Marina A. Creed, APRN, FNP-BC, MSCN

Co-Director, Indoor Air Quality Initiative
Neuroimmunology Nurse Practitioner, UConn Health Multiple Sclerosis Center
Assistant Professor of Neurology and Public Health Sciences
creed@uchc.edu

Marina Creed is an Assistant Professor of Neurology and Public Health Sciences at UConn Health. Motivated by the disproportionate impact COVID19 had on her immunosuppressed patient population, Marina launched the UConn Indoor Air Quality Initiative in August 2021 to expand patient care beyond exam room walls and into the community. After pitching her vision for pragmatic solutions to indoor air quality to drive down disease transmission to members of the UConn community and forming a team, she drove community partnerships and has been awarded $310,000 in private grants to study, create, and distribute DIY Corsi-Rosenthal Boxes to public schools, libraries, day care centers, and homeless shelters.

Misti Levy Zamora, Ph.D.

Co-Director, Indoor Air Quality Initiative
Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences, UConn Health
mzamora@uchc.edu

Dr. Misti Levy Zamora is an Assistant Professor at UConn Health and the Co-Director of the Indoor Air Quality Initiative. Her work bridges the gap between exposure science and public health, with a primary focus on identifying opportunities to reduce harmful environmental exposures. She also serves as the initiative’s technical lead, overseeing aspects of air monitoring, data collection, and quality assurance. Dr. Zamora leverages her expertise in exposure science to ensure that indoor air quality assessments provide accurate, actionable data to protect student health. Dr. Zamora combines rigorous scientific evaluation with practical application, investigating not only the technical efficacy of these interventions but also their social acceptance as STEM educational activities for youth and educators.
Misti's Website

Jessica Hollenbach, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
jhollenbach@connecticutchildrens.org

Jessica P. Hollenbach is co-director of the Asthma Center at Connecticut Children’s and an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. She is also the Associate Director of the UConn Indoor Air Quality Initiative where she leads the implementation and dissemination of the grants-in-aid program for all schools across Connecticut. Dr. Hollenbach received her doctorate in biomedical science from the University of Connecticut, as well as a Masters of Science in Clinical and Translational Research, and is a certified asthma educator. Her research uses an ecological framework of environmental, social, and microbiological interactions to tailor pediatric asthma prevention and interventions. Dr. Hollenbach has mentored numerous high school, undergraduate, graduate, and medical students and has authored more than 25 journal articles in the areas of pediatric asthma, hair cortisol and chronic stress, health services research in pediatric asthma and indoor air quality.

Asthma Center - Connecticut Children's
Jessica's Website

Kristina Wagstrom, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
kristina.wagstrom@uconn.edu

Dr. Kristina Wagstrom is an Associate Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in the College of Engineering at the University of Connecticut. She has an expertise in air pollution and engineering education. She has been working with the Indoor Air Quality Initiative team since 2021. She has a strong interest in providing experiential learning opportunities for undergraduate engineering and science majors and engineering education in the K-12 space. Dr. Wagstrom contributes to the air monitoring and educational elements of this project and supervises the Indoor Air Quality Ambassadors, a team of dedicated students at the University of Connecticut working to support the mission of the Indoor Air Quality Initiative.

Kristina's Website

Todd Campbell, Ph.D.

Professor
todd.campbell@uconn.edu

Dr. Campbell is the Department Head of Curriculum and Instruction and a Professor of Science Education in the Neag School of Education. His research focuses on cultivating imaginative and equitable representations of STEM activity. This is accomplished in formal science learning environments through partnering with pre-service and in-service science teachers and leaders to collaboratively focus on supporting student use of modeling (i.e., explanatory; complex systems modeling) as an anchoring epistemic practice to reason about events that happen in the natural world and solve local problems of community consequence. This work extends into informal learning environments through a focus on iterative design of informal learning spaces and equity- and justice-focused STEM education research. He is the outgoing Co-Editor in Chief of the Journal of Science Teacher Education and active in national and state-level systemic STEM improvement efforts.

Todd's Website

Fayekah Assanah, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor in Residence
fayekah.assanah@uconn.edu

Dr. Fayekah Assanah is an Assistant Professor in Residence in Biomedical Engineering in the College of Engineering at the University of Connecticut. Dr. Assanah is the team lead for ENGR 1166: Foundations of Engineering, a core course for all first-year engineering students at the University of Connecticut consisting of over 700 students. She has developed and implemented project-based lessons to build Corsi-Rosenthal boxes for all first-year engineering students through this initiative.

