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Tulane experts available to speak on coronavirus

Tulane University experts and researchers are available to speak to reporters on all aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic. From physicians on the front lines of clinical care and scientists developing new tests, treatments and preventions to epidemiologists and disease modelers tracking ways to stop the spread of the virus, our faculty are available to share their knowledge about the latest science and how Tulane is contributing to COVID-19 response efforts. We also have faculty who can address the mental health and economic challenges sparked by the pandemic. 

For journalists interested in speaking with one of Tulane’s experts, please contact the Tulane public relations office.

Media advisories on coronavirus

Tulane resilience expert joins national panel on intimate partner violence Mar 07, 2023
Tulane medical students and mentor investigate racial health disparities Feb 22, 2023
COVID-19 pandemic halted breast cancer screenings. Here’s how long the delay lasted Jan 19, 2023
More hiring and office space among post-pandemic changes for startups, Tulane study says Dec 09, 2022
A new way to fight diseases? Stop viruses from stealing nutrients Nov 16, 2022
New COVID-19 vaccine shows promise against Omicron variants Sep 19, 2022
Tulane working on test to predict COVID-19 complications Sep 07, 2022
College COVID-19 vaccinations saved lives, protected communities, study says Aug 31, 2022
What bats can teach us about stopping the next pandemic Jul 27, 2022
Study finds Wuhan market as likely origin of COVID-19 pandemic Jul 26, 2022
Couple makes $1 million bequest to strengthen their Tulane School of Social Work scholarship Jul 18, 2022
Large study finds menstrual changes after COVID vaccine Jul 15, 2022
Tulane researchers receive American Heart Association grant to study COVID’s vascular effects Apr 25, 2022
Baseball legend, AI pioneer, Marine Corps commandant and comedian/actor to be honored at Tulane Commencement Apr 08, 2022
Tulane study shows COVID-19’s lingering impacts on the brain Apr 01, 2022
Tulane wins $2.27 million grant to combat burnout among health care workers Mar 04, 2022
Astronaut Doug Hurley to address Class of 2020 during special commencement Feb 21, 2022
Book Festival announces full schedule for inaugural three-day literary celebration Feb 17, 2022
Book Fest to host a conversation with Tarriona ‘Tank’ Ball and Big Freedia Feb 07, 2022
Irma Thomas gets animated about the importance of clinical trials Feb 02, 2022

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Interview the experts

Tulane School of Medicine

Dr. David Mushatt profile pic

Dr. David Mushatt, Associate professor of medicine and section chief

An infectious diseases expert and can speak about clinical aspects of the disease — symptoms, transmission, hospital safeguards and how risks from COVID-19 compare to the seasonal flu and other infectious diseases. 

Contact Dr. David Mushatt

Dr. David Mushatt specializes in infectious diseases and is an expert in COVID-19. He leads the Infectious Diseases section at Tulane University School of Medicine and his clinical interests include HIV medicine and diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans.

Tony Hu profile pic

Tony Hu, Weatherhead Presidential Chair in Biotechnology Innovation

Expert in developing advanced diagnostics for personalized medicine and COVID-19 research

Contact Tony Hu

Tony Hu is a pioneer in developing advanced diagnostics for personalized medicine. Hu is working to develop highly sensitive blood or saliva tests for COVID-19 that rely on nanotechnology-based strategies to find biomarkers of disease.

Bob Garry profile pic

Bob Garry, Professor of microbiology and immunology

Expert in COVID-19, pathology, immunotherapy, virology and molecular mechanisms of viral pathogenesis.

Contact Bob Garry

A leading expert in virology, Bob Garry is part of a team decoding the genome of the coronavirus to determine its origins and how it possibly evolved from bats and pangolins. Garry leads Tulane’s Center of Excellence in the Global Virus Network, an organization of leading medical virologists from 25 countries dedicated to fighting pandemic viral threats through collaborative research, training and advocacy.

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Dr. John Schieffelin, Pediatric and adult infectious diseases physician

Expert on the natural history, clinical care and immunology of viral hemorrhagic fevers (VHFs) and COVID-19.

