SPOTLIGHT is a multidisciplinary group of researchers, educators, and practitioners committed to designing, evaluating, and advising on public systems that respond to behavioral health and social crises. While centrally housed in the Department of Population Health at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, SPOTLIGHT represents a national network of scholars who share our commitment to a healthier and safer society. Our collective expertise spans epidemiology, policy analysis, data science, implementation science, ethics, and systems research.

Core Team

The SPOTLIGHT Lab is led by a dedicated, interdisciplinary core team committed to advancing evidence-based, ethically grounded strategies to strengthen public health and safety systems. While compact, our core team operates at the center of a broad network of collaborators across NYU Langone Health and external institutions. This distributed structure allows us to provide scientific and administrative leadership across our diverse and ambitious portfolio while remaining nimble, strategic, and responsive to emerging public health and safety challenges. By cultivating partnerships and leveraging the strengths of our affiliate network, the core team focuses on high-impact, policy-relevant work that advances both scientific rigor and real-world systems change.

Bennett Allen, PhD, MPA
Director, SPOTLIGHT Lab
Assistant Professor, Department of Population Health

Cale Basaraba, MPH
Research Scientist

Brittany Griffin
Senior Research Coordinator

Mercedes Guzman Herrera, MPH, MSW
Project Director

Phillip Leong
Research Assistant