Fayekah's Website

Kristina Wagstrom, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
kristina.wagstrom@uconn.edu

Dr. Kristina Wagstrom is an Associate Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in the College of Engineering at the University of Connecticut. She has an expertise in air pollution and engineering education. She has been working with the Indoor Air Quality Initiative team since 2021. She has a strong interest in providing experiential learning opportunities for undergraduate engineering and science majors and engineering education in the K-12 space. Dr. Wagstrom contributes to the air monitoring and educational elements of this project and supervises the Indoor Air Quality Ambassadors, a team of dedicated students at the University of Connecticut working to support the mission of the Indoor Air Quality Initiative.

Kristina's Website

Doug Brugge, Ph.D.

Professor, Chairman of Department of Public Health Sciences
brugge@uchc.edu

Dr. Doug Brugge is Professor and Chair of the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. He has extensive expertise in community air pollution and health. He has led multiple clinical trials of air purifiers in homes near busy highways.  In 2025 he published the primary outcomes of a full, pragmatic randomized cross over trial of commercial air purifiers.  The main finding was that for participants with clinically elevated systolic blood pressure the presence of HEPA air purifiers in their homes resulted in a 3 mm reduction in blood pressure.  He is currently leading a feasibility trial of CR-Box air purifiers.

Doug's Website

Hannah Cooke, Ph.D.

Education Director and Program Manager

Hannah Cooke is a Postdoctoral Research Associate on the Indoor Air Quality Initiative at the University of Connecticut. In this role, she is collaborating with scientists and K12 educators to design NGSS-aligned lesson plans about indoor air quality that include students building and testing air purifiers, as well as implementing and evaluating the program in schools across the state. She earned her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on Science Education from the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut. While pursuing her PhD, she was a research assistant on and project manager of the project COVID Connects Us: Nurturing Novice Teachers’ Justice Science Teaching Identities, where she designed professional development for science teachers, developing resources to help teachers improve classroom practice. Her former work as a high school science teacher and facilitator of the school’s Green Team led her to grapple with the intersection of science and society. She holds a MA in Curriculum and Instruction and a BS in Biological Sciences from the University of Connecticut.

Marina A. Creed, APRN, FNP-BC, MSCN

Co-Director, Indoor Air Quality Initiative
Neuroimmunology Nurse Practitioner, UConn Health Multiple Sclerosis Center
Assistant Professor of Neurology and Public Health Sciences
creed@uchc.edu

Marina Creed is an Assistant Professor of Neurology and Public Health Sciences at UConn Health. Motivated by the disproportionate impact COVID19 had on her immunosuppressed patient population, Marina launched the UConn Indoor Air Quality Initiative in August 2021 to expand patient care beyond exam room walls and into the community. After pitching her vision for pragmatic solutions to indoor air quality to drive down disease transmission to members of the UConn community and forming a team, she drove community partnerships and has been awarded $310,000 in private grants to study, create, and distribute DIY Corsi-Rosenthal Boxes to public schools, libraries, day care centers, and homeless shelters.

Pradeep Kumar, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Associate

Pradeep Kumar is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and Environmental Health at the UConn Health. In this role, he works on conducting IAQ monitoring in K–12 schools across Connecticut and evaluating the effectiveness of do-it-yourself (DIY) air purifiers. His work includes measuring particulate matter, CO₂, and other indoor air pollutants, analyzing environmental and survey data, and supporting program implementation in school settings. He earned his PhD in Biological Sciences from South Dakota State University, where his doctoral research focused on bioaerosols, particulate matter characterization, source attribution, and environmental determinants in swine production facilities. He also holds an MSc in Microbiology from Gurukul Kangri University, Haridwar, India. Prior to his doctoral training, he was a part of research project at the University of Delhi focused on IAQ assessment in schools, offices, and residential environments. He brings over seven years of relevant research experience with more than 20 publications, and his research interests center on IAQ, bioaerosols, and environmental and public health.

Misti Levy Zamora, Ph.D.

Co-Director, Indoor Air Quality Initiative
Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences, UConn Health
mzamora@uchc.edu

Dr. Misti Levy Zamora is an Assistant Professor at UConn Health and the Co-Director of the Indoor Air Quality Initiative. Her work bridges the gap between exposure science and public health, with a primary focus on identifying opportunities to reduce harmful environmental exposures. She also serves as the initiative’s technical lead, overseeing aspects of air monitoring, data collection, and quality assurance. Dr. Zamora leverages her expertise in exposure science to ensure that indoor air quality assessments provide accurate, actionable data to protect student health. Dr. Zamora combines rigorous scientific evaluation with practical application, investigating not only the technical efficacy of these interventions but also their social acceptance as STEM educational activities for youth and educators.
Misti's Website

Sigrid Almeida, B.S.

