Doctoral Candidate · NYU GPH · Expected May 2027
Lingzi Luo
Social and Behavioral Sciences · NYU School of Global Public Health · Advisors: Donna Shelley & Lawrence Yang
I am a fourth-year doctoral candidate studying how mental health interventions can equitably reach people navigating intersecting social adversities and structural vulnerability — across U.S. and global contexts where stigma, poverty, and constrained service infrastructure compound mental health burden.
My work spans mental health equity, community-engaged intervention science, and implementation research, with active projects in the United States, Brazil, and Botswana. I bring prior experience in clinical research coordination, global health policy (WHO), and community-based program evaluation.
Research Program
My research program examines how mental health interventions can equitably reach people navigating intersecting social adversities and structural vulnerability across U.S. and global contexts, where stigma, poverty, and constrained service infrastructure compound mental health burden. I pursue this through three integrated lines of inquiry:
Grants & Funded Research
Competitive data-collection award through the Understanding America Study, a national probability-based internet panel supporting dissertation data collection, with full annual conference travel support. July 2025.
Awarded from the NYU GPH Office of Research to support dissertation data collection. April 2025.
Conceptualized and secured a one-year NCI administrative supplement to co-develop an anti-stigma intervention for cervical cancer survivors in Botswana via a community-engaged approach using Intervention Mapping. PIs: Surbhi Grover & Katharine Rendle. Sep 2023 – Aug 2024.
Independent fellowship to examine mental health service intentions during the 2022 Shanghai COVID-19 lockdown. Faculty mentors: Brian Hall & Lawrence Yang. May – Aug 2023.
Funded to investigate service linkages and implementation for children with sickle cell disease in Missouri. PI: Catherine Hoyt, PhD. 2022 – 2024.
Active Research Projects
WhatsApp-based group cognitive behavioral therapy for low-income university students in Brazil, embedded within a conditional cash transfer and peer support program. Serving as research consultant and qualitative research lead: power estimation, four-arm cluster-RCT design, interview guide development, and supervision of qualitative analysis. PI: Sara Evans-Lacko (LSE).
Statistician on a 16-arm factorial trial optimizing smoking cessation for people living with HIV. Built R-based pipelines for data quality control, participant tracking, and REDCap API integration. Supporting baseline characterization using latent class analysis of behavioral and psychosocial profiles.
Research lead on a mixed-methods study of stigma barriers and facilitators to care adherence among cervical cancer survivors in Botswana. Designed qualitative instruments using Intervention Mapping; supervised data collection and analysis. Collaborators: Yang, Grover, Rendle, Montgomery.
Dissertation examining heterogeneous mental health responses to health, financial, employment, and bereavement adversities using ~9,500 participants across 12 monthly panel waves. Methods: within-between random effects decomposition, distributed lag modeling, group-based trajectory modeling, and causal mediation analysis.
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Chen, J., Yang, J., Liu, S., …, Luo, L., & Xu, D.
Multiphase optimization implementation strategy for tobacco cessation interventions in primary care clinics: A cluster-randomized type 3 hybrid effectiveness-implementation trialTobacco Induced Diseases, 24(43), 2026 · doi →
Luo, L., Kapur, R., Guevara, G., Namusisi, K., Armstrong-Hough, M., Moucheraud, C., Purtle, J., Yang, L., Lappen, H., Raghavan, R., & Shelley, D.
Strategies for integrating noncommunicable disease interventions in HIV and TB care in LMICs: A scoping reviewBMJ Global Health, 11(2), 2026 · doi →
Luo, L., Li, G., Tang, W., Wu, D., & Hall, B.
Intention to seek mental health services during the 2022 Shanghai COVID-19 city-wide lockdown: Web-based cross-sectional studyJMIR Formative Research, 8(e51470), 2024 · doi →
Rouhani, S., Luo, L., Byregowda, H., Weaver, N., & Park, J.
Epidemiology of drug arrests in the United States: Evidence from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2015–2019Preventive Medicine, 185, 2024 · doi →
Yang, L., Luo, L., Choi, J., Ling, R., & Kleinman, A.
Principles: Mental health stigmaInternational Encyclopedia of Public Health, 3rd ed., Academic Press / Elsevier, 2024
Hoyt, C. R., Luo, L., Rice, H. E., Shivakumar, N., et al.
"Everyone screens to some extent": Barriers and facilitators of developmental screening among children with sickle cell diseasePediatric Blood & Cancer, e31060, 2024 · doi →
Siewny, L., King, A., …, Luo, L., et al.
Impact of an individualized pain plan to treat sickle cell disease vaso-occlusive episodes in the emergency departmentBlood Advances, 8(20), 5330–5338, 2024 · doi →
+ 5 additional peer-reviewed publications (2021–2023). Full list on Google Scholar.
Work in Progress
Bass, J., Luo, L., Cleland, C., et al.
Assessing barriers and facilitators to implementing mental health task-sharing interventions: Psychometric evaluation of BeFITS-MH in South Africa, Nepal, and ChileImplementation Science Communications — Revise & Resubmit
Ziebold, C., Araya, R., …, Luo, L., …, Evans-Lacko, S.
Increasing engagement with digital group mental health interventions among low-income university studentsBMJ Open — Under Review
Luo, L., Montgomery, A., Ho-Foster, A., Eaton, S., …, Grover, S., Rendle, K. A., & Yang, L. H.
Stigma and care adherence among cervical cancer survivors in Botswana: A qualitative studyFully drafted
Teaching & Service
Teaching
Service & Skills
Contact
708 Broadway, New York, NY 10003