Maria Argos, PhD
Assistant Professor Epidemiology and Biostatistics, UIC School of Public Health
Research Interests: Environmental epidemiology, Gene-environment interactions and Arsenic epidemiology.
Michael D. Brown, PhD
Professor, Kinesiology and Nutrition, UIC College of Applied Health Science
His research interests include African American health, primary and secondary prevention of endothelial dysfunction. the relationship of vascular dysfunction to hypertension in African Americans and the roles that non- pharmacological interventions play in improving vascular dysfunction and blood pressure.
Noel Chavez, PhD, RD, LDN
Associate Professor, Community Health Sciences, UIC School of Public Health
Her research interests include nutrition, status of minority groups, children and families; role of culture and migration in nutrition and health; and health services use.
Richard S. Cooper, MD
Professor, Public Health Sciences,
Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University Chicago
His research interests include epidemiology of cardiovascular diseases, with emphasis on black populations, hypertension in blacks, genetics of hypertension, and racial differentials in disease, population-based research on cardiovascular disease, nutrition, the metabolic syndrome and genetics in low income countries, primarily Africa and the Caribbean.
Ramon Durazo-Arvizo, PhD
Professor,Biostatistics, Public Health Sciences
Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University Chicago
His research interests include CVD risk factors such as obesity, diet, physical activity, adiposity, blood pressure, and biochemical risk factors in diverse populations, including of African descent.
Kamal Eldeirawi, PhD, RN a,c
Assistant Professor, Nursing, College of Nursing
His research interests include multilevel determinants of chronic conditions; DM, asthma and CVD risk factors in minority populations
Carol Ferrans, PhD
Professor, Associate Dean, College of Nursing
Her research interests include quality of life outcomes, symptom management in chronic illness and disparities in health care for CVD, diabetes, and cancer, cultural competency, culturally specific measures for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Chinese, and Thai women, including instruments to assess cultural beliefs that act as barriers to participation in screening.
Michael J Fischer, MD, MPH
Associate Professor, Nephrology, UIC College of Medicine
His research interests include CKD and health services research; quality and patterns of care, health outcomes and utilization among Veterans with CKD.
Sally Freels, PhD
Associate Professor of Biostatistics, UIC-SPH
Research Interests: Survival analyses in longitudinal epidemiologic studies
Ben Gerber, MD, MPH a
Associate Professor of Medicine (General Internal Medicine and Health Promotion Research), UIC-COM
Research Interests: Educational computer-based interventions with a focus on DM; bilingual DM self-management programs for Hispanics and African-Americans; community-based DM team management
Lifang Hou, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Preventive Medicine Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention
Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University
Research Interests: Integrating traditional epidemiologic methods with the ever-advancing molecular techniques in multi-disciplinary research focusing on identifying key molecular markers and understanding their potential impact on disease etiology, detection, and prevention.
Denise Hynes, PhD, MPH, RN
Professor, Health Promotion Research, UIC College of Medicine,
Health Policy Administration, UIC School of Public Health
Research Interests: Comparative effectiveness, quality of care for chronic disease management, health care costs in CKD and CVD; use of EMR, VA, Medicare, and Medicaid data, and informatics approaches, especially use of health information technology and clinical decision support systems to facilitate improvement in healthcare quality.
Research Interests: Integrating traditional epidemiologic methods with the ever-advancing molecular techniques in multi-disciplinary research focusing on identifying key molecular markers and understanding their potential impact on disease etiology, detection, and prevention.
Timothy P. Johnson, PhD
Professor, Public Administration,UIC College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs,
Director of the UIC Survey Research Laboratory,
Deputy Director of Tracking and Evaluation for the UIC-CCTS.
Research Interests: Survey measurement and nonresponse errors with a focus on social determinants of health and well-being, particularly among marginalized social groups; cross-cultural sources of measurement error in epidemiological research; and causes and consequences of health-related behaviors among multiple marginalized populations, including racial/ethnic minorities, homeless persons, psychiatric patients, and immigrants.
Melissa Lamar, PhD
Associate Professor of Psychiatry, UIC- COM
Research Interests: Neurobiological mechanisms of cognitive and affective dysfunction in aging; neuroimaging biomarkers of cardiovascular brain aging/cognition
Todd A. Lee, PharmD, PhD
Associate Professor of Pharmacy, UIC-COP
Research Interests: Pharmacoepidemiology; pharmacoeconomics; comparative effectiveness research on chronic respiratory disease/ COPD; patient outcomes with multiple chronic co-morbidities
Claudia Lora, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine (Nephrology), UIC-COM
Research Interests: Health disparities and outcomes in Hispanics/Latinos with CKD; health literacy, acculturation and CVD and hypertension in Hispanics/Latinos with CKD
Amy Luke, PhD
Professor, Global Health Research,Department of Public Health Sciences,
Stritch School of Medicine. Loyola University Chicago
Her research interests include genetic and environmental determinants of hypertension and determinants of obesity. She is involved in national and international studies on the environmental determinants of obesity in African-origin populations, with study sites in rural Ghana, Seychelles, urban South Africa, Jamaica, and the US (Maywood).
Roberto Machado, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine (Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep, & Allergy), UIC-COM
Research Interests: Biomarkers in complex lung diseases such as PAH; of pulmonary endothelial function in patients with PAH
David Marquez, PhD
Associate Professor of Kinesiology and Nutrition, UIC-CAHS
Research Interests: Physical, cognitive, cultural, environmental, determinants of physical fitness in Hispanics/Latinos; CVD disability, cognitive functioning, QOL
Holly Mattix-Kramer, MD, MPH
Associate Professor of Epidemiology, Loyola University
Research Interests: Lifestyle and nutrition; chronic diseases.
