Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts Welcomes Two New Team Members

SPRINGFIELD — The research and evaluation team at the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts (PHIWM) announced it has added two new team members, Jen Ludwin and Leela Ramachandran.

Ludwin is a senior research associate. Her experience in public health as an evaluator and researcher focuses on health equity, turning data into action, and data visualization. Prior to joining PHIWM, she worked in large hospital systems, local health departments, and federally qualified health centers. She has experience working as an evaluator on small-scale local to large-scale grants such as CDC HIV grants and SAMHSA youth mental-health grants. She enjoys innovative, upstream work that results in sustainable changes to systems and improves the well-being of the community. At PHIWM, she takes on projects that explore social determinants of health such as community health needs assessments, Black men’s health, and evaluation technical assistance.

Ramachandran is a research assistant and works on a variety of research and evaluation projects. She was a member of the team who created the community health needs assessment reports for the Coalition of Western Massachusetts Hospitals and Insurers, and her current projects include the status of women, girls, and non-binary individuals report for the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts and the Springfield Public Schools’ 2023 Youth Health Surveys. Her background is in community organizing and advancing health equity, with previous experience in mixed-methods research, local public-health initiatives, advocacy related to campus sexual violence, and mentorship of student activists. Her passion lies at the intersection of dismantling systems of oppression, centering historically marginalized populations, and decolonizing the field of public health.