PolicyLab

Jenine Pilla (she/her) is a Clinical Research Coordinator at PolicyLab and the Craig-Dalsimer Division of Adolescent Medicine. She supports the work of Dr. Scott Jelinek on projects that leverage digital health innovation, clinical informatics, and exposomic approaches to improve HIV/STI prevention and mental health support for adolescents and young adults. She also collaborates with Dr. Samara Jinks-Chang on research aimed at disrupting intergenerational cycles of substance use by developing evidence-based strategies across the youth care continuum, including early family-centered prevention, diagnosis, linkage to care, treatment engagement, and sustained remission.

Jenine began her career as a reporter in Philadelphia before moving into education as a Community Media Educator at WHYY, where she taught media classes to youth across the city and supported educators in developing and facilitating media-based curricula. She also served as an adjunct journalism professor at Temple University. After earning her MPH, she supported health communications research at the Risk Communication Lab at Temple’s School of Public Health, focusing on harm reduction and developing PrEP communication interventions integrated into HIV testing services for women who inject drugs. She later worked at the Annenberg School at the University of Pennsylvania, where she supported the development of social media campaigns to reduce e-cigarette use among sexual and gender minority teens. Most recently, she worked at the District Attorney’s Transparency Analytics (DATA) Lab, supporting community-based organizations in using data to strengthen violence prevention efforts and inform policy. Jenine holds a BA in Journalism and Religious Studies and an MPH in Social and Behavioral Sciences from Temple University.