Faculty Affiliates
College of Arts and Sciences
Dr. Hongyuan Cao is an Associate Professor in the Department of Statistics. Dr. Cao earned her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill in 2010. Her research focuses on statistical methods development with applications in social, medical and biological sciences. She has extensive experience in analyzing longitudinal data, survival data and omics data arising from various study designs.
Dr. Shayok Chakraborty is Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science. Prior to joining FSU in 2017, Dr. Chakraborty held a research faculty position at Arizona State University, where he was an associate director of the Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing (CUbiC) laboratory. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Arizona State University in 2013. He has worked as a Post-doctoral researcher at Intel Labs, Oregon and in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at Carnegie Mellon University. His research interests include machine learning, computer vision and assistive technology.
Dr. Chakraborty has published his research in the top-tier conferences and journals in this field, including the IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems, the IEEE CVPR, ACM SIGKDD and the ACM Multimedia conference. His paper on person-centered multimedia computing won the 2017 IEEE Multimedia Best Department Article Award. His research on artificial intelligence was featured in the Tallahassee Democrat in 2018 and in the ASU News in 2013 and 2017. Dr. Chakraborty has presented tutorials based on his research on active learning at IEEE ICME 2013 and IEEE WACV 2019. He also regularly serves in the program committee and as a reviewer of several reputed conferences and journals such as AAAI, IJCAI, IEEE CVPR, IEEE ICCV, ACM SIGKDD, ECCV, IEEE TPAMI and IEEE TNNLS among others.
Dr. Lisa Eckel earned her Ph.D. from the University of Western Ontario in 1996. She currently investigates neuroendocrine influences on feeding behavior with an emphasis on understanding how aging-related loss of the ovarian hormone estradiol alters food intake and weight gain in female rodents. Other projects investigate (1) how individual differences in taste perception affect diet choice, caloric intake, and propensity for weight gain, and (2) how periods of overeating followed by periods of dietary restriction affect the neural control of food intake and physiological regulation of body weight.
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Dr. Debra Ann Fadool, Ph.D., is a Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Biological Science.
Dr. Fadool earned her doctorate at the University of Florida and Whitney Laboratory in 1993. She is researching olfactory signal transduction as well as conducting research with learning, memory, and neural plasticity at the level of the ion channel protein through electrophysiology.
Her work explores how diet-induced obesity can affect brain circuitry and electrical signaling of neurons. Most recently she received special funding from the medical marijuana consortium of the state of Florida (MMJCOR), where she is testing how CBD (cannabidiol) affects obsessive compulsive behavior, anxiety, ADHD, and ingestive behaviors in mice. Even though you can find CBD at every gas station, infused in beer at local establishments, and while waiting in line at Esposito’s, little scientific research has been performed to demonstrate its effect to change behavior or which of the purported 70 targets it may activate in the nervous system.
She is also testing if there are fetal developmental changes in mice administered CBD during pregnancy and how this might change anxiety-like behaviors as an adult.
Dr. James Fadool earned his Ph.D. at Michigan State University in 1992 and completed NIH postdoctoral Fellowships at the University of Florida and Harvard University. He studies genetic and biochemical mechanisms regulating visual system development with basic and translational applications to stem cell biology and therapeutic approaches for management of photoreceptor disease.
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Dr. Caterina Gratton is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and earned her Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 2013. Her research focuses on characterizing how human brain networks are organized and how they contribute to complex, goal-directed behaviors such as attention. Her lab team studies the neural substrates underlying these processes in the healthy population as well as how they vary across individuals and break down with damage.
The team uses a broad methodological toolkit including fMRI, cognitive tasks, and TMS, focusing on deep “precision” measures to precisely-phenotype brain and behavior in individual people. Recent work in the lab has focused on individual differences in brain networks across the adult lifespan and how these are related to preservation and loss of goal-directed behavior with age.
Dr. Thomas Joiner earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. His research is on the psychology, neurobiology, and treatment of suicidal behavior and related conditions, including in active duty military and veteran populations.
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Dr. Pamela Keel earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Minnesota in 1998. She currently studies eating disorders, including biological and psychological factors that contribute to binge eating and purging behaviors; nosology and statistical approaches to classification; longitudinal and epidemiological studies of psychological, social and cultural factors that influence eating disorders and body image.
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Dr. Wen Li received her Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 2004. She is currently studying emotion and emotion-cognition interaction; anxiety and anxiety disorders; perception; learning and neural plasticity.
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Dr. Chris Martin earned his Ph.D. from the University of Western Ontario in 2015. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and Program in Neuroscience.
