FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Research Coordinator
- Research Coordinator for the NIH
Alyson Urbaniak is the Research Coordinator for the NIH-funded project Florida FIRST. She earned her bachelor's degree in history from Florida State University. Her research experience began as an undergraduate student when she worked as a research assistant for the Center for Translational Behavioral Science, specifically for the Scale It Up Florida project. She was also selected for the 2022 cohort of the Jewish Federations of North America leadership fellowship. Alyson joined Florida FIRST from FSU PrimaryHealth, where she worked as a medical assistant helping meet community health needs in Leon and surrounding counties. Alyson primarily works with the Faculty Development Core of Florida FIRST.
Job Titles:
- Project Manager
- Program Manager for the Center of Population Sciences for Health Equity
Bianca Eugene is the Program Manager for the Center of Population Sciences for Health Equity and the NIH-funded research project, Florida FIRST. Bianca earned her Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Minor in Predictive Health from Emory University; as well as her Master of Business Administration and Master of Public Health, from Florida State University. Bianca has a specialization in business analytics which she has used in previous roles in project coordination, project management, and data analytics for large-scale administrative health projects and contracts. She provides creative, data-informed, collaborative approaches to managing programs and projects for CPSHE.
Job Titles:
- Director of the Master of Science
- Georgetown Nursing Department of International Health
Bernhard Liese is director of the Master of Science in Global Health Program in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, as well as a professor in the Department of International Health in the School of Health. He joined the Georgetown faculty in 2002 and is a member of the Global Health Initiative faculty committee.
Dr. Zegers is an Associate Professor at Florida State University in the College of Nursing for the Florida FIRST Health- Science brigade. She came here from the School of Nursing at the University of Kansas where she was an Assistant Professor; and an Emergency Department Nurse Practitioner at University Health - Truman Medical Center. She earned her Ph.D. in Nursing and Family Nurse Practitioner degree from the University of Nebraska Medical Center. She also earned her Master's in Business Administration from the University of Missouri - Kansas City. Dr. Zegers' research interests include health literacy and policy in underserved populations, she has a specialized interest in advancing health literacy through improved communication and application strategies in rural Hispanic/Latino and rural populations.
Claire Sterk is President Emerita and a Charles Howard Candler Professor of Public Health, at Emory University. During her term as President, she led the Emory enterprise, including Emory Healthcare, through times of significant disruption, using her skills in organizational change, financial restructuring, and business innovation. She is a Financial Expert and considered an expert in governance. Claire has has five years of for-profit board experience, including service on the boards of two start-up companies in the fields of biotech and digital health. As an active member in the community, Claire currently also serves as a board member of the Woodruff Arts Center, the Atlanta Police Foundation, and the Atlanta Community Foodbank, and she is a member of the Rotary Club of Atlanta and the Council of Foreign Affairs.Previously, she was a board member of the Atlanta Committee for Progress, the Metro Atlanta Chamber, Truist (formerly SunTrust) Atlanta Advisory Board, Georgia Research Alliance, The Carter Center, and the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences. Among her professional recognitions are the election to the American Association of Arts and Sciences (2018) and the National Academy of Medicine (2019). She is a sought-after speaker at high profile industry events on topics such as health, innovation, equity and inclusion, and the impact of technology.
At Emory, Claire served as 20th President (2016-2020) and 6th Provost (2012-2016). As President she launched One Emory: Engaged for Impact -- a call for reimaging the roles and responsibilities of research universities, and during her tenure as Provost she led Emory's strategic planning process, Thinking and Acting Strategically. Additionally, she served as Senior Vice Provost (2005-2012). Claire has been on the faculty of the Rollins School of Public Health since 1995, where she also served as inaugural Associate Dean for Research (2004-2005) and Chair of the Department of Behavioral Science and Health (2000-2005). She has served on 37 dissertation committees and chaired more than 50 master's theses, while serving as a committee member on an additional 25+ thesis committees. As Charles Howard Candler Professor in Public Health, she is actively engaged with the doctoral program in the Departent of Behavioral, Social and Health Education Sciences at the Rollins School of Public Health.
