Transtria

STAFF

President & Chief Executive Officer

Laura K. Brennan, PhD, MPH is President and Chief Executive Officer of Transtria and an assistant professor of Behavioral Science and Health Education in the Department of Community Health at Saint Louis University School of Public Health. For the past ten years, she has participated in designing and evaluating community-based initiatives, conducting community-based participatory approaches to intervention and research, developing and communicating health messages, creating evidence-based intervention strategies, and performing needs assessment through surveys, interviews and focus groups. She has participated in multiple projects nationally and in the state of Missouri to facilitate discussions among practitioners (health, transportation, urban planning, parks and recreation, community planning), researchers, providers, community members and advocacy groups to assist them in planning efforts to address social, economic and environmental influences on health. Dr. Brennan has published 16 peer reviewed articles studying behaviors and health and she is a co-author on Tailoring health messages: Customizing communication with computer technology. She participates on the Board of the Alliance for the Status of Missouri Women, Citizens for Modern Transit and the Missouri Family Health Council. She enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, jogging and playing volleyball.

Brandye Mazdra, MPH (née Wilshire) is Director of Projects and Operations at Transtria LLC. She received her undergraduate Psychology degree and Master of Public Health (Behavioral Science and Health Education) degree at Saint Louis University. She has worked on numerous projects focusing on planning, implementation, and evaluation of community-based interventions in obesity prevention, health communication, maternal child health, and mental health. She has managed large-scale intervention studies funded by the National Institutes of Health and American CancerSociety aimed at obesity and cardiovascular disease prevention in children and assisted in the evaluation of the Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities project funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She has also coordinated an evidence review of literature on policy and environment interventions focusing on obesity prevention in children funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and assisted in providing technical assistance to state grantee teams to support development of their injury and violence prevention evaluation plans. She eenjoys reading, movies, boot-camp-style workouts, and spending time with family and friends.

Amanda Brzozowski, PhD, MPH is a Project Officer at Transtria. She received her Ph.D. in Epidemiology from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health, her M.P.H. in Maternal/Child Health from Boston University School of Public Health, and her B.A. in History and German Studies from Rice University. Amanda worked for two years as a CDC/ASPH Preparedness Fellow placed in the Vermont Department of Health, Division of Community PublicHealth. While at Emory, Amanda’s primary research focus was on pediatric epidemiology, but she also worked on projects relating to correctional health epidemiology, infectious disease epidemiology, and laboratory surveillance. Amanda’s public health interests include pediatric/perinatal epidemiology, women’s health, and teaching epidemiology methods.

Kathy Mora, PhD is a Project Assistant at Transtria.

She received her Ph.D. in Nutrition Science and Epidemiology from The University of Arizona. Prior education includes a BS in Dietetics from Miami University and an MS in Nutrition and Fitness from Florida State University. Kathy spent 10 years as a clinical dietitian working in an outpatient diabetes education clinic and private endocrinology office. For the past five years, Kathy has been an adjunct faculty member at St. Louis University teaching in the Nutrition and Dietetics Department and Physical Therapy Department. Kathy has prior teaching experience at Florida State University, Pima Community College, and The University of Arizona. A few of her professional interests include promoting nutrition science in the media, comprehensive health education to improve the lives of those with diabetes, wellness education to improve childhood fitness, and exploring prevention strategies to reduce the incidence of oral cancer. In her free time, Kathy enjoys spending time outside hiking with her family and friends, running, cooking, and reading.

Alena Tunprasert-Ahrens, BA is a Project Officer at Transtria. She received her B.A. in Communications from Webster University in 2004 and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. at the University of Missouri – Saint Louis within the College of Education, Division of Research and Evaluation where she is designing art curricula that integrates mindfulness methods for K-12 educational settings. Since 2012, Alena has been working with the Center for Character and Citizenship on a systematic review in character strengths that is funded by the John Templeton Foundation. Alena enjoys spending time with her family, writing, and running.

Kate Berman is a Project Assistant at Transtria. She is working on her B.A. in Public Health and French and will graduate in May 2016 from Saint Louis University. She recently interned at La Crosse County Public Health Department in Wisconsin where she worked on tobacco and obesityprevention in the community. During her undergraduate career, she participated in a Habitat for Humanity and a Navajo Nation Immersion spring break trip. She also studied abroad in France, was an editor for a social justice magazine, OneWorld. During her senior year, she was President of the Public Health Club. Kate's public health interests include childhood obesity prevention, behavioral science, and mental health. In her free time, Kate enjoys spending time with friends and family, traveling, running, doing yoga, writing poetry and enjoying the outdoors.