Premier T32 Fellowship Alumni
Where are they now? Heading link
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Wesley Lefferts, PhD
Dr. Lefferts was the first to complete the T32 Precision Lifestyle Medicine and Translation Research (PREMIER) Postdoctoral Training Program. He is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at Iowa State University.
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Mary Hannan, PhD, APRN, AGACNP-BC
Dr. Hannan’s overall research interests focus on kidney disease and physical activity. She has over ten years of experience as a nurse practitioner, primarily working in nephrology. Dr. Hannan plans to investigate in the influence of sedentary time, physical activity, and frailty on adults with chronic kidney disease. Through this work, she plans to develop behavior change interventions, specifically physical activity interventions, to improve the health and outcomes of patients with chronic kidney disease. Dr. Hannan is also funded as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Future of Nursing Scholar Postdoctoral Fellow. Dr. Hannan is now an American Society of Nephrology Kidney Cure Sharon Anderson Fellow and Postodc Fellow in the Divison of Nephrology, University of Illinois Chicago.
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Emily Kringle, PhD, OTR/L
Emily Kringle, PhD, OTR/L joined AIM as a PREMIER T32 Postdoctoral Research Fellow. She completed her research training in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Science at the University of Pittsburgh in 2019 and spent her first year at UIC as a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Occupational Therapy. Her research focus is intervention development to reduce sedentary behavior among stroke survivors. She is also interested in social and contextual influences on engagement in meaningful daily activities among underserved populations who have neurological disorders. Dr. Kringle received a tenure-track position at the University of Minnesota as an Assistant Professor in the School of Kinesiology, within the College of Education and Human Development.
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Tristesse Burton, PhD, M.S.L.
Dr. Burton completed her research training in Pharmacognosy (developing medicines from plants and natural products) with a focus in medical ethnobotany (how people use plants as medicine) from UIC’s College of Pharmacy. She has over 10 years of interdisciplinary and collaborative research experience, including working within the fields of phytochemistry, pharmacognosy, anthropology, nutrition sciences, and health disparities research that collaborates with American Indian communities. Her long-term research goals are centered around examining the role of plant-based interventions in improving women’s health, particularly focusing on eliminating health disparities for American Indian and African American women. Dr. Burton accepted the Bridge to Faculty Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Pharmacy Practice, University of Illinois Chicago.
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Hagar Hallihan, PhD, RN
Dr. Hallihan holds her PhD in nursing science from the University of Illinois Chicago, College of Nursing. She has over 10 years of experience as a registered nurse, primarily working in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Prior to receiving her PhD at UIC, she worked as a nursing Professor for five years. Dr. Hallihan mentored many nursing students and was honored to be asked to pin many nursing students upon their graduation. Her overall research interests focus on alcohol use disorder among young adults. She is interested in: (a) examining the neural mechanism underlying the susceptibility to alcohol addiction and (b) developing behavior change interventions to improve the health and outcomes of young adults with problematic drinking.
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Ronald Jackson, PhD
Dr. Jackson holds his PhD in exercise physiology from the University of Pittsburgh. He has over 5 years of interdisciplinary and collaborative research experience. Prior to receiving his PhD at the University of Pittsburgh, he worked as a faculty member at Texas State University and the University of Texas at San Antonio within the kinesiology department. His overall research interests focus on physical activity, sedentary behavior, understanding the effects of exercise on insulin sensitivity, and cardiovascular function. His long term research goals are centered around examining the health benefits of light-intensity physical activity.
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Alexandra Tabachnick, PhD
Dr. Tabachnick earned a PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Delaware and completed her predoctoral clinical internship in the Department of Psychiatry at UIC. Her research program focuses on understanding the role of sensitive parenting as a protective factor in the development of children’s behavioral and physiological regulation and increasing access to evidence-based support for parents.