I currently have advising privileges in our Community and Behavioral Promotion Health (CBHP) PhD program and our Environmental Health Sciences (EHS) PhD program at UWM’s Zilber College of Public Health.

If you’re primarily interested in how novel tech is impacting wellbeing, perceptions of novel tech, or how and why people use novel tech, consider the CBHP PhD program.

If you’re primarily interested in how people are understanding and responding to the environmental impacts of novel tech, consider the EHS PhD program.

I am primarily looking for students with interests in applying qualitative or mixed methods approaches to the following questions:

-Public health implications of chatbots (risks and benefits)

-Interventions to address AI driven misinformation

-How and why people are actually using AI across different communities

-AI backlash and stigma

-AI use within the profession of public health

-How communities are responding to AI and AI infrastructure like data centers

Note that you do not need to have prior training in public health as long as you have a public health orientation to your work.

Yes, I am currently accepting new PhD students for Fall 2027.

The Zilber College currently has some two year fellowships available, which would cover tuition and provide a modest stipend while you complete your coursework. For the following two years, you should be proactively seeking scholarship and fellowship opportunities. Other students choose to work full time while they finish their dissertation.

I recommend that you reach out to me via email before applying. LLaestad [at] uwm.edu.

Please note that if it’s clear that you used AI to fully write your inquiry email or that you’ve never looked at my work, I will probably not reply to your email because it suggests that you are not serious about your application. AI supported writing has a time and place, but inquiry emails are specifically intended to be personal!

More information on how to apply here: https://uwm.edu/publichealth/students/admission/public-health-phd-admission-requirements/