Karen D. Liller, PhD, CPH, is a Distinguished University Health Professor at the University of South Florida (USF) College of Public Health (COPH), specializing in public health and injury prevention. She founded and directs USF COPH’s Activist Lab. Dr. Liller holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in medical technology, technical education, and curriculum and instruction (with a cognate area in public health). Dr. Liller has held numerous administrative positions including Associate Dean for Academics and Student Affairs at USF COPH, Dean of the USF Graduate School, and Associate Vice President for Research and Innovation. She is an established reviewer and item writer for the CPH exam.
Jaime A. Corvin, PhD, MSPH, CPH, is a Professor at USF COPH. She also serves as the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and is the Director of the Master’s Programs. Trained in community and family health and social and behavioral sciences, Dr. Corvin’s areas of research include global maternal and child health issues, global health disparities, disaster management, humanitarian assistance, organizational culture, and organizational collaboration. Dr. Corvin led the development and implementation of the integrated foundational core in USF COPH and is responsible for leading the college’s initiatives to certify the public health workforce. She is an established reviewer and item writer for the CPH exam.
Madison G. Moua, MPH, CPH, is a graduate of USF COPH where she concentrated in health policies and programs. She obtained her undergraduate degree in Public Health at USF and has been involved in several student organizations as a leader up to her graduate career. Madison’s research interests involve health policy analysis and theoretical frameworks towards access to healthcare, where she previously worked as a clinical researcher at the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital. She has also served as a Teaching Assistant for the integrated core courses at USF COPH.
Amy Alman, PhD, is a Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at USF COPH. Her current research interests include the epidemiology of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, particularly the moderating and mediating roles of adiposity, inflammation, and infections.
Chighaf Bakour, PhD, CPH, is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at USF COPH. She is also the Faculty Lead of the Epidemiology Concentration for the MPH and MSPH degrees. Her research interests include child and adolescent health, sleep, and chronic diseases.
Pamela C. Birriel, PhD, MPH, completed her doctoral training in public health with a concentration in cross-cultural and community-based research, design, and evaluation. Her passion in the field stems from her drive to help underserved and vulnerable populations through culturally and linguistically tailored health education programs. She is currently completing a fellowship focusing on cancer genomics health communications.
Katherine Drabiak, JD, is a Professor at USF COPH and the Morsani College of Medicine. She is Co-Director of the Law and Medicine Scholarly Concentration Program at the USF Morsani College of Medicine. Dr. Drabiak’s teaching and research is focused on health law, public health law, and medical ethics. She has authored numerous law review articles, written for peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics; Bioethics; AMA Journal of Ethics; Clinical Ethics; and popular media outlets. Dr. Drabiak is an active member of Advent Health’s Medical Ethics Committee and has worked with the Florida State Bar Association, the Hillsborough County Bar Association, the 13th Judicial Circuit, and the Florida Department of Health.
Barbara Langland-Orban, PhD, is a Professor Emerita who previously served as a Professor and Chair in the Department of Health Policy and Management at USF COPH. She specializes in hospital management, quality management, accreditation and licensing, medical staff affairs, and strategic and business planning. Dr. Orban was a faculty member in Health Services Administration at the University of Florida from 1985 to 1997, where she served terms as Department Chair and Program Director of the nationally ranked Graduate Program in Health and Hospital Administration.
Jennifer Marshall, PhD, CPH, is an Associate Professor and Lead Evaluator for Florida’s Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting and Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems. Dr. Marshall conducts community-based research assessing infant mortality prevention programs; family-centered care and access to medical and developmental services; and infant mental health community initiatives. Her research interests stem from over 30 years of experience working with community-based programs as a practitioner, program director, and researcher.
Dinorah Martinez Tyson, PhD, is a Professor at USF COPH and also has an affiliate appointment in Anthropology. She has extensive experience in qualitative methods and in community-engaged research. She has worked closely with various community organizations to address cross-cultural health among diverse and underserved populations in Florida and Latin America. Her community experience has also provided her with invaluable insights about partnership and coalition-building processes.