Contact Dr. John Schieffelin

As part of Tulane’s clinical and research team in West Africa during the Ebola outbreak, Dr. John Schieffelin is an expert in outbreak response efforts. He can speak about the epidemiology of the coronavirus disease, risks of spread and issues around quarantine policies.

School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine

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Lizheng Shi, Endowed Regents Professor and vice chair of health policy and management

Expert in health technology assessment, economics and policy, and for COVID-19.

Contact Lizheng Shi

Lizheng Shi’s research interests in health technology assessment and health care quality, access and economics, he also has an interest in pharmacoepidemiology with a focus on safety issues in medication treatment and health.

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Susan Hassig, Associate professor of epidemiology

Expert in infectious disease outbreaks, vector-borne disease, HIV and associated infection and COVID-19.

Contact Susan Hassig

Susan Hassig has been a faculty member of the Epidemiology Department since 1996, after more than a decade of work in HIV research, surveillance and intervention programs in the U.S. and around the globe.

Maureen Lichtveld profile pic

Maureen Lichtveld, Freeport McMoRan Chair of Environmental Policy

Expert in the field of environmental public health, disaster management, disease control and prevention and health disparities.

Contact Maureen Lichtveld

Maureen Lichtveld’s national and global environmental health research examines the cumulative impact of chemical and non-chemical stressors on communities facing environmental health threats, disasters including pandemics and health disparities.

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Lina Moses, Assistant professor of epidemiology and disease ecology

Expert in COVID-19, ecology, epidemiology, zoonoses and pathogens

Contact Lina Moses

Disease ecologist Lina Moses is a leading expert in tropical virology. She is in Geneva coordinating research efforts for WHO and the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network as they work to prevent the outbreak from spreading into a global epidemic.

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Thomas LaVeist, Dean of Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine

Expert in U.S. health and social policy, the role of race in health research, social factors contributing to mortality, longevity and life expectancy, quantitative and demographic analysis and access, and utilization of health services.

Contact Thomas LaVeist

Thomas LaVeist, can speak broadly about the COVID-19 outbreak, response efforts and what the public should know about the evolving issues related to the emerging outbreak. He can also speak about health communications in response to coronavirus and how misinformation can stigmatize those in the midst of an outbreak.

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Dr. Ronald Blanton, Chair of Tropical Medicine, Tulane University COVID-19 response/monitoring task force

Expert in COVID-19, parasitic diseases, water-borne disease research community-based antimicrobial resistance and Schistosomiasis.

Contact Dr. Ronald Blanton

Dr. Ronald Blanton is a physician-scientist who can speak about the global public health risks of COVID-19, tracking cases and the rate of spread in the US and beyond. He can also speak about the historical context of the epidemic compared to SARS and MERS viruses that have caused outbreaks in the past and clinical aspects of the virus.

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John Barry, Adjunct faculty at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine

Can speak to the coronavirus and how it compares to seasonal and pandemic viruses seen in past years.

Contact John Barry

John Barry, author of The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History, can speak to the coronavirus and how it compares to seasonal and pandemic viruses seen in past years. His research focuses on how viruses spread, what causes them to become pandemics and what can be done to control deadly infections.

Stephen Murphy profile pic

Stephen Murphy, Assistant professor of environmental health sciences

Expert in disaster resilience, public health emergency preparedness and addressing environmental threats such as COVID-19.

Contact Stephen Murphy

Stephen Murphy has significant experience shaping and implementing local, state, federal and private sector public health emergency preparedness, homeland security and disaster management and resilience programs.

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Samendra Sherchan, Assistant professor of environmental health sciences

Expert in water, sanitation hygiene (WASH), environmental health microbiology and infectious diseases and COVID-19.

Contact Samendra Sherchan

An environmental health microbiologist, Dr. Samendra Sherchan studies water quality, emerging contaminants, risk assessment, water treatment and challenges associated with safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene.

