{"id":213,"date":"2018-08-30T17:27:58","date_gmt":"2018-08-30T17:27:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.uthscsa.edu\/tackle\/?page_id=213"},"modified":"2025-12-29T09:18:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T15:18:24","slug":"staff-directory","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wp.uthscsa.edu\/tackle\/ut-health-san-antonio-tackle-3\/staff-directory\/","title":{"rendered":"TACKLE HIV\/HCV Team"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

\"\"Waridibo (Wari) Allison, MD, PhD<\/h3>\n

Program Director<\/h4>\n

Dr. Waridibo (Wari) Allison is an Associate Professor of Infectious Disease at the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) and Medical Director at the San Antonio AIDS Foundation (SAAF). She attended Imperial College School of Medicine, London and completed an internal medicine residency at New York-Presbyterian\/Weill Cornell Medical Center and infectious disease fellowship at New York University (NYU). She holds a Ph.D. in Public Health from the Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales, Australia. Dr. Allison is passionate about improving access to healthcare for under-served, disadvantaged populations in the US and in resource-limited settings overseas, whether that disadvantage is geographical, racial, cultural, gender-based or economical. Her current research focuses on prevention, screening, and linkage to care in relation to HIV and viral hepatitis (particularly hepatitis C). She has clinical responsibility for people living with HIV attending the SAAF Care Clinic. Dr. Allison is the principal investigator and program director for the TACKLE HIV\/HCV in People of Color project.[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”orange” style=”shadow”][vc_wp_text][\/vc_wp_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]<\/p>\n

\"\"Barbara Taylor, MD, MS<\/h3>\n

Program Evaluator<\/h4>\n

Dr. Barbara Taylor is an Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases and the Assistant Dean for the MD\/MPH Program at UT Health San Antonio with a co-appointment at the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health. Dr. Taylor conducts impactful research to improve health outcomes for underserved populations living with or at risk for HIV. She provides treatment for patients living with infectious diseases in San Antonio. A strong community advocate, she is a co-chair of the End Stigma End HIV Alliance of San Antonio and the Clinician Key Opinion Leader for San Antonio’s Fast Track Cities Initiative. She also works with two programs to increase screening and treatment for Hepatitis C in South Texas: TACKLE and HEPVista. Dr. Taylor is an alumna of Princeton University, Harvard Medical School, and the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and is board certified in internal medicine and infectious diseases.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator color=”orange” style=”shadow”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

\"\"Trisha Melhado, MPH<\/h3>\n

Senior Research Scientist\/Epidemiologist<\/h4>\n

Ms. Trisha Melhado is the Senior Research Scientist\/ Epidemiologist for TACKLE. Ms. Melhado has experience in various research roles where she provides research guidance to faculty and residents on all aspects of the research process with an emphasis on study methodology and statistical analysis. She has successfully collaborated with faculty from multiple institutions to implement multi-year grant funded projects and has worked on CPRIT, DOD, and HRSA funded grants as well as provided analytical and statistical expertise to projects. She has presented research at local and national conferences in addition to co-authoring several publications based on her analytical contributions.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator color=”orange” style=”shadow”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

\"\"Raquel Romero, MD, MPH, CDE<\/h3>\n

ECHO Education Outreach and Recruitment Coordinator<\/h4>\n

Dr. Romero is a bilingual foreign medical graduate physician who has a Master of Public Heath from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. She is certified by the National Certification Board for Diabetes Educators as a Diabetes Educator as well as a Texas State Community Health Worker Instructor. For the past 18 years, she has been working for UT Health San Antonio as a primary care practice facilitator in the 38 counties of South Texas. Her projects focus on improving health outcomes for underserved and rural communities at the clinic level through the implementation of quality improvement strategies. Dr. Romero has devoted her professional career to helping increase the capacity of primary care physicians in community based settings to work towards health improvement in their patient populations. She has joined the TACKLE team as the ECHO Education Outreach and Recruitment Coordinator to achieve this goal of creating awareness amongst primary care physicians about the HIV\/HCV ECHO program.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator color=”orange” style=”shadow”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

