Our Team
Our team is principally based in the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health and The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice, at the Geisel School Medicine.
Researcher Team
Paul J. Barr, MSc, PhD
Paul is a professor at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice and a member of the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health, trained in quantitative and qualitative methods. His research portfolio includes the development and implementation of measures of shared decision making (SDM), the user centered design and evaluation of patient and caregiver facing interventions to support SDM, and the communication of medical information to promote self-management. Paul is a recipient of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s Patient and Family Engagement award, through which he launched the Open Recordings research group in 2015. Outside of work, Paul can be found chasing his two children up mountains and trying to keep up with them as they ski back down. He coaches elementary school soccer in Lebanon, NH, teaches science at Mount Lebanon Elementary school as part of the Four Winds program, and is an avid furniture-maker in the Dartmouth Woodshop.
Garrett Badeau, MS
Garrett studied applied mathematics at the University of California, Davis, earning a Master of Science degree. His training emphasized mathematical modeling, optimization, and quantitative problem-solving, which continue to shape his approach to building data-driven systems.
He has more than seven years of industry experience working at the intersection of software engineering, analytics, and applied optimization. Prior to his current work, he served as a software engineer at Verizon, where he led the optimization team and contributed to multiple patents focused on introducing and improving key performance indicators related to efficient bidding strategies for online video advertisements. He later joined Office Hours, a San Francisco–based startup in the expert network industry, where he was one of three engineers and played a central role in designing and building full-stack features for the core product.
In addition to his work in larger organizations, Garrett has founded and continues to operate a small company that develops a web application to support winter plowing operations for a local business. He has also worked with a trucking company to modernize their data operations to power important business decisions. Across roles, his interests center on translating complex data into practical tools that improve decision-making and operational efficiency.
Outside of work, Garrett enjoys spending his time with his wife, puzzling away at recreational mathematics, playing the piano, cooking, and fishing.
Reed Bratches, PhD, MPH, MALS
Reed Bratches is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Center for Outcomes and Effectiveness Research and Education. His research focuses on how we communicate information to family caregivers, with a focus on medication-related information. Outside of work, Reed can be found with his family, biking, and golfing.
Craig Ganoe, MS
Craig is a researcher in human-computer interaction (HCI) design. He received his MS in Computer Science from Virginia Tech in 1998 with a focus on HCI and has primarily worked in academic research since. His research interests currently focus around design of software support for local community and caregiver engagement as well as the design of user interface affordances for group awareness in shared decision making - with the goal of designing usable software that better enables connections within families and local communities. Craig is an avid hiker who first visited the Upper Valley of NH/VT in 1994 and after returning many times since was proud to make it his home.
Kelly Goedert, PhD
Kelly Goedert, PhD: As Senior Research Coordinator on the Open Recordings team at the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health, Kelly brings two decades of experience in program evaluation, cognitive psychology, and rehabilitation neuroscience. She is dedicated to applying rigorous quantitative and qualitative methods, advanced statistical techniques, and data visualization to drive improvements in healthcare, mental health, education, and social services.
Before joining Dartmouth, Kelly spent 20 years on the faculty at Seton Hall University, most recently serving as Professor of Psychology and Data Analytics. She holds a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Virginia and an MS in Applied Experimental Psychology from Western Kentucky University. Her research has spanned cognitive aging, causal inference, and attentional biases in neurologically healthy and post-stroke populations. Her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NIH), and the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (DOE).
Madison Hume, BS
Madison is a recent graduate from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a bachelor’s degree in public health and health sciences. She has been working in Dr. Barr’s lab since the summer of 2025, during which she completed a full-time internship under the mentorship of Dr. Yen. She continued contributing to Dr. Barr’s projects throughout her final year of school, including the CHRONICLE Trial, which explores the impact of audio recording clinic visits for older adults with multimorbidity. Post-graduation, she is excited and grateful to be a regular member of the team and to continue this work.
Her research interests include health equity, women’s health, and clinical care, and she is drawn to both qualitative and quantitative research methods.
Outside of the lab, she enjoys staying active — whether that’s strength training at the gym or long walks with her dog, Louie. She also loves reading, swimming in the lake, and spending quality time with friends and family.
