Dear Lehigh students and prospective students,

I teach undergraduate and graduate students via formal courses (see list below), and I enjoy mentoring students in research. My past student advisees and mentees included PhD students, Master’s students, honors undergraduate students, and medical students.

My teaching philosophy with my student advisees at all levels is to help them grow intellectually as young scholars and launch them in whatever direction they choose.

My advising approach is individualized and student-centered: I work with students one-on-one to help them develop their own research projects that have a strong scholarly and academic merit, but are also intellectually stimulating and interesting to my students. I also work with students to help them publish their research results and present their work at conferences.

In the fall 2026, I will be teaching my still new-ish course for the second time:

POPH 316/POPH 415/WGSS 316/WGSS 415: Global Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice (Tue & Thur 3 – 4:15 pm)‍ ‍

This course explores sexual reproductive health (SRH) issues through the lens of reproductive justice, human rights, and gender equity. Using case studies from around the world, students analyze such topics as unmet family planning needs, contraception, abortion politics and access to care, cross-border reproductive travel, sexually transmitted infections and HIV prevention and care, evidence around inclusive vs. abstinence-based sexual education, adolescent health, LGBTQAI+ health, declining birth rates, and Assisted Reproductive Technologies. We will also examine the situation in the US, and consider recent developments in SRH policy, including advocacy campaigns and effective and ineffective strategies.

Undergraduate students in section POPH 316 and WGSS 316, work on an Op-Ed project

Graduate students (Master’s and PhD) may take this course under the sections POPH 415 or WGSS 415 - graduate students do an additional project and have fun discussion sessions with the professor dedicated in part to exploring how the topics at hand relate to their own graduate work.

My other courses at Lehigh University:

POPH 301 | Population Health Capstone Proposal
POPH 305 | Honors Population Health Capstone Proposal
CGH 301 | Community and Global Health Field Experience I
CGH 303 | Honors Community and Global Health Field Experience I

Mentoring students in the Population Health major:

Starting in the fall 2026, the Department of Population Health is launching the Honors Thesis Program! Together with other faculty, I will be mentoring students in this program. Here’s the description:

The Population Health Honors Thesis is an opportunity for high-achieving Population Health Major students to engage in a year-long, independent research during their senior year. Students in Population Health Major with a cumulative GPA of 3.80 or higher at the time of application are eligible to apply. In the Honors Thesis project, students may pursue research in one of the available population health study areas, and work under the supervision of a Department of Population Health faculty who serves as primary thesis adviser. 

A typical Honors Thesis should demonstrate independent research, methodological rigor, and the ability to apply population health concepts to a real-world issue. The final deliverables include a well-written thesis document with a Title Page, Abstract, Introduction/Background, Literature Review, Methods(design, data sources, analytical approaches), Results, Discussion, and Conclusions, as well as an oral thesis defense with one’s committee and audience, part of which will be open to public.  

The honors thesis is both an academic challenge and a major achievement – students who successfully complete a written thesis and oral defense with their committee will graduate with Departmental Honors.

Annual deadline is March 15 for fall of that year.

Please feel free to reach out with questions to me jom@lehigh.edu or the Lehigh College of Health advising team at incohadv@lehigh.edu.