Learn more about our team at Drexel's Medical Cannabis Research Center.

Stephen E. Lankenau, PhD, Director

Dr. Stephen E. Lankenau, Professor at Drexel University's Dornsife School of Public Health, has been leading research studies focused on the use and misuse of substances for over 20 years.

He is the Principal Investigator on a multi-year patient registry study funded by Agronomed that will track the health of medical cannabis patients recruited from 6 dispensaries in Pennsylvania.

He is the Principal Investigator on a 10-year longitudinal study funded by the National Institutes on Drug Abuse (NIDA) (R01DA034067) focused on the health of young adult cannabis users in Los Angeles.

He is also co-leading two studies focused on overdose prevention in Philadelphia: one funded by NIDA (R34DA044758) that developed and tested the UnityPhilly app to deliver naloxone during overdose emergencies; and second funded by Arnold Ventures that will evaluate an overdose prevention site.

Wei Du, MD, MS, Co-Director

Dr. Wei Du is a professor and academic chair of the Department of Psychiatry in the College of Medicine at Drexel University and chair of the Department of Academic Medicine at Tower Health. Dr. Du also holds a secondary appointment as professor in the Department of Pharmacology & Physiology at the College of Medicine.

He is the former director of the General Adult Psychiatry Residency program at Drexel University College of Medicine. He has won the Teacher of the Year Award in the department in 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. He provides lectures on psychopharmacology of depression and anxiety, and serves on the graduate student thesis committee.

Dr. Du is also involved in medical student education, providing lectures on schizophrenia, and neurobiology of depression and anxiety. He began a two-year term as the secretary of the Philadelphia Psychiatric Society in 2018.

Janna Ataiants, DrPH, Co-Investigator

Dr. Janna Ataiants is an Assistant Research Professor at the Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University. Her research examines how gender, social contexts, and marginalization shape drug use experiences.

Her recent projects focused on opioid overdose in Philadelphia, including the investigation of personal and witnessed overdose among vulnerable women, as well as the effects of a pilot app-based overdose prevention intervention - a project supported by the National Institute for Drug Abuse (PI: Prof. S.E. Lankenau).

For the past decade, she has been a research analyst for a NIDA-funded cohort study of young adult cannabis users in Los Angeles (PI: Prof. S. E. Lankenau) where she was involved in data analysis and manuscript development.

Dr. Ataiants is the Co-Investigator on the PA medical cannabis patient registry study funded by Agronomed (PI: Prof. S.E. Lankenau).

Ekaterina Fedorova, DrPH, Co-Investigator

Dr. Ekaterina Fedorova is an Assistant Research Professor at the Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University. Her work included psychological counseling and research within HIV prevention cohort studies among opioid injectors in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Since 2013 she has been a part of a research team working on the National Institute on Drug Abuse funded longitudinal cohort study of young adult medical cannabis users in Los Angeles (PI: Prof. S.E. Lankenau) where she was involved in the survey instrument development, data collection, data management and analysis, and manuscripts development.

Dr. Fedorova is the Co-Investigator on the Pennsylvania medical cannabis patient registry study funded by Agronomed (PI: Prof. S.E. Lankenau).

Bridget Kajs, PhD, Co-Investigator

Bridget Kajs is a former Janssen-Drexel Psychiatric Drug Development Fellow, where she split her time between working in the Neuropsychiatry Division of Janssen Pharmaceuticals and working in the Department of Psychiatry at Drexel University School of Medicine.

She completed her PhD in Neuroscience from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) where she examined neural circuits that underlie fear and avoidance behaviors in rodent models.

At the Medical Cannabis Research Center, she is involved in managing a clinical study to examine whether medical cannabis impacts quality of life outcomes in patients living with HIV as well as other comorbid conditions such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and neuropathic pain.

Dionne Williams, PhD, Co-Investigator

Dionne Williams is the current Janssen-Drexel Psychiatric Drug Development Fellow, where she spends 70% of her time working in the Neuropsychiatry Division of Janssen Pharmaceuticals and 30% of the time working in the Department of Psychiatry at Drexel University School of Medicine.

She graduated with a doctoral degree in neuroscience from Delaware State University. Her research investigated the effects of a chemotherapy compound in a rotenone-induced toxicity Drosophila model.

At the Medical Cannabis Research Center, she is involved in managing a clinical study to examine whether medical cannabis impacts quality of life outcomes in patients living with HIV as well as other comorbid conditions such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and neuropathic pain.