Job Titles:
- Multiple Principle Investigator
Dr. Eugenia Millender leads the Faculty Development Core and serves as a Multiple Principal Investigator on the Project. Dr. Millender is a tenured Associate Professor in the College of Nursing and an Indigenous Afro-Latina scientist dedicated to increasing health equity, decreasing co-occurring mental disparities and cardiovascular disease, and providing culturally appropriate care to reduce disparities. She has done so by working with community-based organizations and interprofessional teams for the last 20 years. In 2014, she founded the Christine E. Lynn Community Health Center at Florida Atlantic University, dedicated to providing quality integrated care (mental health and primary care) and telehealth services while utilizing this setting as a vibrant learning laboratory for scientists. Dr. Millender developed a data repository for scientists and practitioners to create data-driven clinical interventions focusing on connecting research and practice at the community level. In 2017, she became an Associate Professor in the Center for Indigenous Nursing Research for Health Equity at FSU. In 2020, Dr. Millender became the Co-Founding Director and Co-Director (2022) of the Center of Population Sciences for Health Equity at FSU. As a recently tenured scientist navigating the academic system as a woman of color with extensive professional experience with racially and ethnically diverse communities, Dr. Millender is vested in developing culturally appropriate mentoring programs for future URM scientists to create synergistic strategies to eliminate racism and address the myriad health disparities impacting these communities.
Job Titles:
- Member of the External Advisory Board
Dr. Faye Gary, EdD, RN, FAAN, is the Medical Mutual of Ohio Kent W. Clapp Chair and Professor of Nursing at the Bolton School of Nursing at CWRU. Dr. Gary also holds a secondary appointment with the Department of Psychiatry at the School of Medicine. Her passion for excellence and assisting the next generation of Provost Scholars inspired her to build and expand the Provost Scholars program through the plans of two visionary leaders: Provost William Baeslack and Superintendent Ms. Myrna Loy Corley. Her work with these leaders has resulted in the Provost Scholars serving over 95 students in the city of East Cleveland and impacting the future of middle and high school students over the past six years.
Dr. Gary received her bachelor's degree in Nursing and Sociology from Florida A & M University, her master's degree in Psychiatric Nursing (Child and Adolescent) and Anthropology from Saint Xavier College in Chicago, Illnois, and her doctorate degree in Childhood Behavioral Disorders and Anthropology from the University of Florida in Gainsville, Florida.
Job Titles:
- Multiple Principal Investigator
Dr. Frankie Wong leads the Overall Project and the Administrative Core. Dr. Wong joined FSU in 2018 and was named as McKenzie Endowed Professor in Health Equity Research and Founding Director of the Center of Population Science for Health Equity in 2020. He has a scientific and professional background in social psychology and management, and his research focus spans the biomedical foci of chronic disease prevention and management, mental health, and sexual health (with ongoing NIH support since 2001 including serving as PI on six R01s). He is known for his work in capacity building for research infrastructure at Emory University as Co-chair of Emory's University Research Committee (URC), a university-wide committee, supporting intramural research with a $1.2 million annual budget. Finally, Dr. Wong serves in several leadership roles at FSU (e.g., representing the College of Nursing to the Council of Associate Deans for Research). As a Senator on the Executive Committee of the United Faculty of Florida-FSU Chapter (UFF-FSU Chapter), Dr. Wong regularly interfaces with FSU's administration on a range of issues pertaining to faculty development and advancement as part of the collective bargaining process.
Dr. Julia Sheffler is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine at the Florida State University College of Medicine and is the Director of the Integrative Science for Healthy Aging laboratory at the FSU Center for Translational Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Sheffler received her bachelor's degree from Southern Illinois University, her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Florida State University, and she completed her clinical internship at the Denver VA Medical Center.
Dr. Sheffler's research focuses on developing scalable lifestyle interventions for Alzheimer's disease and other late-life health problems. Her earlier work focused on examining risk and resiliency factors related to late-life health and cognitive functioning in large epidemiological samples.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Behavioral Sciences
- Co - Investigator
Dr. Nicole Ennis is a Co-Investigator (Co-I) on the Faculty Development Core. Dr. Ennis is an Associate Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine (BSSM) in the College of Medicine and serves as a member of the policy committee for promotion and tenure in BSSM in the College of Medicine. She is also the Director of the intervention Research Advancing Care Equity Lab (iRACE), and Faculty at the FSU Center for Translational Behavioral Science (CTBScience). She is also Affiliate Faculty in the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology at the University of Florida. Dr. Ennis' research focuses on health outcomes in people living with HIV and implementing evidence-based intervention in-clinic settings. Dr. Ennis supports the Faculty Development Core and provides integral advisory support, mentorship and, professional development on behalf of the Florida FIRST project and the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine.
