Sitara Weerakoon is an Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Yale School of Public Health, where she leads and collaborates on multiple NIH projects on adolescent substance use and mental health. Her research centers on the neighborhood-level socio-environmental factors that shape youth substance use, with a focus on place-based risk and protective community factors. She employs advanced epidemiological, biostatistical, and spatial methods to understand how socio-environmental exposures influence youth substance use.

She earned her PhD in Epidemiology and Biostatistics and MPH in Epidemiology from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and completed postdoctoral training in community- based substance use prevention research through the National Institute on Drug Abuse T32 program at Yale School of Medicine. Sitara has authored over 30 peer- reviewed publications and has been recognized as an emerging leader in equity- focused epidemiological research. Her work has been featured in national and international news outlets such as Forbes, The Independent, and The Telegraph, and presented at meetings including the American Public Health Association and the College on Problems of Drug Dependence. She is a recipient of the NIDA Diversity Scholars Travel Award, College on Problems of Drug Dependence Primm-Singleton Minority Travel Award and was inducted into the Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health. She is an active member of the American Public Health Association, College on Problems of Drug Dependence, and Society for Research on Adolescence.