Ben Cocchiaro, MD, MPH, Co-Investigator

Dr. Ben Cocchiaro is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the department of Family Medicine and Community Health in the College of Medicine at Drexel University. He is the former director of medical education and board treasurer at Prevention Point Philadelphia, and has served on the Philadelphia Mayor’s Task Force to Combat the Opiate Epidemic Data Analysis and Sharing Subcommittee.

Dr. Cocchiaro has given invited lectures on substance use disorders for the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Pennsylvania Society for Addiction Medicine, the Philadelphia Psychiatric Society, and area medical schools and clinics. He has also given grand rounds on applications of medical cannabis at the Penn State Hershey Medical Center.

Jim Seaberg, MPH, Assistant Director

Jim Seaberg earned his MPH with a concentration in Healthcare Management and Policy at Drexel University and is a graduate of Susquehanna University.

He has worked in the medical cannabis industry since 2019, working in patient education and relations. Jim has also worked in relationship management for the banking and finance industry and has lived internationally in Spain and the UAE.

He is responsible for building and managing the community and scientific advisory boards for the MCRC and is designing an ongoing guest speaker series on medical cannabis. He is passionate about developing evidence-based policy initiatives to address issues of social justice, patient access, legalization, and public health related to cannabis.

Vahan Boyajyan, DMD, MPH, Data Analyst

Vahan Boyajyan earned his MPH with a concentration in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Drexel University in 2024. He also holds a degree in Dentistry from Yerevan State Medical University in Armenia and worked as a General Dentist in Moscow, Russia, building a strong foundation in both medicine and public health.

In his previous roles At Drexel University, Vahan contributed to projects at the Urban Health Collaborative and the Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice, gaining expertise in data management, quantitative and qualitative analysis, and data visualization using various statistical software. His work supported research on alcohol screening, the development of an intersectional discrimination measure, and the creation of health indicators for the Big Cities Health Coalition data dashboard. He also served as an Intern at IGC Pharma in Maryland, where he contributed to power analysis and the development of a statistical analysis plan for a Phase 2 clinical trial on the effects of a THC-based medication in patients with dementia due to Alzheimer's disease.

Currently, as a Data Analyst at the Medical Cannabis Research Center, Vahan manages and analyzes data from the patient registry study and other emerging research initiatives. He is strongly interested in advancing research in the evolving field of medical cannabis.

Ojaswini Parab, MPH, Project Manager

Ojaswini, with a Master of Public Health from Drexel University and a Bachelor of Medicine from Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, India, boasts a well-rounded foundation in both public health and medicine.

In her previous roles with US EPA, Nationalities Service Center and Texas Medical Center, Ojaswini demonstrated her proficiency in instrument design, data collection, and analysis, directly aligning with the responsibilities of managing a patient registry study for medical cannabis patients. In her diverse roles, she has managed projects, led teams, and spearheaded initiatives, displaying a structured approach to delivering high-impact solutions.

She wishes to bring a fresh perspective to health policy, particularly in the realm of medical cannabis. Her interest lies in exploring innovative approaches to bridge gaps in understanding, access, and policy formulation in this evolving landscape.

Maddy Finkelstein, MSW, PhD Student

Maddy is a PhD student in the Community Health and Prevention Department at Drexel Dornsife. Her background in social work focused on trauma-informed care, and she has direct practice experience in both violence prevention and adolescent mental health. Her current research interests center around cannabis use for chronic pain and how race and gender interact to influence pain care.

At the Medical Cannabis Research Center, Maddy is one of the lead interviewers for the qualitative arm of the registry study and she plans to conduct her dissertation research using registry study data.

David Sherrell, MA, PhD Student

David Alan Sherrell is a veteran of global schools-based substance misuse prevention, having delivered interventions in over 15 countries from 2009-2021. He received his Master’s in Psychology from Rutgers University in 2017. After over a decade in the field, he is excited to be on an academic journey, expanding his knowledge and skills. David is a PhD student in the Community Health and Prevention Department at Drexel Dornsife

Katherine Ardeleanu, MS, LGPC, PhD Student

Katherine is a PhD student in the Department of Health Management and Policy at Drexel Dornsife. She is interested in studying disparities in mental health and access to mental health services, as well as how to address these disparities and increase access to mental health care for under resourced populations. In addition to being a researcher and PhD student, Katherine is also a licensed mental health counselor and has seen firsthand in both research and clinical work how inequities in access to mental health services negatively impact people.

Katherine aims to address this issue in two ways. First is developing a better understanding of barriers to mental health care and how to address these barriers in order to improve accessibility of care. Second is researching mental health treatments for diverse populations and creating and implementing culturally informed treatments that are appropriate for minoritized groups who have historically been underrepresented in research.