Sivakumar Kandasamy
Salar Khaleghzadegan, MPP
Salar Khaleghzdegan is a PhD student at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, focusing his research on the impact of barriers within dynamic relationships among patients, care partners, and clinicians during clinical encounters. His primary interests lie in understanding how these barriers contribute to sub-optimal care and the pivotal role of patient-centered communication and shared decision-making in enhancing these relationships. Additionally, he explores the emergence and management of medical uncertainty during discussions among patients, care partners, and clinicians. Salar is particularly passionate about utilizing tools from disciplines such as linguistics and data science to analyze recordings of clinical encounters, aiming to advance the basic science of patient-provider communication.
Prior to joining TDI, Salar served as a Research Data Analyst at the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In this role, he investigated the impact of teamwork, coordination, leadership, and communication on patient safety and quality. Salar holds an MPP from the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) School of Public Policy, along with a BS in Biological Sciences and a minor in Sociology from UMBC.
Outside of work, Salar enjoys experimenting with new recipes in the kitchen and hiking.
Alejandra Martínez, PhD
Alejandra Martínez holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC). Her doctoral thesis aimed to understand healthcare in the interaction between pregnant migrant women and health professionals in Chile’s public health system. Her main research interests are power dynamics, patient-centered care, and shared decision-making.
Alejandra enjoys running, cooking, and visiting new cafes to spend time and read.
Lisa A. Mistler, MD, MS, FAPA, FASAM
Lisa is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Geisel School of Medicine. She has a MS in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from MIT, and subsequently attended medical school at the University of Vermont. For many years she has been an attending psychiatrist at New Hampshire Hospital, with a 5 year stint at Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital in Worcester MA. During this time she also developed a research career, obtaining an MS in Health Services Research at The Dartmouth Institute while serving as a VA Quality Scholar 2006-2008. She was the content expert for development of SAMHSA’s antipsychotic medication decision aid, as well as consultant in developing SAMHSA’s Medication Assisted Treatment decision aid. What has kept her engaged and passionate is the ability to help disempowered patients with severe mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and schizoaffective disorder, rediscover the power they have in order to live the lives they envision for themselves. The common thread tying her career activities together has been working side-by-side with patients to maximize their autonomy in making life decisions. In her clinical work, she helped people gain the knowledge, skill, and capacity to manage their illnesses – to effectively take back power so they can be in the driver’s seat of their lives. By focusing on the clinical interview and the power of engagement and communication, she taught medical students and psychiatry residents to gain the therapeutic deftness to work with patients in a much more patient-centered way that supports autonomy. She is now a Research Postdoctoral Fellow on a T32 working with the Barr lab exploring key aspects of clinician-patient communication that facilitate engagement and behavior change.
Lisa enjoys running and hiking with her English Springer Spaniels, Freddie Mercury and Clyde, and traveling to unusual destinations with her husband.
Wambui Moraa Onsando, MD, MPH
Wambui Moraa Onsando is a PhD student at The Dartmouth Institute and prior research assistant at the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health. Born in Kenya, Moraa graduated with an MD from St. George’s University in Grenada before attaining her MPH from the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. Her masters culminated in a project exploring the widespread implications of medical tourism in Sub-Saharan Africa and an internship that examined the obstacles faced by women in the peripartum period suffering from opioid addiction. As a former Health Equity Research Fellow, she worked with PIs in the Health Equity and Advocacy lab to explore housing, food insecurity and discrimination as social determinants of health. She is passionate about understanding how barriers to an optimal provider-patient relationship, and the applications of patient centered communication in an ever-changing healthcare delivery landscape, can help bridge health equity gaps. Moraa enjoys music and unwinds by playing guitar and ukelele. She has 2 dogs and a craft obsession for every season.
Jesse Schoonmaker, MD, MPH
Jesse Schoonmaker’s eclectic academic and professional journey currently has him spearheading patient recruitment for various projects at The Center for Technology and Behavioral Health. A New Hampshire native, Jesse received his Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Chemistry from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. For the next four years he worked as the lab manager at both the Scadden Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Regenerative Medicine/ Harvard’s Stem Cell Institute in Boston and at the Lo Celso Laboratory at Imperial College London. Jesse would later return to school, graduating with a MD from St. George’s University School of Medicine in Grenada followed by an MPH from The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice in Hanover, NH. He hopes to positively contribute to the research being done at CTBH while maintaining a firm grasp on his medical and “hard science” background.