Dr. Martin's research focuses on long-term memory, with the goal of developing a deeper understanding of its cognitive and neural bases, how it relates to other aspects of cognition (e.g., perception, decision making, motor control), how it changes across the lifespan, and how it can be enhanced to promote graceful aging.
Dr. Natalie Sachs-Ericsson obtained her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Southern Illinois University. She completed Post-Doctoral study at University of Colorado-Boulder and at Max Planck Institute in Berlin Germany. Dr. Sachs-Ericsson is on the faculty in the Department of Psychology in the area of clinical psychology at Florida State University. Her area of research interests are psychiatric epidemiology in general population and elderly population samples. Her focus has been on depression, cognitive decline and suicide. In her lab they examine protective and risk factors (including biological/genetic risk factors as well as psychosocial factors (e.g., poverty, early childhood experiences, childhood abuse, interpersonal functioning, ethnicity, and race) that influence the onset and course of psychiatric disorders, dementia and suicide. A focus has been on understanding the mechanisms that underlie the neurological underpinnings linking depression to cognitive decline and dementia. A second focus has been the association of early trauma to subsequent psychiatric and health outcomes in the general population and among older adults. She is currently the Associate Editor for the journal Aging & Mental Health.
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Dr. Qing-Xiang “Amy” Sang is a Pfeiffer Professor for Cancer Research in Chemistry and Biochemistry and an Endowed Chair Professor of Cancer Research at the Florida State University. She received her Ph.D. degree from Georgetown University in Washington D.C. in 1990. Dr. Sang received National Research Service Award, NIH Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship and many other awards and grants. Dr. Sang has discovered and characterized several novel human metalloproteinases that are involved in cancer invasion and angiogenesis and age-related inflammatory diseases. She has made significant contributions to the field of biochemistry and enzymology, particularly for deciphering structure-function relationship of metalloproteinases and molecular mechanisms of cancer and inflammatory diseases. The Sang group and her collaborators are striving to elucidate the biochemical steps and molecular mechanisms of human breast cancer, brain cancer, and prostate cancer progression and the pathogenesis of acute stroke, chronic vascular dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease.
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Dr. Norman B. (Brad) Schmidt is Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Psychology.
His research focuses on the nature, causes, treatment and prevention of anxiety and related psychopathology. He is interested in developing treatments for distress among individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment and early Alzheimer’s disease as well as their caregivers.
Professor Schmidt earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas in 1991.
Dr. Zuoxin Wang received his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1991. He joined the faculty at Florida State University in 1998, and now is University Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Psychology and Program in Neuroscience.
Professor Wang is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the American Psychological Association. His research is devoted to the understanding of the neuronal and hormonal mechanisms of social behaviors as well as the effects of environmental and physiological factors on brain plasticity and its subsequent role in behaviors. His research has been continuously supported by multiple National Institutes of Health grants.
Dr. Aaron Wilber is Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and is affiliated with the Program in Neuroscience. He earned his Ph.D. from Indiana University in 2010. His research is directed at understanding how we get oriented in space so we can navigate our environment and what goes wrong when this system fails.
He is currently exploring why Alzheimer’s disease leads to difficulty navigating new surroundings, what brain changes may underlie getting lost, and treatments for reversing these impairments.
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Dr. Shenghao Zhang received his Ph.D. from North Carolina State University in 2020 and joined the Department of Psychology as a postdoctoral researcher. He's interested in how older adults maintain high performance on cognitively complex tasks in everyday life. His research focuses on individual difference factors that influence these performances and interventions that help to maintain those performances.
College of Business
Dr. Patricia Born received her Ph.D. in Economics from Duke University and is currently the Midyette Eminent Scholar of Insurance in the Department of Risk Management/Insurance, Real Estate and Legal Studies at Florida State University. She is a research associate in the Florida Catastrophic Storm Risk Management Center and the Director of the Risk Management PhD program in the College of Business. Her research interests include insurance regulation, medical malpractice, retirement planning, health insurance, tort reform, and catastrophe modeling. She has published in leading insurance academic journals including Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Journal of Risk and Insurance, Journal of Regulatory Economics, Columbia Business Law Review, and the Journal of Business and Economic Statistics. She is Editor of Risk Management and Insurance Review.
Dr. Born has served as President of the American Risk and Insurance Association and the Risk Theory Society.She serves as the Insurance Finance Expert on the Florida Commission on Hurricane Loss Projection Methodology. She also serves as a Long Term Care Ombudsman for the State of Florida Department of Elder Affairs.
