Faculty & Staff
Faculty
Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth
Shelley M. MacDermid Wadsworth is a distinguished professor in Purdue University’s Department of Human Development and Family Studies, where she directs the Military Family Research Institute and the Center for Families. She is a fellow of the National Council on Family Relations, and a recipient of the Work Life Legacy Award from the Families and Work Institute. Shelley was recently appointed to serve on a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine committee that focuses on military families’ well-being. Previously, she served as the civilian co-chair of the Department of Defense Task Force on Mental Health and on the Returning Veterans Committee of the Institute of Medicine.
Heather Eicher-Miller
Heather Eicher-Miller is an associate professor in Purdue’s Department of Nutrition Science interested in dietary assessment, dietary patterning and dietary behaviors among low-resource population groups. Her research focuses on food insecurity which affects 11% of U.S. households and creates uncertainty in the availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods. Her work has documented immediate and chronic adverse dietary and health outcomes associated with food insecurity among diverse populations and created evidence-based interventions to improved food security.
Jennifer McCaffrey
Jennifer McCaffrey is the assistant dean for the Family and Consumer Sciences programs at University of Illinois Extension. In her position she focuses on building healthier families by providing statewide leadership for Extension programs in nutrition, family relationships, and personal finance. She has extensive experience in developing and implementing programs for limited resource families and oversees two federal grants that provide nutrition education for families throughout Illinois. She is passionate about building systems to help Illinois residents live a healthy lifestyle.
Daniel Remley
Daniel Remley is an associate professor at Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, with expertise on developing public health interventions that use health behavior and social marketing theory. The focus of his current Extension work involves coupling nutrition education with healthy food access. An example is the POWER project (Produce on Wheels for Eating Right) which will sell health produce in food deserts and provide ancillary nutrition education and clinical outreach.
Nicole Adams
Nicole Adams is a clinical associate professor in Purdue’s School of Nursing. Her research focuses on community responses and collaborations addressing the opioid crisis, substance use, and mental health. As an associate member of the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering (RCHE), she works closely with engineers to develop innovative tools for use by communities and organizations. She also focuses on including human factors and end-user perspectives into new technologies to improve healthcare delivery and organizational efficiency.
Stephanie Woodcox
Stephanie Woodcox is the assistant program leader and health and wellness specialist for Purdue’s HHS Extension.
Nicholas Rattray
Nicholas Rattray is a medical anthropologist with expertise in social determinants of health, disability, health communication, and implementation science. He holds a PhD in anthropology from the University of Arizona and has conducted fieldwork in the United States and in South America. Rattray also works as adjunct faculty at IUPUI in both their Department of Anthropology as well as in the Fairbanks School of Public Health. Rattray’s current research aims to improve community reintegration and rehabilitation outcomes for post-9/11 veterans.
Jason Nieuwsma
Jason Nieuwsma is a clinical psychologist and an associate professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University whose interests are broadly related to different aspects of integrative mental health care. He has conducted work in the areas of health psychology, primary care-mental health integration, cross-cultural psychology, implementation science, and extensive work focused on integration of spirituality and health. Dr. Nieuwsma has served for over a decade as associate director for integrative mental health in the Veterans Health Administration. He has helped lead multiple projects aimed at more effectively integrating chaplaincy and mental health care services across large healthcare systems.
Staff
Rena Sterrett
Rena Sterrett is a senior community outreach specialist for MFRI, where she leads RRV. Prior to joining MFRI, Rena worked with Purdue faculty and staff as well as national experts to develop ELM©, a comprehensive and research-informed global early childhood curriculum developed for use in U.S. Department of Defense childcare programs. After earning a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Purdue University, Rena went on to earn a master of education degree from Indiana State University.
Jake Newton
Jake Newton is the associate outreach specialist for MFRI, where he performs many functions vital to RRV’s operation. He is a recipient of a degree in Public Health from Purdue, and is currently enrolled in a master’s program for health informatics. His main roles pertain to RRV include managing outreach events, collecting data, analyzing data, and assisting in report publications to various directors both internal and external to MFRI.
Kendra Newhart
Kendra Newhart is a field staff member for MFRI, where she attends many RRV events and performs both outreach to the veteran community and data collection to help MFRI fine-tune RRV and improve the program’s outcomes. She is a recipient of both a B.S. in nutrition and a master’s of science in public health education and promotion from Purdue Global. She has over a decade of experience as a financial management specialist in the U.S. Army.
Malika Moretti
Malika Moretti is a field staff member for MFRI, where she attends many RRV events and performs both outreach to the veteran community and data collection to help MFRI fine-tune RRV and improve the program’s outcomes. She is an active-duty service member of the Air Force, where she served as a captain and dedicated mental health provider of the 60th Security Forces Squadron. Currently she is also a graduate student at Florida State University, and is an alumna of MFRI’s Focus Forward Fellowship which provides women service members and veterans in higher education with professional contacts and mentorship.
Phil Turner
Phil Turner is a Vietnam War Veteran and has been affiliated with MFRI for over a decade. He was with MFRI and worked as a field staff member when RRV began in 2015. He currently works as field staff for our Reaching Rural Veterans program. He attends RRV events and assists with our data collection. Phil has also worked with our Joining Community Forces Initiative and with Veteran Treatment Courts.
Andrea Wellnitz
Andrea Wellnitz served as the original project manager for RRV during a nearly five-year period from 2015 to 2019. She was deeply involved in many of the original articles displaying the program’s research outcomes in journals such as the Journal of Public Health and in other outlets such as the Military Families Learning Network. She is the recipient of a master’s of social work (MSW) from Ohio State University, and has contributed to a volunteer capacity to a wide array of outreach programs throughout her career.