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Julie Hernandez, Assistant professor of health policy and management

Expert in geographic information systems, digital data collection and COVID-19.

Contact Julie Hernandez

Julie Hernandez is a geographer with expertise in geographic information systems and digital data collection.

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Richard Oberhelman, Chair of the Department of Global Community Health and Behavioral Sciences and adjunct professor of pediatrics.

Expert in impact, prevention and control of enteric infections/diarrheal diseases in children and COVID-19.

Contact Richard Oberhelman

Dr. Richard Oberhelman research focuses on infectious diseases in children from resource-poor areas, particularly diarrheal diseases, tuberculosis and newborn sepsis, with emphasis on applied translational methods to detect, treat or prevent these conditions. 

School of Social Work

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Charles Figley, Professor of social work and director of the Tulane Trauma Institute

An internationally-known trauma expert, social work professor and head of the Tulane Trauma Institute.

Contact Charles Figley

Charles Figley can speak on trauma related to disease outbreak, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder, compassion fatigue, stress and coping. 

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Reggie Ferreira, Associate professor of social work and director of the Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy at Tulane

His main research focus is on disasters, focusing on disaster resilience and complex systems.

Contact Reggie Ferreira

Reggie Ferreira is a trauma expert whose research focuses on the intersection of climate change, mental health and resilience. He can speak about the mental health challenges of collective trauma, such as that associated with COVID-19, and provide strategies for coping with such issues as isolation from quarantine and fear of contracting an infection. 

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Leia Saltzman, Assistant professor of social work

Expert on trauma associated with community violence and mass disaster.

Contact Leia Saltzman

Leia Saltzman focuses her research on mental health policies and clinical practices with trauma-affected populations in order to promote well-being, build stronger families and more cohesive communities that can withstand the impact of mass disaster, collective trauma and violence.

Tonya Hansel profile pic

Tonya Hansel, Associate professor of social work

Expert in disaster mental health and trauma services.

Contact Tonya Hansel

Tonya Hansel is a social worker with expertise in research, statistics, disaster mental health, trauma and maximizing outcomes for social service agencies.

Maurya Glaude profile pic

Maurya Glaude, Professor of practice in social work

Expert in adolescent mental health, disaster mental health and innovative social work teaching methods.

Contact Maurya Glaude

Maurya Glaude’s research interests include adolescent mental health, improving accessibility of continuing care services for adolescents experiencing substance use disorders and innovative social work teaching methods.

Tulane National Primate Research Center

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Jay Rappaport, Director of Tulane National Primate Research Center

Expert in COVID-19, HIV/AIDS and nonhuman primate models of diseases in biomedical research.

Contact Jay Rappaport

Tulane National Primate Research Center will launch a COVID-19 research program to develop a vaccine and test treatments against the virus. Investigators also hope to answer many of the unknowns about the disease, including why older individuals are more susceptible to complications and death from it.

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Angie Birnbaum, Director of biosafety at Tulane University

Expert in COVID-19, biohazard, biosafety, high risk select agents and toxins.

Contact Angie Birnbaum

Angie Birnbaum, a nationally certified biosafety expert, leads a national working group that will launch a collaborative research program on COVID-19 among National Primate Research Centers. The group will work to develop vaccines and the evaluate treatments against the disease using a non-human primate model. 

School of Science and Engineering

Hannah Frank profile pic

Hannah Frank,

Expert in COVID-19 research and the ecology and evolution of bat-infection interactions.

Contact Hannah Frank

Hannah works on bat-associated infections and immunity. Immune systems are key in virus transmission, and bats are one of the ways that diseases can be transmitted. Bat immune systems are capable of harboring the virus without affecting the animal itself.

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James “Mac” Hyman, Mathematics professor

Works to build a solid mathematical foundation for difference approximations to partial differential equations

Contact James “Mac” Hyman

James “Mac” Hyman uses mathematical models to better understand and predict the spread of COVID-19. His research is based on daily reported cases of the virus in China and provides a methodology to predict the number of new infections five, 10 and 15 days into the future.