Dr. JR Harding, Ed.D., is a Teaching Faculty II in the College of Business and an author, speaker and advocate.
A leader within the disability community from both personal and professional experience, Dr. Harding has contributed for the past 38 years in national, state, and community public policy to advance the independence and self-sufficiency of persons with disabilities. He is a former two-time presidential appointee, seven-time Florida gubernatorial appointee, and author of Now What? and ADA Adventure. As a 2x quadriplegic, he strives to lead by example.
Dr. Harding currently serves on several national, state, and community boards.
Some of his past contributions include the 2002 James Patrick Memorial Program, co-authoring the 2004 National Accessibility Guidelines, the 2006 Volunteer Voting Accessibility Guidelines, the 2008 Outdoor Accessibility Guidelines, the 2014 Refueling Assistance Act, and the 2015 Florida Able Act. He serves as a grant reviewer for the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP) and for the Christopher and Dana Reeves Foundation. In the past he has taught MAN 4390 (Current Issues in the Workforce), MAN 4310 (Workforce Inclusion), and MAN 4143 (Contemporary Leadership Challenges).
Dr. Danling Jiang is the SunTrust Professor of Finance in the College of Business and a Dean’s Emerging Scholar. She earned her Ph.D. at Ohio State University, and her areas of expertise are behavioral asset pricing, behavioral corporate finance and household/individual financial decision-making.
College of Communication and Information
Dr. Jonathan Adams is a professor in the College of Communication and Information with The Florida State University. During his 20 years’ experience with in interactive software development he received 17 awards for technical achievement and innovation. During his employment with FSU, he directed a graduate program in interactive communication, led 2.5 million dollars in contracts and grants and is currently a co-founder of iMaker FSU an interdisciplinary research and development facility focused on the development of new and innovative uses for information technologies. Adams’ interdisciplinary work includes university teaching positions in Electrical & Computer Engineering, Music, Education and Communication. Dr Adams has a deep interest in entrepreneurship. He has organized a Startup Weekend, several 3 Day Startup events and regularly serves as a judge, mentor and consultant on campus and in the local community. He is an active member of the Project Management Institute and an avid fan of gypsy jazz.
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Dr. Russell B. Clayton is Associate Professor and Founding Director of the Cognition and Emotion Lab (CEL) in the School of Communication. His primary research examines how people cognitively and emotionally interact with and respond to various media and technologies utilizing psychophysiological, behavioral, self-report, and memory measures. The goal of his research is to provide recommendations into how media content and technologies can be used to advance human health and wellness. Dr. Clayton has worked with the Institute for Successful Longevity as a Co-Investigator on the institute’s project, Human Factors Guidelines to Develop Education Tip Cards for Aging Road Users, for the Florida Department of Transportation. His work has been published in leading journals including the Journal of Communication; Media Psychology; Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication; Health Communication; and Communication Monographs, among others.
He was recently named an Emerging Scholar by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC).Dr. Clayton earned his B.S. in Psychology in 2010 and M.A. in Health Psychology in 2012, both from Texas State University. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri in 2015.
Dr. Juliann Cortese is Associate Professor and Director of Master's Studies in the School of Communication. Her area of research focuses on the uses and effects of online health content, having examined online tailoring, mediated social support, and mental processes engaged in while examining online content. Dr. Cortese worked with ISL as a Co-Investigator on their project, Human Factors Guidelines to Develop Education Tip Cards for Aging Road Users, for the Florida Department of Transportation. She has published in top ranking journals including Patient Education & Counseling, Journal of Health Communication, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, and Human Communication Research.
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Dr. Yasmeen Hamza, M.D., Ph.D., will be joining the School of Communication Science & Disorders, as an Assistant Professor in the Fall of 2022. She is currently a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Hearing and Speech Lab, University of California, Irvine, where she studies the association of cognitive decline with hearing loss and tinnitus.
Dr. Hamza obtained her Ph.D. at KU Leuven, Belgium, as part of a Marie Curie Fellowship, where she assessed the speech perception of children with cochlear implants. She has also worked briefly for Cochlear BENELUX during her Ph.D. and completed a postdoc at the University of Rochester. She is particularly interested in integrating her clinical experience with research. Her research interests span auditory processing, speech perception, cochlear implants, tinnitus, aging, and cognition.
