Class of 2019

Shahmir Ali (A&S ’19) first met Angela Trude (BSPH ’19) in 2018 when they worked together in Dr.Gittelsohn’s lab at Bloomberg. She was PhD student studying human nutrition and also a Gordis Teaching Fellow (GTF) for PHS. They kept in touch after they both moved on from Hopkins. 

Fast forward to 2023: Shamir and Angela crossed paths at NYU, where Shahmir was completing his PhD and Angela had become an Assistant Professor. Shahmir was doing research on social media data and had an idea. He realized that “looking at the 2017 Philly Beverage Tax through the lens of twitter would be a great case study, which [he] could also collaborate on with Angela (who has a lot of experience on nutrition-related policies).”  In Angela’s words, she “was thrilled with his invitation.”  The paper was published in the Journal of Public Health Management & Practice in 2023 and PHS staff noticed the two familiar names! 

We asked Shahmir about his research, career path and advice:

What would you say the major take-away/s from your study is/are?

Among our major takeaways, we learned that although anger and fear sentiments were high in the months prior to the Philadelphia Beverage Tax implementation, it progressively decreased after its implementation; whereas trust sentiments displayed an inverse trend. Additionally, the passage of a health policy (particularly the months prior), litigation related to the policy, and first reports of its impact are key stages of heightened public conversation. Finally, Media outlets and public personalities (journalists, commentators, philanthropists) were influential tweeters, although their tweets often displayed polarized sentiments (either highly negative or highly positive).

Can you describe how you and Angela ended up working together on this paper?

The fun thing about academia is you get to build relationships and collaborations that can really be sustained for a long time (and in difference capacities!). I first met Angela in 2018 while I was a junior at Hopkins, working on nutrition-related research in Dr. Joel Gittelsohn’s lab. I had the opportunity to learn a lot from her as part of many collaborative projects with Joel. We stayed in touch and as fate would have it, after I began my own PhD in 2019, Angela (who was then a post-doc at UMD) was in search of someone to assist with a study she was conducting on similar nutrition related work. I gladly joined her team, and since 2020 we began working on various projects. In another twist of fate, Angela herself ended up joining NYU as an Assistant Professor during my final years as PhD student – it was around this time in 2023 (right before my own post-doc) that I had a keen interest in training myself how to work with social media data.  I realized that looking at the Philly Beverage Tax through the lens of twitter would be a great case study, which I could also collaborate on with Angela (who has a lot of experience on nutrition-related policies). So that kind of summarizes how our paths have continued to cross post JHU.

Any advice for PHS undergraduates as they navigate how and what to pursue after JHU?

I’ve come to appreciate how helpful it was to build relationships with students, faculty, and staff connected with PHS, particularly those with shared passions or professional interests. It can sometimes be helpful to think about who you’re interested in working with before the topic itself – food and nutrition research wasn’t really on my radar before JHU, but I remember absolutely loving Joel’s energy during the lecture he gave, which was reinforced by all the great mentorship I received from him, Angela and others in his team, which opened a window to this passion