معرفی
Sitara M Weerakoon, PhD, MPH, is an Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Yale School of Public Health. She earned her PhD in Epidemiology & Biostatistics from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in 2022, following an MPH in Epidemiology (2019) and BA in Public Health (2017) from the same institution. Her research program explores neighborhood- and environmental-level risk and protective factors for adolescent polysubstance use, with a focus on advanced biostatistical and GIS methods.
Dr. Weerakoon's research interests center on adolescent substance use patterns, particularly among racial and ethnic minority youth. Her work examines the intersection of substance use, mental health, and sexual health behaviors, with emphasis on health disparities among Black, Hispanic, and Asian American adolescents. She employs advanced statistical methodologies including hierarchical Bayesian modeling, spatial analysis, and community-engaged participatory machine learning approaches to understand complex health behaviors. Her research often focuses on strengths-based prevention approaches that acknowledge racial-ethnic pride and gender differences in prevention contexts.
Dr. Weerakoon's publication record demonstrates significant trends in adolescent health research, particularly examining polysubstance use patterns during the pandemic era, neighborhood influences on substance use behaviors, and the relationship between substance use and sexual health outcomes among vulnerable youth populations. Her work increasingly incorporates spatial analysis techniques to understand how environmental factors shape health behaviors, with growing emphasis on community-engaged research approaches that incorporate youth voices in prevention programming.
Among her notable scientific contributions are studies examining spatial associations between alcohol outlet density and neighborhood crime, teen dating violence among Asian American adolescents, and the relationship between polysubstance use and mental health during the pandemic. Her research has been published in high-impact journals including Substance Use & Misuse, Journal of Aggression Maltreatment & Trauma, and Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
Dr. Weerakoon is an active member of the Substances and Sexual Health (SASH) Lab at Yale, directed by Dr. Ijeoma Opara, which focuses on strengths-based youth substance use and HIV prevention research tailored for communities and youth of color. She frequently collaborates with researchers including Ijeoma Opara, Jaleah Rutledge, Emmanuella Asabor, and Uche Aneni on projects addressing substance use disparities and prevention among minority youth populations.
