Faculty by Concentration

Click on a concentration name to see the faculty in that concentration.

• Animals, People, and the Environment
• Epidemiology
• Global Health and Health Disparities
• Health Communication
• Physical Activity & Healthy Lifestyles
• Public Health Nutrition

Animals, People, and the Environment

Faculty Lead: Duncan, Colleen

Amidon, Tim

Research interests: technical and professional communication, embodied and multimodal literacy, and rhetorics of class, risk, and occupational safety and health

Arnold, Olivia

Courses: PBHL 516, PBHL 530
Research interests: Mechanistic actions of statins resulting in myopathies and oxidative stress.

Belk, Keith

Research interests: red meat quality and safety; live animal development; international marketing of red meats; quality management systems

Carlson, Kenneth

Research interests: Energy water issues; climate change adaptation; net positive-energy wastewater treatment facilities; food-energy-water nexus opportunities for urban agriculture

Duncan, Colleen

Courses: PBHC 6860, PBHC 6980
Research interests: marine mammals in Alaska, where she is helping to implement wildlife health monitoring programs for declining or threatened species

Garry, Frank

Courses: VSCS 6480
Research interests: Johne’s Disease control, causes of mortality in adult cattle, livestock worker educatio, and calf health management

Grigg, Neil

Research interests: Water resouces planning and management, infrastructure management, public works and utility management, and hydraulics and hydrology

Lee, Debbie

Research Interests: Drinking water quality and human health; impacts of water quality on the gut microbiome; intersections between climate, water quality, and health; irrigation water quality and produce safety

Martin, Jennifer

Research interest: system-based approaches to understanding, maintaining and improving the safety, quality and nutritive value of muscle foods

Montrose, Luke

Research Interests: Environmental toxicology, air pollution exposure assessment and adverse health impacts in the community, especially the elderly and children, as well as among workers

Ramsdell, Howard

Research interests: the processes responsible for the bioactivation and detoxification of toxic chemicals as well as the biochemical changes caused by toxic chemical exposure

Reisfeld, Brad

Research interests: Biological, biomedical, and environmental science that are relevant to human health; fate and effects of xenobiotics (foreign compounds, such as drugs and toxicants) in the body, including issues such as biodistribution, clearance, metabolism, pharmacological effect, and toxicity

Ryan, Elizabeth

Research interests: include translational research spanning laboratory, animal models, and clinical trials for companion animals and human health across the lifespan

Salkeld, Dan

Courses: PBHC 5400
Research interests: wildlife disease, public health and conservation, using approaches from ecology and epidemiology

Schaeffer, Joshua

Research interest: inhalation exposures, primarily aerosols

Seidl, Andrew

Research interests: natural resource based economic development, working lands conservation, economics of parks and protected areas, biodiversity finance and policy, environmental economics, development economics and policy, natural capital and ecosystem services.

Sobral, Bruno

Research interests: symbiotic systems, infectious disease, computational biology, bioinformatics, software development and cyberinfrastructure

Thilmany, Dawn

Research interests: analyzing markets, consumer behavior and economic development related to local, organic and other value-added food market segments

Epidemiology

Faculty Lead: Rojas-Rueda, David

Aichele, Stephen

Research interests: the use of advanced statistical methods to understand age-related changes in human cognitive abilities and how those changes predict wellbeing and longevity from middle-age into later life.

Bayham, Jude

Research Interests: Wildfire Economics, Economic Epidemiology, Natural Capital, Environmental Economics, Natural Resource Economics

Clark, Maggie

Courses: ERHS, 6580, ERHS 6930
Research interests: the chronic health effects of indoor and occupational exposures to air pollution; a focus has been identifying factors conferring increased susceptibility as well as evaluating vulnerable populations

Eilertson, Kirsten

Courses: PBHC 5600
Research Interests: My work is focused on the application and development of statistical methods for active scientific research. Most recently, these applications have been in the domains of public health and medicine. My statistical areas of expertise include generalized linear mixed models, latent variable and state space models.

Elf, Jessica

Courses: REHS 6400, PBHC 6860, PBHC 6980
Research interests: Epidemiology and health impacts of air pollution and tobacco use, with an emphasis on the HIV and tuberculosis (TB) co-epidemic; overlap of air pollution and tobacco with these epidemics and the subsequent impact on TB and HIV health outcomes.