Shabnam Mehra, PhD, is an Instructor for health science courses at USF COPH. She is certified in Amazon Web Services and data science. Her interests include access to health care, air and environmental pollution, healthcare management applications, health informatics, business intelligence, and decision-making in public health and clinical settings. She is an active member of the Florida Asthma Coalition Board and has served on their board and has served as the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Network for Environmental Management Studies Fellow.
Justine Mishek, MHA, is the Associate Program Director and Senior Lecturer in the University of Minnesota’s MHA Program, Division of Health Policy and Management in the School of Public Health. Justine’s teaching expertise spans problem solving, leadership, and strategy. Additionally, she serves as a Faculty-at-Large for the Center for Interprofessional Health, focusing on the CLARION case competition experience and interprofessional EcoHealth experiential learning programming.
Steven Mlynarek, PhD, was a respected figure in the field of environmental health. He served as a Professor at USF COPH until his passing in 2023. His research evaluated workplace environments, assessing exposure to hazardous substances, and ensuring occupational safety. He contributed to the development and evaluation of public health programs, including the Industrial Hygiene program at USF. He focused on ensuring adherence to health and safety regulations, explored risk factors related to environmental and occupational health to mitigate potential harm, and often provided valuable insights in legal cases related to public health, leveraging his expertise to support evidence-based arguments.
Carlos Montoya, MEd, is a Learning Designer and Instructional Technologist who specializes in adult education, course design, and development. Carlos excels in crafting engaging content to foster student learning. He employs instructional design models such as Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation (ADDIE) and Backward Design and meticulously researches and evaluates technologies to enhance student learning and engagement.
Kathleen O’Rourke, PhD, CPH, Professor Emerita, previously served as Professor and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at USF COPH. She has served as the location Lead Investigator for two sites of the National Children’s Study: Hillsborough County and Orange County, Florida. Her research focus at USF expanded upon her interests in developing and evaluating programs that can address health disparities among minority maternal and child health populations within community-based settings. She has conducted a number of maternal and child health research projects on the US/Mexico border and also evaluated the relationship of PTSD and reproductive outcomes among women in the military.
Claudia Parvanta, PhD, is a Professor at USF COPH and Director of the Florida Prevention Research Center. Dr. Parvanta’s expertise lies in anthropology, health communication and social marketing. Dr. Parvanta previously directed the Division of Health Communication in the Office of the Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and more recently contributed to the agency’s COVID-19 response as a temporary assignee to CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Donna J. Petersen, ScD, MHS, CPH, is a Professor at USF COPH and former Dean of COPH and Senior Associate Vice President, USF Health. She is Editor Emerita of the Maternal and Child Health Journal, founding member and past President of the National Board of Public Health Examiners, the past Chair of the Council on Education for Public Health, and the past Chair of the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH). From 2011 to 2015, she chaired the ASPPH-sponsored task force, Framing the Future: The Second Hundred Years of Education in Public Health. She is on the Tampa Bay Partnership’s OneBay Healthy Communities Executive Committee, the Hillsborough County Health Care Advisory Board, the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg Board, and the Board of Trustees of the Tampa Preparatory School. Among her many honors, she was named Distinguished Alumna in 2011 by Johns Hopkins University.
Sandra Potthoff, PhD, is a former Department Chair and Professor of Health Policy and Management at USF COPH and Emerita Associate Professor and former MHA Program Director at the University of Minnesota. She was the 2019 recipient of the Gary Filerman Prize for Educational Leadership from the Associate of University Programs in Health Administration.
Vijay Prajapati, BDS, MPH, CPH, is the Neuromarketing Research Manager in the USF COPH Florida Prevention Research Center. He specializes in using affective computing as well as analytics to optimize health communication campaigns, with a topical focus on preventing tobacco use and increasing health insurance coverage. Previously he served as an Epidemiologist for the Michigan Health Department.
Zachary Pruitt, PhD, MHA, CPH, is an Associate Professor at USF COPH. Dr. Pruitt teaches quality management, strategic planning, health services management, and topics related to the US healthcare delivery system. He has co-authored a variety of book chapters related to health policy and management. His published scholarship includes examinations of cost, quality, and access associated with the integration of medical and social care services. Dr. Pruitt is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives and the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin and his MHA and PhD in Health Services Research from USF.
