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Faculty Research Interests

Environmental & Occupational Health Faculty

Name Research Interest
Benden, Mark
Department Head EOH / Director of the Ergonomics Center / Associate Professor
Worker sedentary behavior and obesity, AI and digital human workers, the built-environment, classroom ergonomics and childhood obesity, medical device development and testing, machine learning for health and furniture design
Carrillo, Genny
Associate Professor
Vaping and water insecurity
Douphrate, David
Associate Professor
Occupational ergonomics, Occupational safety, Agricultural Health, safety Leadership and Management
Gibbs, Shawn
Dean
Disrupting the Transmission of Highly Infectious Diseases, such as Ebola Virus Disease and COVID-19 Aeromedical Evacuation and Isolation Worker Training Programs in Infectious Diseases and Disaster Preparedness Industrial Hygiene and Exposure Assessment Personal Protective Equipment Healthcare Associated Infections Agricultural Associated Transmission of Infectious Diseases Global Public Health Education
Johnson, Natalie
Associate Professor
Maternal and child health Air pollution Environmental justice Inhalation and respiratory toxicology Asthma
Maddock, Jay
Professor
Human behavior and psychological interactions with the natural and built environment. Health & Nature.
McDonald, Thomas
Regents Professor
Environmental chemistry, petroleum geochemistry, and general organic chemistry
Ory, Marcia Regents & Distinguished Professor Aging and Public Health Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Doctor-Older Patient Interactions COVID-19 Status and Impacts Evidence-based Prevention Research Health Equity across Diverse Populations and Settings Health Technology and Patient Empowerment Injury Prevention and Control Opioid Use Disorder, Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Translational and Sustainability Research Women's Health and Aging
Pickens, Adam
Instructional Assistant Professor
Ergonomic tool development; Occupational safety screening/tool development, Upper extremity modeling; Manual materials handling, and Occupational biomechanics
Sansom, Garett
Assistant Professor
Occupational ergonomics, Occupational safety, Agricultural Health, Safety Leadership and Management
Sharma, Virender
Professor
Iron-Based Oxidants (Ferrates and Ferrites), Kinetics and Mechanism of High-Valent Transition Metals, Advanced Oxidation Methods, Solar-Based Photoactive Materials in Water Treatments, Green Synthesis of Nanoparticles, Formation,
Fate and Toxicity of Nanoparticles in the Aquatic Environment

Epidemiology and Biostatistics Faculty

Name Research Interest
Allgood, Kristi L.
Assistant Professor
Structural and Vicarious Racism, Health Disparities/Health Equity, Health Care Quality, Patient Navigation, Testing and Linkage to Care, Police Misconduct, Social Determinants of Health, Legal Epidemiology
Clendenin, Angela
Instructional Assistant Professor
Risk Communication, Decision Analysis, Emergency Management/Emergency Communications, Cultural and Social Influences on Communication and Decision Making, Communications Measurement and Assessment
Dixon, Benika
Assistant Professor
Environmental Health, Environmental and Climate Justice, Disaster Epidemiology, Community Engagement.
Erickson, Timothy
Assistant Professor
Infectious Diseases, Neuroinvasive Diseases, Neurology, Neuroinflammatory Conditions, Rickettsial diseases, Parasitic diseases, Global Health, Zoonotic Diseases
Fischer, Rebecca
Assistant Professor
Zoonotic, Vector-borne, Parasitic, & other Tropical Diseases. Defining Trends & Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases. Field Epidemiology and Rapid Epidemiologic Assessment & Response. Outbreak Epidemiology. Global health.
Gorman, Dennis
Professor
Research Integrity and Transparency. Journalology. Alcohol and Drug Prevention. Systems Research.
Han, Daikwon
Associate Professor
Spatial Epidemiology, GIS & Spatial Analysis Methods, Environmental Health/Exposure Science, Environmental Justice & Health Disparities, Healthcare Access, Population Studies/Spatial Demography
Han, Gang
Associate Professor
Clinical trials. Personalized cancer therapy. Survival analysis. Bayesian methods. Computer experiments.
Howell, Kristen
Assistant Professor
- Health care transition in sickle cell disease - Cancer survivorship - Mobile health technology
Kalbasi, Shaida Instructional Assistant Professor Health Disparities, Women's Health, Quality of care for Immigrants, and Racial Minorities, Effect of Discrimination and Race Relations on Health outcomes
Roh, Taehyun
Assistant Professor
Environmental Epidemiology Environmental Justice Water Quality Cancer Epidemiology Health Disparities Toxicology
Shaltout, Mahmoud
Instructional Associate Professor
Health Inequalities, Socio-environmental Determinants of Health, Obesity, Health awareness, Minority Health, and Urban Health Issues
Shipp, Eva
Associate Professor
-Injury prevention -Transportation safety -Occupational/agricultural safety and health -Surveillance methods -Record linkage
Taylor, Loni
Assistant Professor
Epidemiology of Emerging Infectious Diseases, Epidemiology of Zoonotic Diseases, Molecular Epidemiology, Global Health, and Translational Animal Models in Public Health
Xu, Xiaohui
Department Head Epi/Bio; Associate Professor
 Air pollution Epidemiological studies Climate Change on Human Health Health Effects of Hydraulic Fracking Environmental Exposures and Chronic Diseases Community-Engaged Approaches to Environmental Health Research
Zheng, Qi
Professor
Estimation of microbial mutation rates Biostatistical education Application of discrete choice models

