Department of Community Health and Health Behavior

Samina Raja, PhD Adjunct Associate Professor

Projects: She is the Principal Investigator of the Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab (the “Food Lab”) where much of her research unfolds with the engagement and collaboration of an outstanding research team. In partnership with collaborators nationwide, Dr. Raja is currently directing Growing Food Connections, a comprehensive five-year initiative funded by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture to build capacity of local governments to strengthen food systems.  

Specialty/Research Focus: Dr. Raja’s research focuses on planning and design for sustainable food systems and healthy communities. Her additional research interests include the role of planning in communities experiencing conflict (she is especially interested in the region of Kashmir in South Asia), and the fiscal dimensions of urban and regional planning.

Mark Travers, PhD Research Assistant Professor

Projects: Mark and colleagues in the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center are conducting a global air monitoring effort that is currently in over 40 countries around the world measuring exposures to tobacco smoke pollution and informing the debate over smoke-free air policy. Dr. Travers has trained these researchers either in-person or through his website www.tobaccofreeair.org. He has also trained and actively collaborated with over 65 partner organizations in 33 U.S. States and Canadian Provinces in measuring tobacco smoke exposures.

Specialty/Research Interests: measuring exposures to air contaminants using a variety of instruments and biological markers and determining how human behavior and public health policies impact these exposures