Job Titles:
- Multiple Principal Investigator
Dr. Pamela Keel co-leads the Overall Project, Administrative Core, and Faculty Development Core, ensuring integration of efforts across the cores at FSU. Dr. Keel is a Distinguished Research Professor of Psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences. She was recruited through a cluster-hire initiative in 2008 and has administrative expertise as MPI and Co-Director of the Integrated Clinical Neuroscience Training Program, an institutional training grant (T32) at FSU currently in its 10th year with a competitive score for renewal through Years 11-15. Dr. Keel has significant expertise in faculty development with a focus on female faculty, mentored grant writing, and mental health research. She is a member of the FSU's KL2 advisory committee and has chaired mentorship committees for junior faculty in Psychology. Dr. Keel has over 20 years of continuous NIMH funding, contributing to her experience in project and fiscal management of NIH awards. She served as a standing member of a NIMH grant review panel in addition to chairing special emphasis panels. She has held numerous leadership positions, including President for the Academy for Eating Disorders, the largest global professional organization in the field. In this role, she oversaw an annual budget exceeding $1 million and led a board of directors comprising members from five countries and representing researchers, clinicians, and patients. At FSU, Dr. Keel serves at the nexus of many university-wide initiatives to expand clinical research, including membership on the KL2 Advisory Committee directed by Dr. Naar, the FSU CTSA Advisory Committee, the Office of Clinical Research Advancement Advisory Committee, and the Clinical Research & Trial Unit Task Force. In addition, Dr. Keel's membership on the FSU' College of Arts & Sciences and University-level Promotion and Tenure Committees and the Institutional Review Board provides a broad perspective on opportunities to improve metrics for promotion and tenure and FSU's clinical research portfolio.
Job Titles:
- Clinical Psychologist
- Member of the External Advisory Board
Professor Ruth Weissman (formerly named Ruth Striegel-Moore) is a clinical psychologist with research expertise in eating and weight disorders. Her scholarship focuses on reducing the burden of suffering associated with eating and weight problems. Her projects have included work on defining and classifying eating disorders, studies of risk factors for the development of eating and weight disorders, treatment outcome studies, and research of health services utilization and costs related to obesity, binge eating, and eating disorders. Professor Weissman teaches Positive Psychology, Seminar on Eating Disorders, and Advanced Research Methods in a variety of topical areas (e.g., epidemiology; psychosocial interventions).
Before coming to Wesleyan, Professor Weissman held research staff positions in the Department of Psychology at Yale University (New Haven, CT) and a clinical staff position at Rothaarklinik (Bad Berleburg, Germany). She earned a Diploma in Psychology from the Eberhard-Karls-Universität of Tübingen, Germany and a PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC. Professor Weissman completed a clinical internship at Bellevue Hospital/New York University in New York, NY.
Professor Weissman served as Wesleyan University's Vice-President for Academic Affairs and Provost from July, 2013 to August 15, 2015.
Professor Weissman currently is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Eating Disorders (Wiley & Sons).
Professor Weissman's contributions to research and teaching have been recognized with awards including the Academy for Eating Disorders Leadership Award for Research; the Research Award of the Coalition for Eating Disorders Research, Policy, and Action; the New England Psychological Association's Distinguished Contribution Award; and the Mentoring Award by the Section on Clinical Psychology of Women of the Clinical Psychology Division of the American Psychological Association. She is a past president of the Academy for Eating Disorders, and past president of the Eating Disorders Research Society.