Jesse has visited 31 of the 63 US National Parks, most of these within one year. He loves a good road trip, ideally with his wife and two dogs. Jesse is a licensed bartender, a lapsed tequila aficionado, and enjoys making cocktails that take way longer than necessary. He is an enthusiastic and excellent cook but loses all interest when it comes to the presentation of his creations… just eat it already.
Le Shipulski, BA, MPH
Le brings a multidisciplinary background in public health, bilingual health services, and community advocacy to their work on the OpenRecordings Team at the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health, where they coordinate recruitment, manage IRB processes, produce data analysis, and support manuscript development across several concurrent clinical research projects. Le holds an MPH from The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice and a BA in Spanish and Dance from Mount Holyoke College. Prior to CTBH, they coordinated a federally funded mental health disparities study at the Geisel School of Medicine, worked in health insurance navigation in Charlotte, NC, and refugee advocacy in Argentina.
Outside of work, Le can often be found tap dancing, exploring new places through travel, or spending time on walks with family.
Sue Tarczewski, CCRP
Sue is a research coordinator for Open Recordings, a group researching and promoting the use of recording clinic visits for patient use. She is certified as a clinical research professional by the Society of Clinical Research Associates. Sue is deeply interested in learning how behavioral interventions may improve patient engagement, with a goal of improving patient outcomes. Her professional background includes over 15 years as a clinical research coordinator at Norris Cotton Cancer Center. At NCCC, she focused on solid tumor trials, primarily in gastrointestinal cancers. In her spare time, Sue is an avid reader, loves hiking with her spoiled-rotten dog, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Sullivan County Humane Society.
Garrett Wasp, MD
Dr. Garrett Wasp is a medical oncologist at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center at Lebanon, NH. Dr. Wasp specializes in the treatment of Head and Neck Cancer and Sarcoma. He is also an Assistant Professor at The Geisel School of Medicine where he studies communication and decision-making in the treatment of cancer and during end-of-life care decisions. Dr. Wasp is particularly interested in identifying ways to improve serious illness conversations between patients, their families, and oncology clinicians. Strategies include healthcare system implementation and refining scalable, digital tools that assist patients and clinicians in ensuring what matters most to patients and families is heard by their care team.
Renata W. Yen, PhD, MPH
Renata is a health services researcher and an Assistant Professor at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice at the Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College. Her research focuses on mental health and decision-making needs for people who experience birth injuries such as pelvic organ prolapse and enhancing patient-clinician communication through plain language interventions. She is passionate about engaging patients and end-users in all aspects of research, from conception to publication. She is a part of the Dr. Paul Barr’s OpenRecordings team at the CTBH.
She completed her PhD in Health Policy & Clinical Practice at Dartmouth in 2023. For her PhD, she studied how to measure clinician use of plain language in healthcare encounters and the impact of shared decision-making interventions for socially disadvantaged populations. Before moving into research, Renata worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a public health associate, tracking transmission of communicable diseases at a health department in St. Petersburg, Florida. Renata received a Master’s in Public Health from Dartmouth in 2016 and a dual Bachelor of Science degree in Biology & Society and Development Sociology from Cornell University.
Outside of work, Renata spends her time with her husband and two kids enjoying all that New Hampshire and the northeast have to offer.
Interns
We are always seeking energetic, dedicated, and passionate individuals to join our team of interns. Those with experience in computer science, user-centered design, clinical trial implementation, and mixed-methods research are especially encouraged to apply. Please visit our “Contact Us” page if you are interested in hearing more.
Stephen Adjei, BA
Stephen graduated from Dartmouth College with a major in Biomedical Engineering and a minor in Computer Science. He is a candidate for a Bachelor of Engineering and a Master of Science in Computer and Electrical Engineering at Dartmouth. Stephen worked on the UI/UX design and backend for the iPath by OpenRecordings app and currently works to implement regular updates and improvements for its users. Stephen has also developed deep learning classifiers for the audio transcription project AudioCare and has worked on UI/UX and backend development for the audio transcription app HealthPAL. Beyond his academic pursuits, Stephen enjoys illustrating comics, creating animations, working on personal software projects, and exploring nature through walks. Stephen hopes to pursue a medical career after graduate school and is interested in exploring the intersects between machine learning and medicine.