Health Policy and Management Faculty

Name Research Interest

Andreyeva, Elena
Assistant Professor

Spatial nature of healthcare market Health insurance Hospital closures and mergers Effects of policies on healthcare delivery and access among vulnerable populations Social determinants of health
Blackburn, Christine
Assistant Professor
Rural health Health access Emergency response services Preparedness and response Marginalized populations
Bolin, Jane
Professor
Health Law and Ethics, Regulatory Compliance, Cancer Screening & Prevention, Diabetes Self-Management, Chronic Disease Management, Interdisciplinary & Translational Research, Rural Health Research, Rural Healthy People 2020

Côté, Murray
Associate Professor

Health services delivery with applications to capacity planning, demand forecasting, patient flow, and health system performance. My primary tools are with inferential statistical analysis (especially experimental design), linear and nonlinear optimization, stochastic models, and discrete event simulation.
Ferdinand, Alva
Assistant Professor
Impact of laws and other policies relative to public health outcomes such as roadwaysafety, obesity, and access to care. Other interests include state and federal regulation of health care and community health development
Haeder, Simon
Associate Professor
Politics and policies surrounding health access issues, Health access for vulnerable populations, provider networks, school-based health access, regulatory policy making.
Kum, Hye-Chung
Associate Professor
Data science for health care; population informatics; health informatics; health policy research and program evaluation using big data; decision support systems for health policy and management. Machine Learning.
Lin, Sherry
Instructional Assistant Professor
Preventive Care Services; Disabilities Research; Vulnerable Populations
Linde, Sebastian 
Associate Professor
Healthcare Pricing and Costs; Social Determinants of Health and Health Disparities; Provider Networks and Provider Behavior
Lockman, Alee
Assistant Professor
Health politics and public opinion; health communications; rural health access and quality; mental health and substance use policy; public trust in health care, science, and public health
Marthey, Daniel
Assistant Professor
State Health Policy, Medicaid, Healthcare Cost and Quality, Access to Care, Healthcare Delivery, Public Programs, Health Disparities
Moats, Jason
Professor of Practice
Disaster Management, Training and Development, Technology Acceptance in Public Safety/Public Health
Ohsfeldt, Robert
Regents Professor
Heath economics and outcomes research.
Radcliff, Tiffany
Associate Dean for Research / Professor
Health economics, health policy, and health services research. Topical areas of interest have included improving quality of care in long-term care, access to care for rural and other underserved populations, improving care processes and outcomes, and economic evaluation
Rochford, Hannah
Assistant Professor
violence prevention, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, child maltreatment, homicide, suicide, firearm violence, policy analysis
Schmit, Cason D.
Assistant Professor
Law as a social determinant of health; Health information technology; Health information exchanges; privacy, confidentiality, and security of health information; public health reporting and surveillance; pharmacist's vaccination authorities
Ukert, Benjamin
Assistant Professor
Commercial Health insurance, Affordable Care Act, Healthcare markets, Health Care Organization, Health Care Access, Health Behaviors, Health Policy