Job Titles:
- Co - Investigator
- Professor and Founding Director of the Center for Translational Behavioral Science
Dr. Sylvie Naar is a Co-Investigator on the Faculty Development Core. Dr. Naar joined FSU in 2018 as Distinguished Endowed Professor and Founding Director of the Center for Translational Behavioral Science. Her NIH funding spans early phase trials to implementation science trials, with a focus on bio-behavioral research to address young adult health equity. Dr. Naar has had several R01s and two U awards addressing the needs of ethnic, sexual and gender minority youth to prevent or manage chronic diseases that disproportionately affect minority populations including HIV, diabetes, obesity, and asthma. Dr. Naar was recently awarded an NIH Director's Transformative Research Award to implement antiracism in primary care settings and a P01 to address HIV and alcohol use in emerging adulthood. Dr. Naar has been consistently funded by the NIH across several institutes including NHLBI, NIAAA, NICHD, NIDA, and NIDDK, and has developed expertise in recruitment and retention of hard-to-reach, marginalized populations. Dr. Naar is experienced in multi-site evaluation studies of complex, multi-level interventions for NIH and HRSA's Special Projects of National Significance, as well as leading three NIH center grants that synergize research projects and cores to advance translational bio-behavioral science. As an Equity Research Corner center director, she has hired 6 faculty and all are URM or from an NIH-defined economically, disadvantaged background. As Director of the FSU's KL2 program within the UF-FSU's CTSA, Dr. Naar mentors diverse faculty and has developed FSU curricula for faculty development. Prior to coming to FSU, Dr. Naar was Director of the Division of Behavioral Sciences in the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health Sciences at Wayne State University, a division with 7 female faculty. She has worked extensively with the NIH designing workshops for early phase behavioral translational science and leads the implementation science core for the NIH Adolescent Trials Network.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor
- Clinical Psychologist and Assistant Professor of Psychology at FSU
Dr. Buitron is a clinical psychologist and Assistant Professor of Psychology at FSU. Dr. Buitron has clinical expertise in cognitive-behavioral therapy for a broad range of difficulties. He received his PhD in Clinical Psychology from Florida International University, completed his clinical internship at the UCLA Semel Institute and his postdoctoral research fellowship at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Rhode Island Hospital. As a part of his research, Dr. Buitron has created the Youth Resilience Program, which provides free clinical services to families in the context of research. The clinical research is focused on the improvement of therapies for at-risk youth and their families, understanding trends in risk factors over time, and increasing access to services for under-resourced families.
Job Titles:
- Communications Specialist
- Marketing and Communications Coordinator
Emily Stewart earned her bachelor's degree in media communications from Florida State University. She is now the media communications specialist for the Center of Population Sciences for Health Equity; as well as the NIH funded research program Florida FIRST. Her experience in media started with her documentary work under the Bloomberg Arts and Culture internship and has continued through her education at Florida State. While in school, she worked as a social media manager and photographer, providing her experience with copywriting and brand management. Now working for CPSHE and Florida First, she is utilizing her skillset to build engagement and awareness of the programs through media and communication techniques.
Job Titles:
- Co - Investigator
- Professor in Psychology at the University of Hawai'I
Dr. John ("Jack") Barile will lead the Evaluation Core. Dr. Barile is a tenured Professor in Psychology at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, Director of the Office for Evaluation and Needs Assessment Services, and the Interim Director of the Social Science Research Institute. Dr. Barile earned his doctorate in community psychology and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He currently holds an appointment at the CDC as a Research Social Scientist and is the Senior Advisor for Health Policy Initiatives for the College of Social Sciences at UH Mānoa. He has extensive experience collaborating with research teams across the United States, including major universities, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the National Cancer Institute. He currently manages an active research program (uhecolab.com | jackbarile.com) pursuing questions concerning health equity, poverty, and quality of life with funding from the CDC, CMS and NIH. He serves as a Co-I for a NIH funded disparity study among people living with HIV (with Dr. Frankie Wong) and several initiatives concerning historically marginalized groups and chronic disease. Dr. Barile also serves as the principal evaluator on several federal grants focused on increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion, including three awards from the National Science Foundation. As Director of the Social Science Research Institute, he oversees $20 million dollars in research funding annually and manages the College of Social Sciences Grant Development Office, post-award processing, and several research centers. He has a particularly strong background in quantitative and mixed-method research designs used to evaluate health and equity related programs.
Lylah Lockridge, MPH, MLS is the Evaluation Coordinator for the project. Lockridge conducts evaluation for the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. She applies mixed-method methodologies to behavioral and social science evaluation. Lockridge has twenty years of experience in public education and program management.
Zhuo Meng is a doctoral student at Florida State University majoring in Statistics. She received her Master's degree in Statistics from Florida State University. Her research focuses on statistical methods for meta-analysis and publication bias. She is experienced in data analysis and programming. She is also interested in the applications of statistical methods to real-world problems. She works as a research assistant at the Center of Population Sciences for Health Equity and as a data manager for the Florida FIRST program.