Program Faculty
Health Promotion and Health Behavior
Primary faculty
Peggy Dolcini, PhD
Professor
Not accepting new PhD students
Accepting new MPH students
Peggy's research focuses on infectious diseases, including HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) with an emphasis on addressing health disparities. Her current work addresses dissemination and implementation of evidence-based programs and practices. Her research is funded by NIH.
Karen Elliott, PhD, MS, CHES
Assistant Professor of Teaching
(Public Health Undergraduate Internship Coordinator)
Not accepting new MPH or PhD students
Karen's instructional interest is experiential learning, including internships, practicums and service learning. Undergrad Public Health Internship.
Jessica R. Gorman, PhD, MPH
Associate Professor
Accepting new MPH and PhD students
Jessica has expertise in behavioral and psychosocial intervention trials, mixed methods, qualitative methods and community-engaged research. She leads a research team dedicated to improving health care experiences, cancer outcomes and health-related quality of life in cancer survivorship. Her work focuses on implementing and evaluating scalable interventions that promote thriving after cancer.
Veronica Irvin, PhD, MPH
Associate Professor
Accepting new HPHB PhD students
Accepting new MPH students
Veronica’s research focuses on the idea that how medical and science information is presented can change someone’s behavior. Her first project assesses health literacy and communication methods in order to better understand how people manage their health. In her second project, she evaluates the content of information on clinical websites and consent forms in terms of accuracy, reading level and sentiment.
Cynthia Mojica, PhD
Associate Professor
Accepting new HPHB PhD students
Accepting new MPH students
Cynthia conducts health services research and program evaluation in cancer prevention and control among ethnic minority and underserved populations, particularly Latinos. Her research engages community-based organizations health centers, and community members in the design, implementation and evaluation of interventions.
Brian A. Primack, MD, PhD, MS, EdM
Professor
Accepting new HPHB PhD students
Accepting new MPH students
Brian’s research involves social media and mental health. At a time of rapidly increasing exposure to social media and a global mental health crisis, are social media contributing to mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety, poor sleep, emotional support, and loneliness? Or are they potential tools for improving these things? What specific aspects of social media use – such as whom you interact with are what you tend to do on those platforms – might provide the most risk and/or benefit?
Kari-Lyn Sakuma, PhD, MPH
Associate Professor
Accepting new HPHB PhD students
Accepting new MPH students
Kari-Lyn's research focuses on race/ethnic disparities, particularly as it relates to tobacco use, including new and emerging products and other substances. Other areas of interest and experience are in co-parenting, obesity prevention and substance use prevention interventions.
Ashley Vaughn, MPH
Instructor
Not accepting new MPH or PhD students
Ashley’s teaching is guided by inclusive pedagogy, evidence-based teaching practices and a passion for public health. Students engage in a variety of active and collaborative learning approaches such as peer-to-peer instruction, team and problem-based learning, and reflection. Ashley has a particular interest in ensuring that every student has a strong sense of belonging, particularly among first-generation and other underrepresented students.
Associated faculty
Jonathan Garcia, PhD
Associate Professor
Not accepting new PhD students
Accepting new MPH students
Jonathan works both globally and domestically on health disparities that emerge at the intersection of sexuality, gender and race. His work has focused on devising community-led approaches to social inclusion, HIV prevention and Hepatitis C treatment access, especially among Latinos and LGBT populations.
S. Marie Harvey, DrPH, MPH
Professor
Not accepting new MPH or PhD students
Marie's research focuses on the sexual and reproductive health of young adults. She has published widely in the area of risk and prevention of unintended pregnancy and STIs among high-risk women, men and couples and the influence of relationship and contextual factors on protective behaviors and sexual risk-taking.
Sunil Khanna, PhD
Professor
Not accepting new PhD students
Accepting new MPH students
Sunil's research interests include the complex interrelations of biology, culture, gender, ethnicity and health in South Asia and the United States.
Recent publications
(This is not an exhaustive list. We are still rebuilding our database of faculty publications. Visit individual faculty profiles for more extensive lists of their publications.)