\"\"Shreya Prasanna, BPTh., MSc.<\/h3>\n

Epidemiology Program Assistant (Research Associate)<\/h4>\n

Shreya Prasanna is a research associate\/ epidemiology assistant for TACKLE program. Shreya is a physical therapist by training and completed her Bachelors degree in India in 2006 and her Masters in Rehabilitation Sciences from McGill University, Canada in 2010. She is presently completing her doctoral studies. Prior to joining the TACKLE team, Shreya has been involved in several research projects in a variety of health conditions such as fibromyalgia, arthritis and autism. Her research interests include evidence-based practice, community-based research, implementation sciences and healthcare access issues. As a TACKLE team member, she is excited to contribute her skills to reduce healthcare disparities and ensure equitable access to evidence-based HIV\/HCV care.[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”orange” style=”shadow”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

\"\"Keito Kawasaki, MPH<\/h3>\n

Epidemiology Program Assistant (Research Associate)<\/h4>\n

Keito Kawasaki is a research associate\/ epidemiology assistant for TACKLE program. Keito graduated from Tulane University School of Public Health with an MPH, with a focus on global health before joining the TACKLE team in January 2018. Her research interests include HIV, hepatitis C, social determinants of health, health systems strengthening, health program management, and program monitoring and evaluation. Prior to coming to the United States, she lived in Japan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan. She embraces diversity and as a TACKLE team member, she is eager to contribute to improving access to quality HIV\/HCV care for all who needs care regardless of their race, ethnicity, age, gender, and socio-economic status.[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”orange” style=”shadow”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

\"\"James Bridges, BS<\/h3>\n

Database & EMR Manager<\/h4>\n

James Bridges has worked in data management for over 34 years. Previously at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute, Mr. Bridges helped develop PEDSYS a pedigree-based database. He built and maintained several data files for pedigree information retrieval and analysis. He also coordinated data from several different laboratories and institutions for large program projects. Within the TACKLE project, Mr. Bridges builds and manages several REDCap databases and is responsible for coordinating and managing electronic medical record software modifications necessary for project data collection. Mr. Bridges has also been involved in innovative ways of utilizing REDCap for the UT Health San Antonio ECHO program.[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”orange” style=”shadow”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

\"\"Aro Choi, MS<\/h3>\n

Statistician<\/h4>\n

Aro Choi is a senior statistician in the Division of Infectious Disease at the UT Health San Antonio. Before She joined the TACKLE team, she worked with various clinical and pharmaceutical data at Duke Clinical Research Institute, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), NC Department of \u00a0Health and Human Services (NCDHHS), and the Center for Research to Advance Community Health (ReACH) at UT Health San Antonio. She has extensive experience in data management, data analysis, and data visualization using SAS. She graduated from Duke University with a Master\u2019s degree of Biostatistics and her master\u2019s project focuses on methods and applications for clustered data by sites in the subject and hospital levels. She holds a Bachelor\u2019s degree in Statistics. She is an expert in SAS programming and has a passion for simple & effective data visualization to make a positive impact on eliminating health disparities.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Waridibo (Wari) Allison, MD, PhD Program Director Dr. Waridibo (Wari) Allison is an Associate Professor of Infectious Disease at the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) and Medical Director at the San Antonio AIDS Foundation (SAAF). She attended Imperial College School of Medicine, London and completed an internal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":0,"parent":14,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/child-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-213","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nTACKLE HIV\/HCV Team - TACKLE<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wp.uthscsa.edu\/tackle\/ut-health-san-antonio-tackle-3\/staff-directory\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TACKLE HIV\/HCV Team - TACKLE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Waridibo (Wari) Allison, MD, PhD Program Director Dr. Waridibo (Wari) Allison is an Associate Professor of Infectious Disease at the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) and Medical Director at the San Antonio AIDS Foundation (SAAF). 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