Robin Mermelstein, PhD
Professor of Psychology and Public Health
Research Interests: She conducts research on smoking cessation, including development and evaluation of interventions for both adults and adolescents including intensive clinic-based approaches, self-help media-based programs, and interventions with telephone and internet adjuncts. She employs novel approaches to understanding contextual factors in the development of nicotine dependence. Her research interests also include use of novel technologies to develop interventions to reduce risk factors and ethnic and gender differences in etiology of risk behaviors.
Dilip Pandey, MD, PhD, FAHA
Associate Professor, Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation, UIC College of Medicine
Research Interests: Specialty in Clinical Trials; Epidemiologic and outcome studies study design; Health Services Research; Data management and analysis of longitudinal studies, CMS and large databases; Research focused in chronic diseases with an interest in neurologic and cardiovascular diseases.
Victoria W. Persky, MD
Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the UIC School of Public Health
Research Interests: Her research areas include health effects of environmental exposures. She has conducted several studies examining hormonal effects of exposure to persistent organic pollutants and effects of immigration on chronic disease risk factors and diabetes.
Ana C. Ricardo, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine (Nephrology), UIC-COM
Research Interests: QOL and mortality among Hispanics with CKD; functional health literacy, kidney function and CVD risk factors in patients with CKD; gender-related disparities and vascular function in CKD
Lisa Sánchez- Johnsen, PhD
Associate Professor of Psychiatry, UIC-COM
Research Interests: Culturally competent health promotion assessments/ interventions for obesity, physical activity, and smoking in Hispanics/Latinos; CBPAR approaches
Alan Schwartz, PhD
Associate Professor, Clinical Decision Making, Director of Research, Department of Medical Education
Research Interests: The psychology of decision making in both patients and physicians. In patients, his work has focused on risk perception, patient-physician fit, and the impact of non-medical goals on the evaluation of health states. In physicians, his work has focused on contextual errors in decision making and updating of beliefs when exposed to new evidence.
Lisa Sharp, PhD
Associate Professor of Medicine (Health Promotion Research), UIC- COM
Research Interests: Chronic disease self-management and contextual factors in health inequalities in minority/underserved populations
Leslie T. Stayner, PhD
Professor of Epidemiology, Director of the Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Program, UIC School of Public Health
Research Interests: He has substantial experience in both research and risk assessment of occupational and environmental hazards. His research has been primarily focused on studying the contribution of occupational and environmental exposures to chronic diseases, particularly cancer, and the development of statistical methods for quantitative risk assessment using epidemiologic data.
Mary D. Stephenson, MD, MSc
Professor and Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UIC College of Medicine
Research Interests: Prevention, intervention, and cause of recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL), including factors (obesity, diabetes) associated with RPL, associations with autoimmune disease, and long term risks to women and children, genetic basis for miscarriage
Yolanda Suarez-Balcazar, PhD
Professor and Chair, Department of Occupational Therapy,
UIC College of Applied Health Sciences
Research Interests: Impact of community interventions including obesity prevention among minority communities; rehabilitation outcomes for minorities with disabilities; issues of cultural competency in health professions; community-based participatory methods in research; and development and validation of cultural competence models and assessment tools for health service providers.
Terry Unterman, MD
Professor of Medicine-Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism and Physiology and Biophysics, UIC College of Medicine
Research Interests: regulation of gene expression and metabolism by insulin and growth factors, regulation of metabolism in obesity and diabetes, and endocrinology of aging
Linda V Van Horn, PHD, RD
Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Professor in Preventive Medicine-Nutrition at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Research Interests: Diet, nutrition, prevention of excessive gestational weight gain, treatment, cardiovascular epidemiology, breast cancer, child health, obesity prevention, obesity treatment, maternal nutrition, nutritional assessment, diet intervention, Medical Nutrition Education
Terri Weaver, RN, PhD
Professor of Biobehavioral Medicine and Dean of the UIC School of Nursing.
Research Interests: She has extensive research expertise on the effect of daytime sleepiness on daily behaviors and assessment of treatment outcomes; treatment adherence; analysis of treatment efficacy for obstructive sleep apnea; and mechanisms and outcomes of daytime sleepiness. Her research interests also include functional status/quality of life, treatment adherence, instrument development, and randomized clinical trials, and has developed disease-specific functional status measures for chronic pulmonary disease and for sleep disorders.
Robert Winn, MD
Professor, Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep and Allergy Medicine
Associate Vice President for Health Affairs; Director, Lung Cancer Program, University of Illinois Hospital & Health System
Research Interests: Role of iloprost in non-small cell lung cancer, non-canonical Wnt pathway in non-small cell lung cancer, role of Wnt 7a in epithelial to mesenchymal transition and lung metastasis and role of Wnt and prostacyclin in cell growth in non-small cell lung cancer.
Shannon Zenk, PhD, MPH, RN a,c
Associate Professor of Nursing, UIC- School of Nursing
Research Interest: Social determinants of obesity and related behaviors (diet, physical activity); neighborhood characteristics; food deserts; environmental contributions to BMI, metabolic risk, and weight intervention success
Jack Zwanziger, PhD
Professor and Director, Health and Policy Administration,
UIC School of Public Health
Research Interests: The use of different system-wide and intervention-specific approaches to increasing the efficiency of the health care system. Specific interests include the effects of competition on hospital behavior, antitrust policy and health care markets, managed care contracting strategies, and the use of cost-effectiveness and outcomes analyses to evaluate new health care technologies.