2026 MENTORING ROUNDTABLES
Date: Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Mentoring Roundtables will be held at the Conference Hotel. Each table will be hosted by a Mentor with 8-10 registered Mentees to engage in an informal discussion. Lunch is included in the session. Each participant is required to pay a $25 fee to cover the cost of the lunch. Pre-registration is required to participate.
2026 MENTORS
Roundtable Topic: Tenure Track Successes During Times of Change
David F. Warner, PhD, is a social demographer and Professor of Sociology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He is chair of the UAB College of Arts & Sciences Faculty Affairs Committee and previously chaired the Department Tenure and Promotion Committee. Since 2023 he has served as Editor-in-Chief of Population Research and Policy Review. He has published in a wide range of both social and clinical science outlets on topics related to health, aging, and the life course. His current research examines how social and relationship contexts shape health and health care among older adults.
Gabe H. Miller is the Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Sexual and Gender Health and an Associate Professor of Medical Sociology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. As a medical sociologist, his research interests include political and policy determinants of health, population health and intersectionality, sexual and gender minority (SGM) health, and racial health equity. Dr. Miller is an Associate Editor of Population Research and Policy Review and serves on the IAPHS Professional Development Committee and the 2026 Meeting Program Committee.
Roundtable Topic: Building a Funding Portfolio
Shannon Monnat is Director of the Center for Policy Research, the Lerner Chair in Public Health Promotion and Population Health, and Professor of Sociology in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. Monnat is a demographer whose research examines trends and geographic differences in health and mortality, with a special interest in rural health and health disparities. She has been the PI or co-investigator on externally funded projects totaling over $12 million, including from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Justice, United States Department of Agriculture, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and others. She currently leads a NIDA-funded project to examine the effects of state’s COVID-19 mitigation policies on working-age adult psychological well-being, drug overdose, and suicide and co-leads an NIA-funded project on how state policies and county economic conditions have jointly contributed to the large and growing geographic disparities in midlife mortality, psychosocial wellbeing, and health behaviors in the U.S.
Roundtable Topic: Non-Academic Careers
Soojin Conover, Ph.D. (she/her) serves as the Humana Foundation’s Innovation Portfolio Strategy Principal. In her role, she leads the Foundation’s data and research strategy, including its research grants program, to ground its work in data-driven analysis and evidence-based research to address health equity issues in emotional health, nutrition, and food security. Soojin brings extensive experience in public health research and data analytics to guide informed decision making and promote health equity. Prior to joining the Humana Foundation, she held analytical roles at non-profit organizations. Soojin received her Ph.D. in Public Policy and Political Economy from the University of Texas at Dallas, where she specialized in health research and geographic information systems, and her master’s degree in International Educational Development from Boston University.