Sachi Badola, Undergraduate
Sachi is a sophomore at Dartmouth College double majoring in Biochemistry and Sociology on the pre-med track. She is interested in pursuing a career in neurology, genetics, or oncology. As an undergraduate intern, she is involved with patient and caregiver recruitment for the VOICES3 project and involved in learning and assisting with qualitative data analysis and modifying existing patient-doctor communication coding schemes. She is passionate about preventive health care models, health policy, and providing patients of all ages with the power and tools to make more informed decisions about their health. Outside of OpenRecordings, you can find her singing with her a cappella group The Dartmouth Dodecaphonics, playing piano, hiking, podcasting, and tutoring.
Fatma Al Arbawi, Undergraduate
Fatma Al Arbawi is a Research Assistant at the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health (CTBH). Her role is centered around recruitment calls for the REPLAY study and documents participant interactions. She is a Dartmouth undergrad majoring in Biomedical Engineering. In addition, she is currently developing a minimally-invasive medical device and startup called Flowrev to detect and prevent recurrent ischemic stroke and has a patent pending on this device. She is also leading a bioinformatics project aiming to create a visual and predictive model for tumor mutation progression using genomic data. Prior to joining CTBH, Fatma was a research intern at Thayer Engineering, working under mechanical engineer Emily Monroe and Dr. Heiko Pohl on a project examining gastroenterology’s environmental impact. Outside of academics and research, Fatma can be found playing soccer in Leverone, campaigning her published book “The Voiceless Dream” and writing the sequel or locked up in Fairchild studying.
Skyler Heininger, BS
Skyler graduated from the University of Vermont with a major in Computer Science and minors in Mathematics, Statistics, and Geospatial Technologies. He is currently pursuing a Master's in Computer Science at Dartmouth College. Skyler has contributed to the development of the backend and UI/UX of HealthPAL, alongside creating features including transcriptions, clinical visit summaries, speaker roles during visits, and a chatbot built for responding to questions about prior clinical visits. Skyler has also contributed towards the Audiocare project, training machine learning classifiers for detecting moments meaningful to both therapists and patients. In his free time, Skyler can usually be found mountain biking or skiing.
Patient and Caregiver Partners
The insights offered by our patient and caregiver team members are essential to the success of our research.
Click the link below to learn more about how you can engage patients and caregivers in your own research:
Patient Engagement Workbook
Sheri Piper
Sheri is a retired administrative assistant from Michigan with a background in medical terminology and medical records. She has experience with audio recordings with her primary care physician, so she has a strong interest in this type of availability for patients who, like herself, can have difficulty remembering details from doctor visits. This tool enables patients to take a more active role in their patient care.
Sheri moved to Nevada at the end of 2019, where she has fallen in love with the weather. Her hobbies include reading, singing, and dog sitting.
Phyllis Whitney, Patient Family Advisor
Phyllis is a retired adult education program administrator. She, also, holds a certificate in gerontology. She is a Massachusetts native who spent several years in the Upper Valley and has now retired here to be closer to her children and grandchildren. She enjoys reading, cooking, travel, walking and the arts.
In Memoriam
Roger Arend, BSCE
Patient Advisor, DHMC
Roger was an accomplished Civil Engineer, Geologist, and Digital Cartographer who dedicated his career to pioneering research and mapping across the Arctic, North America, Australia, and Asia as a business owner and partner. Following his professional retirement, he channeled his energy into healthcare advocacy. He became a vital patient voice on numerous hospital committees and a key contributor to research projects with our team. Roger leaves a lasting legacy of service, curiosity, and community collaboration. His no-nonsense way of cutting directly to the heart of any question will remain a steady guide for our work.
Terry Grigsby, Patient Advocate
Terry’s spirit of compassion and service will continue to guide our team. As a patient advisor she championed the mental‑health needs of those battling cancer, drawing on both her personal and professional experience. After retirement she continued to give--volunteering with the Red Cross, Listen thrift store, and the Haven Shelter. Though Terry is no longer with us, her dedication, kindness, and the joy she brought remain a lasting legacy for all who worked alongside her.