Meet Our Team

Phia’s network, led by Andrea Mantsios, consists of trusted independent consultants with expertise across a variety of topics and methodologies. Phia assembles and manages teams with the specialized expertise and skillsets to meet the needs of each client and project.

  • Founder and Principal Consultant

    Andrea has 20 years of experience as a public health practitioner and researcher. Her career has included working in government, academia, and healthcare institutions in settings around the world including the U.S., Latin America, Africa, and Europe. 

    Before launching Phia, Andrea was on faculty at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the Department of Health, Behavior and Society. Prior to that, she served as the Director of Jurisdictional HIV Testing Initiatives at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Andrea’s experience includes program planning, implementation and evaluation; academic research; on-the-ground community mobilization; and establishing interagency and community partnerships. She has designed and conducted research studies of varying sizes and scopes utilizing both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Andrea serves as Phia’s principal consultant and oversees Phia’s portfolio of projects.

    Andrea received her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and Master of Health Science (MHS) degrees from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and is fluent in Spanish. She has published extensively on her work, including 3 book chapters and over 25 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Click below to see her complete list of publications.

    See Publications →

    See Past Projects →

  • Yonaira’s work focuses on reducing health inequities and improving the well-being of Latinx and underserved communities through health communication initiatives. Her work uses qualitatively-driven, mixed methods and community-based participatory research to explore social media health misinformation, cancer control and prevention, and disaster relief. She has experience in culturally tailoring educational tools to diverse Latinx communities and has led efforts to engage with these audiences on social media. She conducts work in English and Spanish.

    Dr. Rivera has an MPH in Behavioral Sciences and Health Education from Emory University and a PhD in Social and Behavioral Sciences from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is currently as Assistant Professor of Communication at Rutgers University’s School of Communication and Information.

  • Dana is an independent consultant who has worked in the areas of public health and medicine for the last 20 years. In that time, she has served in various roles contributing to international and domestic health research with hospitals, government and academic institutions. Dana has worked on projects for the CDC, USAID, WHO National Institute of Chronic Disease Directors as well as academic institutions and hospitals in public health research. She served as Director of Post-doctoral Research at NYU Langone - Brooklyn for Oral Health.

    Dana’s research experience includes both international and domestic work on a broad range of topics such as HIV prevention, gender-based violence, water sanitation, oral health, cancer and chronic disease. She has presented at international conferences and authored several publications on these topics. Dana received her PhD in Public Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Master in Public Health from Brown University School of Public Health.

  • Lynnette is an independent consultant who has worked as an educator and teacher trainer for over 20 years. Her research focuses on diversity, equity, and inclusion practices of educational institutions (PreK-16) and large-scale organizations in urban settings. Lynnette's participatory and asset-based approach to research utilizes both qualitative and visual methods when engaging with national and international communities. Lynnette received her Ph.D. in Urban Education from Temple University. She is currently Chair of the Department of Urban Education and Professor of Urban Education at Rutgers University-Newark as well as affiliated faculty in the Africana Studies department.

    Lynnette’s work with Phia focuses on community engaged qualitative research to inform more equitable programming and policy in clinical settings.

  • Emelyne’s work focuses on advancing sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and gender equality for women and girls in Africa. Her research focuses on laws and policies aimed at empowering women and adolescent girls, including improving access to inclusive education, quality maternal child health services, family planning, and preventing gender-based violence. She serves as a senior legal and gender specialist at the World Bank and is currently pursuing a Master of Public Health degree at the George Washington Milken Institute of Public Health. Her work with Phia focuses on supporting community-led strategies to offset financial shocks related to pregnancy and maternal health care among women in rural Tanzania. 

    Emelyne received her PhD in law from Montpellier University in France, her LLM in International Legal Studies from the Washington College of Law, American University, and her MBA from HEC Paris.