Davenport Lab (Sleep Empowers Lab)
The Sleep Empowers Lab, led by Mattina Davenport, PhD, focuses on improving community sleep health through community-driven research and initiatives to improve sleep health equity by empowering populations. Dr. Davenport is passionate about fostering and inspiring the curiosity of the next generation of scientists and population health leaders. The population health research in the Sleep Empowers Lab is currently focused on improving the equitable detection of sleep deficiency in pediatric healthcare systems and community settings (e.g., primary care and school-based health). The Sleep Empowers lab applies mixed methods and machine learning approaches to improve surveillance of multidimensional & subdiagnostic sleep characteristics, identify and address social and environmental determinants (e.g., housing, social support, environmental pollutants) of sleep health and related comorbidities (e.g., depression, suicidal behaviors, and cardiovascular health), and increase accessibility to sleep disorder assessment & evaluation in the community among populations that need it most.
Current Research Studies
NIH K01-funded population health study that uses machine learning approaches to support the equitable identification of pediatric sleep deficiency in the electronic health care records.
A community-based observational study that utilizes to assess daily association between physiological arousal, sleep disturbance, and racism-related stressors in adolescents across 14 days.
Meet Our Team
Mattina Davenport, PhD
Principal Investigator
Mattina.Davenport@NationwideChildrens.org
Mattina Davenport, PhD, is a school psychology trained pediatric psychologist with expertise in pediatric sleep. Dr. Davenport is a principal investigator in the Center for Child Health Equity and Outcomes Research at the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, and an assistant professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. She is a health services and pediatric sleep health researcher that leads the Sleep Empowers Lab. Her population health research, deploying machine learning and bias mitigation methods, is funded by the National, Heart, Lung, Blood Institute/National Institute of Health.
Amad Hussain
Graduate Research Assistant
Amad.Hussain@NationwideChildrens.org
Amad Hussain (Syed-Amad Hussain) is a doctoral student in computer science at The Ohio State University and an associate data scientist at Nationwide Children's Hospital, with appointments in IT-RI and the Center for Child Health Equity and Outcomes Research. With over five years of research experience, he specializes in applying state-of-the-art (SOTA) natural language processing (NLP) to domain-specific tasks, particularly in health care. His expertise encompasses deep learning, machine learning, statistical modeling and software engineering. His research spans the use of language models to identify and extract social determinants of health, biomedical terminology and treatment data from both formal EHRs and patient-generated documents. Amad is driven by the belief that health care should be contextualized clinically, individually and socially. He leverages contemporary AI technologies to enhance this contextualization, aiming to improve healthcare equity and access. By bridging the gap between cutting-edge AI and clinical practice, he strives to uplift populations often overlooked by the healthcare system.
Ariana Calloway
Clinical Research Coordinator
Ariana.Calloway@NationwideChildrens.org
Ariana earned a bachelor's degree in public health sociology from The Ohio State University in 2022, followed by an master's of public health with a concentration in social, behavioral and health education sciences from Emory University in 2024. Her research interests are centered on using community-engaged and qualitative research methods to understand and address health disparities affecting children in historically minoritized communities. Through her work, Ariana aims to contribute to the development of effective, equitable health interventions that improve outcomes for underserved populations.
Tracy Afriyie
Research Intern
Tracy Afriyie@NationwideChildrens.org
Tracy is a third year undergraduate student at The Ohio State University majoring in biology and minoring in women’s, gender, and sexuality studies. She is a research intern in the Davenport Lab, and her interests lie in the reproductive health of women of color as well as the many health disparities across race, socioeconomic status, sexuality, and religion. Tracy hopes to take what she has learned from the Davenport Lab and use it as tool in her future healthcare career in order to help marginalized populations.
Devante Barnes
Student Research Intern
Devante.Barnes@NationwideChildrens.org
Devante joined the Center of Childhood Equity and Outcomes Reseach in May 2023 as student research intern in the Sleep Empowers (Davenport) Lab. He is a current undergraudate student at The Ohio State University studying health sciences with a minor in global public health. Devante's interests are focused on improving health equity and literacy through a collaborative, translational research lens. He is also interested in health policy and how it shapes individual and community health, specifically in underserved populations. Devante's goals are centered around community-based medicine, translational research, and public health policy.
Natalie Mitchell
Student Research Intern
Natalie.Mitchell@NationwideChildrens.org
Natalie is an undergraduate student at The Ohio State University studying psychology with a minor in Spanish. She interested in understanding how adverse childhood experiences (ACES) can affect development, including cognition and emotion regulation. Specifically, she is interested in exploring these constructs with youth that have intersecting identities. She is also interested in mood disorders, particularly the psychosocial factors that can exacerbate symptoms for youth. Her goal is to take the knowledge she gains from the Sleep Empowers Lab and apply it to improve treatment outcomes among historically minoritized populations diagnosed with mood disorders.
