Strategist
slw@umn.edu

Syreeta is the communications strategist for the National Resource Center for Refugees, Immigrants and Migrants (NRC-RIM), where she manages the communications efforts for the center and leads the creation and dissemination of health communications materials.

She has more than a decade of experience in strategic communications, specializing in internal communications, digital media, and diverse and multilingual communities. Before joining the team at NRC-RIM, she led communications for K-12 public schools.

Syreeta is currently pursuing a Master's in Public Health at the University of Minnesota, where she focuses on global and immigrant health. She holds a master’s degree in linguistics from New York University, where she explored socioeconomic influences on Spanish-speaking immigrants' speech patterns. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Macalester College.

Project Coordinator
conov031@umn.edu

Katie Conover is the Project Coordinator for the Center for Global Health and Social Responsibility's National Resource Center for Refugees, Immigrants and Migrants (NRC-RIM) as well as UMN's partner project with the United Nations Migration Agency (the International Organization for Migration, or IOM). She also serves as Finance Coordinator for NRC-RIM and IOM as well as CGHSR as a whole.

Katie received her bachelor’s degree in Global Studies and Spanish from Hamline University, and she is currently pursuing her Master's in Education (K-12 English as a Second Language) at Hamline. She loves working for a center that engages people around the globe.

Gladys Aguirre
Aguir157@umn.edu

Gladys is the Communications Coordinator for NRC-RIM, helping with communication strategies and engagement. Prior to coming to NRC-RIM , she worked developing and executing communication plans for a variety of organizations, including non profits, start ups and government entities. Gladys has worked as a communications specialist where she led efforts to drive increased engagement, growth in valuable online presence, brand recognition and crafted social media strategies. Her core values and focus along her career have always stayed the same, and that is to get to know your ‘why’ and communicate with impact.  Gladys holds a bachelor of arts degree in Communications from the University of Texas at Arlington.

Dr. Beth Dawson-Hahn is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of General Pediatrics at the University of Washington, an Attending Physician at Harborview Medical Center, and a Principal Investigator at the Seattle Children’s Research Institute. She is a Medical Advisor to the Division of Global Migration and Health as well as the Immigrant, Refugee, Migrant Health Branch at the CDC, and also advises the International Organization for Migration. 

Beth leads the health-equity-focused Migration Health, Resilience and Multilingual Research Collaborative where her research and program development primarily focuses on children in immigrant and refugee families across the migration continuum. 

She believes strongly in amplifying and creating space for community leadership. She co-leads the Refugee Health Promotion Project at Harborview Medical Center where she cares for medically complex refugee children shortly after arrival. She volunteers for the Northwest Health and Human Rights Project conducting asylum evaluations. Beth grew up in a rural community in northern NY and she prioritizes mentoring first-generation students and those who are new to academia. 

Diego de Acosta, PhD, is a researcher with the Qualitative Collaborative at NRC-RIM, where he works with a multidisciplinary team to conduct interviews and write materials for public health communication and publication. He is currently leading the Qualitative Collaborative’s multilingual interview project.

Diego brings more than two decades of experience in higher education, where he was a professor of Linguistics and Spanish Language; and refugee support services, where he managed programs for refugee elders. He has a Doctorate in Linguistics from Cornell University.

Yesenia Garcia is a member of the Qualitative Collaborative Team. She has supported qualitative coding & data analysis as well as manuscript writing. One of her favorite things about being a part of this team is working alongside individuals who believe in the importance of uplifting and creating space for community voices to be heard.

Yesenia received her bachelor’s degree in public health from the University of Washington. She is currently pursuing her master's at the University of Washington in Child and Adolescent Psychology where she hopes to work with children and their families as a mental health clinician. She is based in Seattle, WA, and has been with the team since 2020.

Sarah Hoffman, PhD, MPH, MSN, RN is an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing. Dr. Hoffman’s program of research considers the longitudinal health of refugees post-resettlement and the intergenerational effects of trauma and torture. 

Before her appointment at the University, Dr. Hoffman served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Africa, a human rights intern in Colombia, and worked clinically as a nurse in the inpatient unit of the Johns Hopkins Hospital AIDS service. 

In conjunction with her faculty position at the University, Dr. Hoffman is a sexual assault nurse examiner, serving survivors of sexual assault. Dr. Hoffman teaches in the undergraduate and graduate nursing programs at the UMN School of Nursing and serves as an affiliate faculty member to the Master of Human Rights program.

Kim Yu joined NRC-RIM in 2020 as a Qualitative Researcher. On this team, she works collaboratively to conduct interviews, synthesize findings on best and promising practices, and develop materials for dissemination. 

She has more than a decade of experience in public health research and community engagement, with a focus on refugee, immigrant, and migrant health.

Kim received her Master of Public Health from New York University and her Bachelor’s in Human Biology from the University of California San Diego.