Misinformation-Identifying Youth in Tobacco & Health

  • Nicotine & Tobacco in Media

    The youth collaborative partners will help determine trending social media platforms, identify and characterize nicotine and tobacco-related misinformation, and assess the spread of misinformation in social media.

  • Misinformation

    The youth collaborative partners will co-develop a survey to examine nicotine and tobacco-related misinformation, and assess associations between this exposure and nicotine and tobacco-related susceptibility.

  • Health Communication

    The youth collaborative will help develop health communication messages that will aim to counteract misinformation surrounding nicotine and tobacco products.

Meet the Facilitators

  • Julia Falgione

    I'm Julia Falgione, a Master of Public Health student at Pitt focusing on maternal and child health. I’ve worked in obstetric anesthesia research, taught reproductive health education, and am involved in community-based doula work.

    I care a lot about health equity and helping public health programs better serve young people and families. Being part of the Youth Collaborative has been an amazing part of getting my MPH—it’s meaningful to create space for youth to lead, share their perspectives, and shape the direction of the project.

  • Lindsey Palmer

    Lindsey Palmer

    Lindsey Palmer (she/her) is a Photography Professor and Master of Public Health student with a passion for youth and adolescent mental health, wellness, and equity. At MYTH Lab, she brings her background in visual storytelling, community-based art and teaching, and creative facilitation to support participatory research with young people. She’s especially interested in how collaborative, arts-driven methods can help surface youth voices and spark systems change. Outside the lab, she teaches photography at Point Park University and studies Behavioral and Community Health Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. Her work is grounded in care, curiosity, and a deep belief in the power of youth-led change.

    Outside of work she likes to spend time with her husband and their three cats, she loves to thrift shop, collects vintage cameras and is learning to crochet-- among many other craft projects she has going.

  • Maristda Patthanadettrakul

    Hi everyone! My name is Maristda, and I’m an MPH student at Pitt with a passion for addressing stigma and misinformation around various health topics. Through MYTH, I’ve enjoyed learning from others’ perspectives and collaborating on work that challenges misinformation and contributes to meaningful conversations that impact real communities. Outside of my studies, I love matcha, tattoos, and doing all kinds of arts & crafts!

  • Nishitha Hundi

    Hi everyone! My name is Nishi, and I graduated from Pitt in May with my B.A. in Health Services. I am pursuing my MPH in Epidemiology as part of the Accelerated 4+1 program. My research interests include health equity, cardiovascular disease, and cancer epidemiology. I love my role as a facilitator in this collaborative because it has taught me so many different applications of public health, not only from a research standpoint but also from a community building lens.  In my free time, I enjoy planning tennis, hiking, and trying new restaurants and cafes! 

Join our Youth Collaborative!


We are a group of researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Schools of Public Health and Medicine. As part of our research study, Nicotine and Tobacco Misinformation on Youth-Oriented Social Media Platforms, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health, we are recruiting young people ages 13-17 to help us conduct this research. 

Specifically, we are recruiting young people to be a part of the MYTH (Misinformation-identifying Youth in Tobacco and Health) Youth Collaborative. The MYTH Youth Collaborative will meet with study team members via Zoom approximately 1-2 times per month to share their knowledge about topics we are studying. For example, we will discuss popular social media platforms and how young people use these platforms. We will also talk about nicotine and tobacco products and discuss the words that young people use to describe these products.

The MYTH Youth Collaborative will also help us develop study materials, such as codebooks for analyzing social media content, surveys that will be distributed to other young people, and health communication messages to counteract misinformation.

Participation in the MYTH Youth Collaborative is completely voluntary and participants can stop participating at any time. MYTH Youth Collaborative members will never be asked to discuss their own use of nicotine and tobacco products or any other health behaviors. 

As members of the research team, MYTH Youth Collaborative members will be compensated after completing each Zoom session. 

If you are still interested in participating in the MYTH Youth Collaborative, please answer the questions through this link, or the QR code below, so that a member of the research team can contact you. As you are under the age of 18, we will need to talk to both you and your parents and obtain both consent (from your parents) and assent (from you).