Principal Investigator
Nev Jones PhD
Email: NevJones@pitt.edu
Nev is an associate professor in the Pitt School of Social Work and an interdisciplinary mental health services research with formal training in continental philosophy, community psychology, psychiatric rehabilitation and medical anthropology. Nev has published widely on the sociostructural determinants of mental health/disability, SMI and SMI-focused services, the peer support workforce and the involvement and leadership of individuals with personal experience of psychiatric disabilities in research.
PathLab Staff
Fahmida Afroz PhD, Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow
Email: FAA413@pitt.edu
Fahmida is a Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work. Fahmida holds a Ph.D. in Social Work and a Master of Social Work (MSW) degree from the University of Georgia. Her primary research interests focus on understanding the risk and protective factors of human trafficking as well as the mental health consequences of sex and labor trafficking victimization. She is also interested in mental health of refugee and immigrant populations. She has conducted research on the impact of parent-child separation on child trafficking vulnerability and the mental health outcomes of survivor of sex and labor trafficking. Prior to attending graduate school, Fahmida served in several national and international NGOs in Bangladesh, where she worked with diverse populations including homeless people, sex workers, slum dwellers, and low-income individuals and families.
Callie Bennet MSW, Research Coordinator
Email: CJC204@pitt.edu
Callie is a recent MSW graduate from the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work. They received their Bachelor of Science in Counseling from Lesley University. Callie worked in various clinical settings including inpatient, residential, and outpatient mental health before pursuing a research career in 2023. Their research interests include autism, trauma and development, self-harm, suicidality, and clinical education.
Jessica Engel BA CPRS, Communications and Outreach Manager
Email: JKE34@pitt.edu
Jessica is a writer of fantasy genre fiction as well as a costume jewelry designer. She earned her Bachelor of Art in English with a concentration in creative writing from George Mason University. Jessica is a Certified Peer Recovery Specialist in MD who specializes in first episode psychosis care for young adults. She has created and facilitated workshops to improve the wellbeing of individuals. In her free time, she likes to play RPG video games and craft collage art.
Lauren Fowler BA, Research Coordinator
Email: LAF225@pitt.edu
Lauren earned her Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA. After graduating, she worked in a first-episode psychosis research lab in Pittsburgh. Through this experience, along with her own lived experience, Lauren developed a strong interest in mental health treatment advocacy, social justice, and college student mental health. She aspires to pursue an MD/PhD to become a psychiatrist and provide individualized, supportive, and collaborative care to those in need. In the PathLab, Lauren will be working in collaboration with the Allegheny County Public Defender's Office and helping with the Statewide Evaluation of Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) in New York. In her free time, she enjoys volunteering, baking, and running.
Leah Harris MA, Research & Action Coordinator
Leah is a disabled writer, researcher, and independent journalist whose work focuses on deinstitutionalization and U.S. policies of involuntary psychiatric and drug treatment. Their journalism and essays appear in publications including The Progressive Magazine, Disability Visibility Project, and Truthout; and in the anthologies We've Been Too Patient: Voices from Radical Mental Health and the Mad Studies Reader. They have hosted the Mad in America Podcast and have been a guest on The Death Panel and Depth Work, and are a founding member of the Committable Collective. Leah's first book, NONCOMPLIANT: A FAMILY HISTORY OF THE ASYLUM (forthcoming, Haymarket Books) is an account of the violent history—and grim resurgence—of the asylum in American life, told through a multi-generational story of involuntary psychiatric intervention.
Shana Jackson BA, Media & Communications Coordinator
Email: SEJ159@pitt.edu
Shana is a writer and creative with background in English studies currently residing in New York, by way of Boston. Shana also has a background working for nonprofits specializing in program education for children and adults, theatre, and neurological diseases. In her free time she likes telling everyone how much she loves Jane Austen, reading, and avoiding television shows friends recommend to her. She's working on that.
Eidolon Kelly, Research Coordinator
Email: EVK79@pitt.edu
Eidolon is pursuing a degree in clinical research coordination through Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona. He is interested in research pertaining to community models of care and public mental health. Outside of work, he enjoys being outdoors, reading and trying new foods.
Shannon Pagdon, BA (she/they). Shannon is a doctoral student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work. Her research explores how lived experience and participatory methods can transform early psychosis care, drawing on user/survivor research and mad studies perspectives. With a background in peer support, Shannon is committed to advancing equity, voice, and collaboration across mental health systems. She is the co-creator of Psychosis Outside the Box and currently serves as Vice President of Lived Experience Research within IEPA: Early Intervention in Mental Health. Outside of work, Shannon enjoys reading, hiking, baking, and sewing.
Kate Pendlebury PhD, Qualitative Researcher
Email: KSP88@pitt.edu
Kate has a background in such diverse areas as nonprofit fundraising and literary nonsense. She is broadly interested in critiques of psychiatric ideology and practices, and specifically in exploring alternatives to the conventional responses to suicidality. She is invested in frameworks that resist oppression and center the voices of individuals diagnosed with mental illness.
Sophia Shieh BA MSc, Duquesne Doctoral Student
Sophia earned her MSc in Education and Developmental Psychology from the University of Oxford and her BA in Applied Psychology and Human Development, with minors in Philosophy and Medical Humanities, from Boston College. She has worked on peer-support integration projects and served as a mental health worker at McLean Hospital, conducted public health research on accessibility and structural determinants of health through a National Science Foundation internship, and contributed to trauma-informed child welfare and juvenile justice systems projects at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Informed by her own lived experiences of multiple system involvement, Sophia is deeply committed to research that centers lived experience and employs participatory action frameworks to promote equity in service delivery.
Melissa Uehling MD PhD, Emory University, Collaborator & Pitt Affiliate
Melissa is an MD/PhD student at Emory University and will be specializing in psychiatry upon graduation from medical school in 2026. She completed her PhD in Emory's Department of Sociology, and her research primarily explores power dynamics in psychiatric treatment and inter/subjectivity in psychosis. She is committed to improving experiences of care through interrogation and critique of power dynamics, centering of lived experience, and through improving access to and quality of psychiatric services.