Research Associate II, Asthma Center and Pulmonary Department, Connecticut Children’s

Sigrid Almeida is a Research Associate 2 in the Asthma Center and Pulmonary department at Connecticut Children’s and serves as the Manager of the Easy Breathing© Program. She has over 8 years of experience in clinical and community-based pediatric pulmonary research, supporting studies focused on asthma as well as rare lung diseases, including Cystic Fibrosis and Primary ciliary dyskinesia. Sigrid began her clinical career as a midwife after earning her degree from Victoria University in Australia and later completed medical assistant training with honors in the United States. Her work includes participant recruitment and engagement, and the development of bilingual, culturally responsive research and educational materials. Her professional interests center on improving respiratory outcomes through community-engaged research, health literacy, and equitable access to evidence-based care for children and families disproportionately affected by chronic and rare pulmonary diseases.

Jessica Hollenbach, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
jhollenbach@connecticutchildrens.org

Jessica P. Hollenbach is co-director of the Asthma Center at Connecticut Children’s and an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. She is also the Associate Director of the UConn Indoor Air Quality Initiative where she leads the implementation and dissemination of the grants-in-aid program for all schools across Connecticut. Dr. Hollenbach received her doctorate in biomedical science from the University of Connecticut, as well as a Masters of Science in Clinical and Translational Research, and is a certified asthma educator. Her research uses an ecological framework of environmental, social, and microbiological interactions to tailor pediatric asthma prevention and interventions. Dr. Hollenbach has mentored numerous high school, undergraduate, graduate, and medical students and has authored more than 25 journal articles in the areas of pediatric asthma, hair cortisol and chronic stress, health services research in pediatric asthma and indoor air quality.

Asthma Center - Connecticut Children's
Jessica's Website

Laura Curtin

Chemical Engineering, Minor in Sociology
Class of 2027

She is from long island, New York and have been working on this project since August of 2025. She has always been interested in improving the health of others and the environment and plans to continue doing so after graduation which is why she enjoys contributing to this project and seeing the real-world positive health impacts on teachers and students. 

Sofia Goncalves

BSE Chemical Engineering
Class of 2028

She is from Connecticut and enjoys baking, skiing and traveling. She is passionate about indoor air quality because of the intersection between science and public health.

Samantha Maher

BSE Chemical Engineering, Minor in Engineering Management
Class of 2027

Originally from Massachusetts, Samantha has long been drawn to the intersection of engineering and public health. Being part of the IAQ Initiative has truly changed the way she thinks about air quality, as she’s had the opportunity to see firsthand how thoughtful engineering and accessible filtration can create healthier spaces for families, schools, and communities. Outside of class and research, she enjoys staying active, spending time with friends, and taking on leadership roles within campus organizations.

Tyler Rogers 

BS Physiology and Neurobiology, BA Chinese, Minor in Global Studies
Class of 2027

Tyler is from Glastonbury, CT and has been on this project and related research projects since 2021. Tyler loves researching, traveling, and exploring how different topics and cultures intersect. Additionally, he finds immense fulfillment in contributing to projects like these that have the potential to advance public/global health and safety.

Lily Walowitz

IB/M Secondary Earth Science Education 
Class of 2028

She is an Indoor Air Quality Ambassador because she wants to make her future classroom a healthy and safe environment for all her students! She is originally from Long Island, New York and, when not at school, she can be found at the beach or spending time with her family and friends. 

William Watson

BSE Chemical Engineering
Class of 2026

Having lived in 4 different states and raised in Virginia, he has always been curious to explore and understand the world, with atmospheric chemistry being one of those curiosities. Outside academics, he is also passionate about fitness and enjoys competing for the UConn Track and Field team. 

Madilyn Wooten

BSE Environmental Engineering
Class of 2028

She believes that a healthy environment causes healthy, happy, people, making good air quality crucial. She loves the outdoors, so in the summer she works in a park in her hometown, Griswold, CT, and takes on wildland firefighting.

Haley MacDonald

MD Program, UConn – Health

Lilliana Gluszak

BSE Chemical Engineering
Class of 2028

Anousha Hashim

BS Allied Health Sciences
Class of 2029

Ethan Lamothe

BSE Chemical Engineering
Class of 2029

Tia Nakhoul

BS Molecular and Cell Biology
Class of 2029

Alexis West

BSE Chemical Engineering
Class of 2026

Nyok Wol

BSE Chemical Engineering
Class of 2028