Faculty Advisers

Ph.D., Medical Physiology, University of Michigan - 1976
Postdoctoral Fellow, Yale University, Infectious Diseases - 1976-1979

Professor Harry Bernheim is an Associate Professor in the Tufts Biology Department and the Senior Faculty Editor for TuftScope since 2008. His research has focused on the integration of immunological responses. Dr. Bernheim is highly involved in University activities. He is the Chair of the Health Professions Recommendation Committee (HPRC), which is responsible for writing letters of recommendation for students applying to health professional schools. He also serves on the Advisory Board for the Community Health Major, on the Faculty Research Awards Committee, and the Faculty Advisory Board. Professor Bernheim is the Faculty Advisor to the Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium.

Ph.D., Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley

Professor Edith Balbach is the Director of the Community Health Program and Faculty Editor for TuftScope from 2008 – present. Dr. Balbach is interested in how communities identify and solve health problems. Her academic training is in public policy, which leads her to a specific interest in how the policy process either facilitates or impedes the work of communities. Professor Balbach's primary research interest is in drug policy issues, especially tobacco. She is the co-author with Stanton Glantz of Tobacco War.”

Ph.D., Yale University - 1974

Professor Francie Chew is a Professor in the Tufts Biology Department and a Faculty Editor for TuftScope from 2009 – present. “Dr. Chew investigates consequences of ecological interactions between native and naturalized species, esp. native and naturalized representatives of the coevolved butterfly subfamily-plant order Pierinae-Capparales. In addition to research in biology, she has served as Director of the American Studies Program at Tufts. From that interdisciplinary perspective, she examines intersections between history of biology and dance history and how stereotypes about race are represented historically and reinscribed repeatedly in contemporary research in biology, medicine, and genetics. Dr. Chew also teaches classes in peer counseling and leads workshops for peer counselors of Chinese and Asian heritage and their allies of all races.”

Dr. Kevin Irwin is a Senior Lecturer in the Tufts Community Health Department and a Faculty Editor for TuftScope from 2009 – Present. He is a health policy expert in the Community Health Department and teaches the introductory course to Community Health on Healthcare Policy in America.

Ph.D., Harvard University

Professor Andreea Balan-Cohen is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Tufts University and Faculty Editor for TuftScope from 2008 - present. “Dr. Balan-Cohen holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University and a B.A. in Economics, summa cum laude from Harvard in 2001. Her main area of research is health economics. In particular, she has analyzed the impact of the Old Age Assistance Program - the first significant U.S. welfare program for the elderly - on the mortality of older Americans between 1931 and 1955, and the channels through which this impact occurred. She has also estimated the impact of parental alcohol consumption on child health by taking advantage of a unique shock to alcohol supply: the 1985 to 1988 alcohol prohibition campaign in Russia. Other research areas of interest include public and development economics, as well as political economy.”