Health Behavior Faculty

Name Research Interest
Barry, Adam
Department Head/Health Behavior/Professor
Alcohol-related behaviors; Intoxication; Alcohol sales and service; Impaired Driving
Blake, Jamilia
Professor
Peer directed aggression, bullying, and victimization of socially marginalized youth; exclusionary school discipline; mental health disparities; school health interventions
Burdine, James
Professor
Measurement of factors influencing community capacity for population health improvement and community health development strategies, particularly community health assessment and health resource centers
Chen, Lei-Shih
Associate Professor
Public health genomics (precision public health), cancer prevention and control, tobacco control, health disparities, autism spectrum disorder, disabilities
Chiang, Shawn
Assistant Professor
Health communication; cancer prevention and control (e.g., HPV vaccination, tobacco cessation) among priority population; opportunities and challenges in using communication technology (e.g., mhealth, social media) for health behavior
Clark, Heather
Director of Public Health Practice / Research Associate Professor
Community capacity building for population health improvement; community partnerships; access to care; rural community health; community health needs assessment; social determinants of health; program evaluation
Cobb, Corey
Assistant Professor
Prevention Science, Mental and Behavioral Health of Hispanic Populations, Scaling Culturally Sensitive Interventions through Ditial Mental Health, Refining Cultural and Psychological Science.
Colwell, Brian Professor
Youth Tobacco Use Youth Vaping Youth Nicotine Cessation Tobacco Use in sub-Saharan Africa Vaccine Hesitancy
Flores, Krystal
Instructional Assistant Professor
Maternal and child health; Border health (Rio Grande Valley, Tx); Adolescent pregnancy prevention along the Texas-Mexico border; Health disparities among vulnerable populations (including Latinas, adolescents, and immigrant children)
Garney, Whitney
Associate Professor
Community-based participatory research; Ecological approaches to public health; Interorganizational network analysis; Program evaluation; Public health innovation; Systems approaches to public health
Gilreath, Tamika
Professor
School violence; Gang affiliation; Tobacco use
Goodson, Patricia
Professor
Theories for Health Promotion/Public Health Complex Dynamic Systems in population health Academic Writing Systems
Kim, Junhyoung
Associate Professor
Technology Interventions, Healthy aging and disease prevention, Dementia Prevention, Health Equity, Social Psychology and Behavior Change, Disability Studies
Le, Aurora
Associate Professor
Occupational health disparities; occupational justice; psychosocial factors of work; health behavior in workplace settings; community-based participatory research; best practices in adult training and education
Ma, Ping
Assistant Professor
Maternal & Child Health Issues. Health Disparities in Vulnerable Populations. Smoking Cessation. Children's Injury Prevention.
McNeill, Elisa
Clinical Professor
Adolescent health; Pedagogy; Teen pregnancy prevention
Mier, Nelda  Instructional Assistant Professor Chronic Disease Prevention; Quality of Life through Behavioral Change in Mexican Americans of all ages living in Texas-Mexico border region; Physical Activity Among Mexican Americans; Intervention Research to Enhance Physical Activity Patterns; Diabetes Prevention Among Children and Adults in Border Region; Promotoras Model (Community Health Workers) in Border Region
 
Montemayor, Benjamin
Assistant Professor
Alcohol and drug prevention and intervention; Psychosocial risk factors of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use, Mental health, Population and racial/ethnic minority health (including adolescent and young adult at-risk underrepresented sub-populations); Implementing health behavior theories into practice; Reducing risky health behaviors through harm reduction
Owens, Christopher
Assistant Professor
HIV prevention; sexual health; LGBTQ health; LGBTQ adolescents; implementation science; mixed-methods
Patterson, Meg
Assistant Professor
Social Network Analysis Social Connectedness Addiction Recovery Physical Activity
Prochnow, Tyler
Assistant Professor
Physical activity Social Network Analysis Health Equity Mental Health
Sherman, Ledric
Associate Professor
Type 2 diabetes self-management among ethnic minority men. Utilization of technology and digital health for chronic illness management among men. Health education and wellness promotion.
Smith, Matthew
Associate Professor
Evaluation Translational and applied research Behavior change modification through intervention design Risk assessment and measurement Aging; Chronic disease management; Fall prevention; Social connection

Stasi, Selina Instructional Associate Professor

Access to and physical activity promotion within underserved communities and communities of color, through community based research, asset mapping, and GIS analysis; Research regarding physician-based physical activity counseling, prescription and referral, and youth engagement and empowerment to combat disparities in physical activity and health; Linkages between community, clinic, and church, and the role public health practitioners play to leverage resources between them all
Williams, Megan
Instructional Assistant Professor
Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health, Sexual Healthcare Utilization, College Health, Sexual Health Interventions