About Us
With rising smartphone ownership and advances in digital health technologies, mobile Health (mHealth) interventions have demonstrated promising effects on prevention and self-management of health conditions, however, there are limited apps specific to the needs of women on community supervision. Therefore, we developed a mHealth app, JUN, which may be effective in symptom tracking, reporting, and transmitting healthcare resources to women with criminal justice system oversight. JUN is short for the Junonia shell, a native shell to South Texas, which is the region where this research originated and means strength and self-sufficiency. In addition, JUN was informed by women on community supervision to address their healthcare and safety needs. JUN, has the ability to bridge channels of care by giving resources and information in a discreet and non-stigmatizing format around issues such as symptom management, safe health behavior, and strategies to identify violence.
Meet our JUN Team
Allison Crawford PhD, RN
Principle Investigator
Dr. Allison Crawford, PhD, RN is an assistant professor at the University of Texas Health at San Antonio’s School of Nursing, where she conducts health disparity research involving childbearing communities influenced by incarceration. As a registered obstetrical nurse with post-doctoral training in digital health, Dr. Crawford has been engaging in research with women on community supervision since 2016 and is an expert on the barriers women experience who have criminal justice oversight. Her research directly informed two Texas state laws passed in 2019 (HB 1651) and 2021 (HB 1308) to improve healthcare for women in Texas county jails. Crawford co-leads a state network of stakeholders who meet to discuss research, programs, and policies related to the health of people who have criminal justice involvement. The long-term goal of her research is to develop health interventions that enable self-efficacy and access to care discreetly and affordably using technology. Dr. Crawford’s research is currently funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01HD103634-03S2 (PI, Crawford; Parent PI, Rebecca Shlafer, UMN).
Rocky Slavin PhD
JUN Team
Dr. Slavin, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), a Core Faculty of UTSA's School of Data Science, and a Core Faculty of UTSA's Institute for Cyber Security. Dr. Slavin will supervise the implementation of the software used in the project including both the client-side Android and iPhone apps as well as the cloud-based server implementation and analytics. Dr. Slavin's expertise in software engineering, cybersecurity, and privacy are imperative for the mitigation of privacy risks inherent to the collection of sensitive personal information as part of the project's studies. Furthermore, he has expertise in data collection and analysis through state-of-the-art machine learning techniques.
Farhwan Tajwar Romit
JUN Team
Rarhan Tajwar Romit is an undergraduate student in the Department of Computer Science at UTSA. Under the direction of Dr. Slavin, he is being mentored in developing JUN’s algorithm and AI capabilities.
Min Wang, PHD
JUN Team
Dr. Min Wang is from the Department of Management Science and Statistics at UTSA. His research spans Bayesian inference and methods, high-dimensional inference, prior elicitation, quantile regression, and statistical modeling, all in both methodological and theoretical perspectives.
Dr. Wang will guide statistical methods involving machine learning as we develop and tailor JUN.
Rebecca Shlafer, PhD
JUN Team
Dr. Shlafer, is an associate professor at the University of Minnesota. Her research is focused on promoting the health and well-being of children and families exposed to the CJS. She currently has a study across six states and prison systems evaluating perinatal outcomes and programming. Dr. Shlafer’s knowledge in strategies to promote self-efficacy will assist in methodological and implementation approaches with JUN.
Emily Salisburry, PhD
JUN Team
Dr. Salisbury is a professor with the University of Utah and works in the areas of corrections, mental health, and gender. She created the the WRNA tool, which is implemented in many criminal justice departments across the nation. Her expertise on risk assessment and gender-responsive approach are crucial to JUN’s tailoring. She will assist in implementation and sustainment strategies within criminal justice spaces.
Kavita Radhakkrishnan, PhD, RN, FAAN, FAHA
JUN Team
Dr. Radhakrishnan is the Assistant Dean of Research and an associate professor at UT Austin School of Nursing. She has expertise in artificial intelligence interventions to manage chronic disease. The long-term goal of her research is to develop affordable and scalable interventions. She has over $6.8 million in supported research by the NIH. She is an asset in bridging nursing science and digital health while assisting with the tailoring JUN
Mike Gerwitz
Personnel and Consultants
Mike Gerwitz is UTHSCSA’s School of Nursing’s Health IT Systems Administrator. He will be responsible for linking JUN’s de-identified data within the SON’s Health IT system. In addition, Mike assists with the protection of human subjects related to cloud storage and data management.
Cristina I. Ramirez, ESQ
Personnel and Consultants
Cristina I. Ramirez, Esq. is the criminal defense lead of the Sissy Farenthold Reproductive Justice Defense Project at the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice. She has expertise representing the needs of pregnant and parenting people with criminal justice oversight. Her experience in supporting those with histories of arrest while factoring their reproductive rights will be integral in tailoring JUN.
Jacqueline McGrath, PhD, RN, FNAP, FAAN
Personnel and Consultants
Dr. McGrath is the prior Vice Dean for Faculty Excellence and Professor Emeritus/ Research Professor in the School of Nursing at UTHSCSA. Her research includes the integration of developmentally supportive caregiving with high-risk infants and their families. She is well-known in the field for her scholarly publications, with 150+ peer-reviewed articles, 125+ editorials and short manuscripts as well more than 40+ book chapters. She assists with the dissemination of findings and implementation strategies.
Ashlynn Estrada, BSN, RN
Student Assistant
Ashlynn is a graduate of the BSN program at UTHSCSA's School of Nursing. Ashlynn has a passion for women’s health and aspiring to be a labor and delivery nurse. During her undergrad, she was a student mentee and assistant of Dr. Crawford. In this role, she served as a community outreach liaison in our mHealth preliminary study and is assisted in writing the nursing education within JUN.
Denisse Aquilar Zepeda, S.N.
Student Assistant
Denisse is a current undergraduate nursing student at UTHSCSA's School of Nursing and a member of the Sunrise Research Program. In this role, she has been mentored by Dr. Crawford and is assisting in writing the pediatric education for JUN.
Emily Cain DNP, WHNP-BC
Consultant
Dr. Cain is a nursing educator and practitioner with a focus in women’s health at University Health System with over 20 years of experience in the field of nursing. Before becoming a Women's Health Nurse Practitioner, a varied background of nursing experience was obtained by working in obstetrics, newborn nursery, trauma, and critical care. Other interests include research related to maternal health, opioid use disorder, and in the field of doula care and midwifery.
Renata Marquez, RN, CNM
Consultant
Renata Marquez is a certified nurse midwife with over ten years of experience working in labor and delivery at a Level IV Maternal Center at a County Hospital in Central Texas. Her expertise encompasses culturally relevant and holistic methods of caring for childbearing individuals with high levels of risk factors.