Meet Our Students

Sasha Zabelski (she/her/hers) has her BA in Psychology from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and her M.S. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Southampton. She is currently a 3rd year Public Health Sciences PhD student and works for Dr. Robert Cramer as a graduate research assistant on a SAMHSA-funded grant. Her research interests focus on understanding barriers to creating equitable access to mental health resources for marginalized populations. She is also interested in how organizational, state, and federal policy initiatives can help close gaps in access for these populations. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, working out, exploring coffee shops, and hanging out with her dog, Lexie.

Ava Peters is an MPH student in the Community Health Practice Concentration with academic interests in mental health, suicide prevention, and the justice system. She is currently a Graduate Assistant with the Suicide Prevention Taskforce, working toward policy change that will benefit students’ mental health at the university. Ava also works with the team developing a self-directed violence prevention training program for the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections. Outside of research and school, she enjoys being in nature, cooking for friends, good coffee, and reading psychological thrillers. 

Jasmine Temple (she/her) is a doctoral student in the Health Psychology program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She earned her BSc from Virginia Commonwealth University and an MA in Psychology from James Madison University. Currently, she is housed within the Community/Health concentration, where she conducts research around sexual health and violence. Her two streams of research involve understanding the sexual health experiences of communities that have been marginalized, and using bystander intervention to prevent sexual violence victimization and perpetration. She currently serves as an advisory board member of Brave Step, Inc., a community nonprofit organization in Charlotte, NC that seeks to empower and support survivors of sexual violence. Additionally, she is currently in an internship with the North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault, a statewide alliance working to end sexual violence through education, advocacy, and legislation. Finally, Jasmine received a NIAAA supplemental grant focused on examining bystander experiences of alcohol-related and -facilitated sexual assault. Altogether, she is passionate about learning, research, and program evaluation in efforts towards reducing negative sexual health and violence outcomes.  

Alaka’i Bene is an MPH student with an Health Policy concentration. Her research and academic interests are suicide prevention and mental health literacy programs and how they are implemented and evaluated in K12 education. Alaka’i is on the Suicide Prevention Taskforce which is a collaborative effort across campus to develop policy and programs to benefit college students’ mental health. She is currently a Graduate Assistant with the University Center for Academic Excellence assisting first generation college students navigate their way through college. Beyond academia, Alaka’i enjoys spending time with her cat (Trash), rock climbing, social activism, and trying new restaurants. 

Michael is a second-year student in the Public Health Sciences PhD program. He has broad interests in violence prevention, and has collaborated on projects regarding sexual violence bystander intervention and victim blame, bystander intervention for problematic alcohol use and microaggressions in university contexts, and sexual and gender minority discrimination and mental health. He obtained his MA in Experimental Psychology from Towson University, where he was trained in quantitative statistics and methodology.

Margarita Daza-Murcia holds a B.A. in English Language Teaching from Universidad Industrial de Santander, a certificate in Educational Management from Universidad Católica de Manizales, and an M.A. in Education from Universidad Autónoma de Bucaramanga, all in Colombia. She is currently a second-year Sociology M.A. student at UNC Charlotte, where she also serves as a Graduate Teaching and Research Assistant in the Sociology department. Her areas of interests include crime and deviance, social psychology, and public policy. Her research examines educator sexual misconduct and child sexual abuse through interdisciplinary lenses, including sociology, criminology, pedagogy, and public policy. Outside of her academic pursuits, Margarita enjoys road cycling and hiking.