Troy Quast, PhD, is a Professor of Health Economics at USF COPH. His research interests include the impact of economic conditions on health status, Medicaid policy, and the impact of natural disasters. He has been awarded research funding by the National Institutes of Health to examine the healthcare utilization of children and older individuals after Hurricane Katrina and has an interest in using large data sets to analyze population health.
Rema Ramakrishnan, PhD, has experience in clinical pediatrics in India and extensive training in public health, including community-based research, evaluation, and advanced epidemiological and biostatistical methods. Her research interest is in reproductive, perinatal, and environmental epidemiology.
Ira Richards, PhD, was a well-respected Professor in the Department of Environmental Health at USF COPH. He passed away in 2023. His research interests included manufacturing, general industrial, environmental, and workplace safety in the petrochemical and agrochemical industries and covered a wide range of classes of chemicals including pesticides, solvents, heavy metals, irritants, particulates, carcinogens, pharmaceuticals, and illicit substances. His research focused on respiratory irritants and the expression of biomarkers of inflammation and oxidative stress from exposures to chemical agents.
William M. Sappenfield, MD, MPH, CPH, is Professor Emeritus at USF COPH where he taught maternal and child health and epidemiology. Prior to serving in academia, Dr. Sappenfield served as a Maternal and Child Health Epidemiologist at CDC, state public health agencies, and CityMatCH; he ultimately served as Lead of CDC’s Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology Program. He also served as Director of the Chiles Center and the Florida Perinatal Quality Collaborative where he used epidemiology, research, public health practice, and quality improvement sciences to improve the health of women, children, and families, especially during the perinatal period.
Anna Torrens Armstrong, PhD, MPH, CPH, is an Associate Professor at USF COPH. She directs the MPH Foundation Core and serves as Co-Director of MPH Programs. Her research interests include professionalism in public health, career and workforce development in public health, health promotion and behavior, and school-based health services. She also serves as Adjunct Faculty (online) at the Johns Hopkins Krieger School of Arts and Sciences Advanced Academic Program, Department of Communication.
Thomas Unnasch, PhD, is the former Chair of the Department of Global Health and Distinguished Health Professor Emeritus at USF COPH. His research has focused upon vector-borne diseases and human filarial infections, and his life’s work concentrated on areas that have a direct impact upon disease control and elimination programs targeting vector-borne pathogens worldwide.
Hari Venkatachalam, MPH, CPH, graduated in 2018 from USF COPH with an MPH in Epidemiology and Global Communicable Diseases, and with Graduate Certificates in Biostatistics and Infection Control. Hari currently works as a Researcher at the Department of Veterans Affairs in Tampa, Florida.
Wei Wang, PhD, is a Senior Scientist and Biostatistician at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, Canada. Dr. Wang has been involved as the leading statistician in over 50 federally funded observational studies and clinical trials aiming to promote better health outcomes in both US and Canada. He also holds an affiliated position at USF COPH.
Roneé Wilson, PhD, MPH, CPH, is a Reproductive and Perinatal Epidemiologist with expertise in equity-focused, community-engaged research and evaluation. She currently serves as the Director of the Community Hub at USF COPH. She is the Lead Evaluator for several community-based programs designed to improve health and wellness outcomes for mothers, fathers, and families.
Jacqueline Wiltshire, PhD, served as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at USF COPH. She is a health services researcher, focusing on women’s health, aging, and racial/ethnic disparities in healthcare utilization and outcomes. Dr. Wiltshire has published research on race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status in access to medical care, trust in physicians, patient engagement in care, health information use, and affordability of care.
Caitlin M. Wolfe, PhD, MPH, CPH, is an Applied Infectious Disease Epidemiologist focused on disease surveillance, outbreak response and preparedness, and health systems strengthening, particularly in fragile, conflict-affected, and vulnerable settings. She has worked with the World Health Organization and International Organization for Migration during multiple outbreak responses and on several disease surveillance, public health intelligence, health systems strengthening, and health and migration initiatives.
Janice Zgibor, PhD, is a Professor in Epidemiology and Senior Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs at USF COPH. Her research interests include diabetes, cardiovascular disease, pharmacoepidemiology, and access to quality healthcare.
