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PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Dr. Malinee Neelamegam
Dr. Malinee Neelamegam is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Population and Community Health at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. She holds a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of South Florida, where she also earned her MPH in Epidemiology and Global Health Practice. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the Yale School of Public Health, where she focused on HIV and aging. Dr. Neelamegam is a social epidemiologist whose work focuses on understanding aging and chronic disease outcomes in communities that face health disparities. Her research brings together epidemiology, community-engaged research, and implementation science to better understand how social and structural factors shape health across the life course. Her research program centers on aging in underserved populations, with a particular focus on South Asian immigrant communities and older adults living and aging with HIV. Her work examines chronic disease management, cognitive health, social determinants of health, and the development of culturally responsive, community-centered interventions that support healthy aging. She is especially interested in designing practical strategies that can be implemented in real-world settings to improve prevention, care, and quality of life. A defining feature of Dr. Neelamegam’s work is her commitment to building strong partnerships with communities, healthcare providers, and public health stakeholders. Through these collaborations, she leads projects addressing diabetes prevention and management, dementia awareness and screening, multimorbidity, medication management, and social connectedness in aging populations. Her work is grounded in the belief that meaningful public health impact comes from working alongside communities to co-develop solutions that reflect their priorities, experiences, and strengths. In addition to her research, Dr. Neelamegam is deeply committed to teaching and mentorship. She is passionate about training the next generation of public health scholars and practitioners and creating learning environments that are engaging, accessible, and supportive of diverse learners.
Meet the Lab Members
RoiSan Nhpang
Doctoral Candidate
Roi San Nhpang’s research focuses on cognitive and healthy aging, mental health, chronic disease, and health disparities, with an emphasis on social determinants of health and population-level outcomes. She uses observational study designs to examine cross-sectional and longitudinal associations, as well as health trajectories, in diverse populations. Her methodological interests include survival analysis, mixed-effects and multilevel modeling, causal inference, and mediation and moderation analyses, along with reproducible workflows for complex observational data.
Shilpa Patil
Doctoral Student
Shilpa’s work focuses on dementia disparities, acculturation stress, social connectedness, deprescribing, and multimorbidity among older adults, with a particular emphasis on South Asian immigrant communities. She is actively involved in community-based efforts that empower immigrant women and advance health and well-being through advocacy, education, and peer support. She is a 2025–26 Albert Schweitzer Fellow.
Suruthi Sundaramurugan
Doctoral Student
Suruthi Sundaramurugan is a first-year PhD student in public health whose research focuses on oral health and its connections to chronic disease outcomes across populations experiencing health disparities. With a background in Dentistry and a Master of Public Health from the University of South Florida, she brings a multidisciplinary perspective that bridges clinical care and population health. Her work spans oral-systemic health, aging research, and South Asian population health, with a particular interest in how social and structural determinants shape health outcomes across the life course.