Fisher, Gwen

Research interests: occupational health psychology among older workers, retirement, work ability, and prolonged working life; and the work/non-work interface, including work/non-work conflict, enhancement, and work/life balance

Gutilla, Molly

Courses: ERHS 5380, PBHC 5340, PBHC 5700, PBHL 6860, PBHC 6921, PBHC 6980
Research interests: health equity, health in rural areas, methods of community health assessment, spatial and social epidemiology and research ethics

Keller, Kayleigh

Research interests: statistical methods for environmental exposures and health outcomes, flexible confounding adjustment and visualization of data from environmental trials

Magzamen, Sheryl

Courses: ERHS 5380, VSCS 5330
Research interests: children’s environmental health, ambient pollution mixtures on respiratory health, including anthropogenic pollutants and pesticides, and independent and joint effects of socioeconomic status and environmental exposures on health

Most, David

Courses: EDRM 7010, EDRM 7030
Research interest: the development of novel applications and extensions of statistical methods

Nelson, Tracy

Research interests: the biobehavioral influences on soldier performance and health, the impact of genetic, neuroendocrine and metabolic factors on chronic disease and evaluation and interventions to improve community-level chronic disease risk

Neophytou, Andreas

Courses: ERHS 6930
Research interests: Advanced epidemiologic methods and causal inference in epidemiology as they apply to the areas of environmental and occupational epidemiology

Peel, Jennifer

Courses: ERHS 6400, ERHS 6930
Research interests: short-term exposures and health impacts of commuting; evaluating the cardiovascular, respiratory, and adverse birth outcomes in relation to air pollution; investigating cardiovascular and metabolic-related endpoints in relation to exposure to biomass emissions in Honduras; identifying stakeholders and research needs regarding energy and air pollution in Colorado

Rao, Sangeeta

Courses: VSCS 5330
Research interest: to identify analytical approaches to tackle disease spread and antimicrobial resistance patterns of infectious agents

Rojas-Rueda, David

Courses: ERHS 501, ERHS 560
Research Interests: Promoting a healthy urban design, supporting mitigation, and adaptation to climate change.

Rosecrance, John

Research interest: the cause and prevention of work-related musculoskeletal disorders with a specific focus on carpal tunnel syndrome

Wang, Tianying

Research Interests: Statistical genetics, epidemiology (nutrition), neurodegenerative disorders, microbiome studies, climate change detection and attribution.

Zahran, Sammy

Research interests: population, environment and natural resources; natural hazards and risks; environmental policy and planning

Zhou, Tianjian

Research Interests: Bayesian statistics, biostatistics, computational statistics, Monte Carlo methods, clinical trials, infectious diseases, statistical genomics, missing data, causal inference

Zhou, Wen

Research interest: statistical machine learning, high-dimensional inference and modeling, multivariate time series, and graphical and network modeling.

Global Health and Health Disparities

Faculty Lead: Lucas-Thompson, Rachel

Brown, Samantha

Research interests: Behavioral health; child maltreatment; parent-child interactions; risk and resiliency; sleep; stress physiology.

Canetto, Silvia

Cultural context and intersectionalities of sex, gender, age, sexuality, socioeconomic status, and ability in suicidal behaviors; end of life issues; and interest, persistence and leadership in science and engineering. Women and human rights in global context.

Carter, Ellison

Research interests: Air quality, exposure science, health impacts of air pollution, housing and the built environment, surface chemistry

Foy, Brian

Courses: VSCS 5330
Research interests: defining concepts that govern blood meal acquisition and digestion by vectors, and parasite and arbovirus transmission from vertebrates to vectors and vice versa

Gonzalez-Voller, Jessica

Research interests: Multicultural issues in counseling; client outcome in inpatient and outpatient counseling clients; mindfulness interventions for individuals with health and their caregivers

Henry, Kim

Courses: PSCY 6530
Research interests: developmental issues surrounding substance use, and the development, implementation, and evaluation of community-based interventions designed to prevent substance use among adolescents and young adults

Kwiatkowski, Lynn

Courses: ANTP 5200, ANTP 5400
Research interests: medical anthropology, gender violence, global health, international development processes, and hunger, particularly in Vietnam and the Philippines

Lucas-Thompson, Rachel

Research interests: how and why family relationships matter; mechanisms through which positive and negative qualities of marital relationships predict parent-child relations and child health

MacPhee, David

Courses: HDFS 6090, HDFS 6100
Research interests: Confluence of parenting and prevention science; social-cognitive processes (e.g., causal attributions, self-efficacy beliefs, knowledge) that contribute to competent versus abusive parental behaviors; ecological factors related to parenting such as poverty, social support, and culture

Mahoney, Patrick

Research Interests: Impact of advanced technologies on social well-being, along with implementing a community-based health system in Longmont, Colorado through CSU’s One Health Institute

Malin, Stephanie

Research interest: community responses to unconventional oil and gas production

Miller, Ray

Research interests: Determinants and consequences of health disparities and social inequality; lasting impact of early health disparities; the welfare implications of health insurance; and the inequality of health and economic well-being among the elderly

Mushinski, David

Research Interests: Economic development, regional economics, and health economics.

Pena, Anita

Research interests: public sector economics, labor economics and economic development, as well as undocumented and documented immigration, public policy, poverty and agricultural labor markets

Schneider, Sue

Research Interests: Rural Health, healthy aging, impacts of social isolation and community engagement on mental and physical health

Shrestha, Umit

Courses: PBHL 550, PBHL 692C
Research Interests: Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, Gender Equality and Social Inclusion, Decolonization of Global Health, Implementation Science and Qualitative Methods

Snodgrass, Jeffrey

Research interests: cognitive and (biocultural) psychiatric anthropology; stress and health; addiction; religion and ritual; virtual worlds; games and play; India (Dalits and Adivasis); ethnographic research methods

Stallones, Lorann

Courses: PBHC 5160, PSCY 5170, PSCY 6000
Research interests: traumatic agricultural injuries, suicide among farmers, safety issues related to migrant farm workers in the US, and the relationship between pesticide exposures, mood disorders and adverse neurobehavioral outcomes

Volckens, John

Research interests: combustion science, occupational health, aerosol technology and air pollution-related disease

Yuma, Paula

Research interests: the effects of environmental, economic, and social characteristics of neighborhoods on the health and well-being of individuals

Health Communication

Faculty Lead: Faw, Meara

Anderson, Ashley

Research Interests: Public engagement with and public opinion of health, environmental, and scientific issues in various communication settings (social and digital media, organizations, and news media)

Faw, Meara

Courses: SPCM 5380
Research interests: how the relationships between friends and family affect health and well-being; communication of social support and affects on physiological stress of interactants; social support, tough love, conflict management and health

Kelp, Nicole

Research interests: Science communication and science education, with focuses on training STEM students in science communication skills as well as empowering non-scientists to understand and dialogue about science.

Long, Marilee

Courses: JTCM 5010
Research interests: health and science communication; media coverage of health and effects on public support for health policy and individuals’ behaviors; effects of media portrayals of science/scientists on adolescents’ attitudes of science careers

Sivakumar, Gaya

Courses: JTCM 6300, JTCM 7920
Research interests: how people acquire and use information from media sources on topics that they have very little knowledge of; different factors impacting information seekers’ adoption of advice from media sources and its impact on attitudes and behaviors

Tham, Samuel

Courses: JTCM 6140
Research Interests: How people encounter and respond to social media; media psychology; advertising; problematic video gaming

Williams, Elizabeth

Research interests: identification, leadership, and learning in a variety of organizational contexts, including distributed teams, multi-team systems, organizations experiencing change and health organizations

Physical Activity & Healthy Lifestyles

Faculty Lead: Graham, Dan

Graham, Dan

Courses: PSCY 6000
Research interests: promoting physical activity and healthy eating by clarifying the social ecological factors that facilitate and inhibit these behaviors

Gutierrez-Colina, Ana

Course: HDFS 610 – Risk and Resilience
Research Interests: My program of research aims to promote the health and well-being of youth and families from historically underserved backgrounds, with a specific focus on Hispanic youth and families living in rural contexts.

Leach, Heather

Research interests: social ecologic determinants of physical activity adoption and maintenance; benefits of physical activity for cancer patients and survivors, and other chronic disease populations; translating physical activity intervention research into standard health care practice and sustainable community programming

Li, Kaigang

Research interests: social-ecological and dynamic determinants of physical activity engagement; trajectories and determinants of cardiovascular health and related modifiable behaviors’ teenage risky driving and alcohol/drug impaired driving

Nelson, Tracy

Research interests: the biobehavioral influences on soldier performance and health, the impact of genetic, neuroendocrine and metabolic factors on chronic disease and evaluation and interventions to improve community-level chronic disease risk

Riggs, Nathaniel

Research interests: translating basic research in developmental neuroscience to interventions for child and adolescent social-emotional, behavioral, and physical health

Shomaker, Lauren

Research interests: understanding the role of psychological functioning in the etiology, development, and prevention of obesity and obesity-related health problems such as type 2 diabetes

Youngblade, Lise

Research interests: child and adolescent socio-emotional development; access to healthcare for vulnerable youth; program evaluation; analysis of developmental processes in applied contexts, such as child abuse, homelessness, childcare and maternal employment, and healthcare

Public Health Nutrition

Faculty Lead: Mueller, Megan

Baker, Susan

Research interests: design, implementation, and evaluation of educational programs for limited-resource audiences; training and development of paraprofessionals; breastfeeding promotion; community-based nutrition education programs

Clark, Alena

Courses: FSHN 5250, FSHN 6200
Research Interests: Maternal and child nutrition, international nutrition, social ecological factors affecting lactation support, and development and evaluation of plans of safe care (POSC) to improve cross-system care coordination and health outcomes for Colorado families impacted by perinatal substance use disorder

Melby, Chris

Courses: FSHN 5510
Research interests: the interplay between dietary eating patterns and exercise/physical activity in regard to energy metabolism and the untoward sequelae of positive energy balance, especially insulin resistance and dyslipidemia

Mueller, Megan

Courses: FSHN 5000
Research interest: understanding the ways in which family health and nutrition status are influenced by individual factors and the broader food and policy environments, while considering the needs and goals of diverse populations.

Peth, James

Courses: FSHN 5300
Research Interests: Predictors of learning among students in nutrition science—prior knowledge, conceptions of nutrition as a science, intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for studying nutrition and influences on self-determined behaviors (autonomy, competence, relatedness); Built environment, health, and well-being; Bodyweight regulation

Sly, Brittney

Research Interests: Malnutrition remediation and sustainable development initiatives in African populations using participatory research methods and women’s empowerment

Thompson, Henry

Research interests: human nutrition and breast cancer prevention