Dr. Zhe He is an Associate Professor in Florida State University's School of Information. He also holds a courtesy appointment with Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine of College of Medicine. He is the Informatics Lead of the FSU-UF Clinical and Translational Science Award and the Lead of the Method Core of the Center for Translational Behavioral Science. His research lies in biomedical and health informatics, clinical research informatics, data mining, knowledge representation, and big data analytics. The overarching goal of his research is to improve the population health and advance biomedical research through the collection, analysis, and application of electronic health data from heterogeneous sources.
As Principal Investigator, Dr. He has been funded by National Institutes of Health, Eli Lilly and Co., Amazon, NVIDIA, FSU Council on Research and Creativity, and the Institute for Successful Longevity. Dr. He obtained his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, his master's in Computer Science from Columbia University, and his bachelor's in Computer Science from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. Before joining FSU, he was a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at Department of Biomedical Informatics at Columbia University. He has published more than 80 peer-reviewed papers in leading biomedical informatics venues. His papers received a number of prestigious recognitions including two Distinguished Paper Awards of AMIA 2015 and 2017 Annual Symposium.
Dr. Erin Ingvalson received her Ph.D. in cognitive psychology with a concentration in cognitive neuroscience from Carnegie Mellon University. She did her postdoctoral training in communication sciences and disorders at Northwestern University before joining FSU’s School of Communication Science and Disorders in the College of Communication and Information. Dr. Ingvalson’s interests are in speech perception and speech learning. Her lab takes a whole-lifespan approach, studying individual differences in speech learning outcomes from children receiving a cochlear implant to younger adults perceiving accented speech to older adults learning to adapt to the changes in speech perception that accompany aging.
Dr. Michelle M. Kazmer is a professor in the School of Information, and Dean of the College of Communication and Information. She also holds a courtesy faculty appointment at the College of Medicine in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine.
Her Ph.D. is from the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, her MLS is from the School of Information Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, and her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering is from Columbia University. She has worked as a rare book cataloger, as an academic engineering librarian, and as a technical information specialist for a big-three automotive manufacturer. Her research expertise is in qualitative methods, and her work focuses on distributed knowledge processes. Her work is collaborative and multidisciplinary and prioritizes working with graduate students. Her research in distributed knowledge has two primary directions: studies of health knowledge creation and sharing, and conducting information science theoretical analyses of golden age detective fiction.
Dr. Kaitlin Lansford is Associate Professor in the School of Communication Science and Disorders and Director of FSU’s Motor Speech Disorders Lab, where she conducts research on dysarthric speech perception. Her work focuses on perceptual training, which offers a promising avenue for improving intelligibility of people with dysarthria by offsetting the communicative burden from the patient onto their primary communication partners. She earned her Ph.D. in speech and hearing science from Arizona State University.
Dr. Mia Liza A. Lustria is a professor in the School of Information. She earned her doctorate in communication from the University of Kentucky in 2005 and joined Florida State University's faculty the same year. Her research explores different ways that persuasive technologies and interactive media can be leveraged to empower health consumers and improve access to health care.
Dr. Lustria is known for her research on theory-based message tailoring, information seeking, health literacy and the participatory design of eHealth approaches to support behavior-change and patient self-management, primarily in the areas of adolescent and women's health, cancer, diabetes, mental health and STD prevention.
She is the Tech Liaison of the FSU Center for Translational Behavioral Science and is a founding member of the Florida Health Equity Research Institute. She also has courtesy appointments at the College of Medicine, the School of Communication and the Master of Public Health Program at FSU.
Dr. Elizabeth Madden is an assistant professor in the School of Communication Science and Disorders. She completed her Ph.D. in Speech & Hearing Sciences at the University of Washington and her clinical training in speech-language pathology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Her research is focused on rehabilitation of aphasia, an acquired language-processing disorder. Specifically, her work aims to better understand the relationship between spoken and written language abilities in individuals with aphasia in order to develop behavioral treatments to address reading and writing disorders post-stroke.
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Dr. Paul F. Marty is Professor in the School of Information within the College of Communication and Information at Florida State University, Florida’s iSchool. He has a background in ancient history and computer science engineering, and his Ph.D. is from the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. From 1996 to 2002, he was Director of Information Technology at the Spurlock Museum. Dr. Marty’s research and teaching interests include museum informatics, information behavior, and user-centered design. He specializes in the study of museums as sociotechnical systems, and is particularly interested in the social implications of introducing new technologies into the museum environment. His current research focuses on the evolution of sociotechnical systems and collaborative work practices, digital convergence and the evolving roles of information professionals, and involving users in the co-construction of distributed, digital knowledge.
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Dr. Ulla Bunz is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Kansas in 2002. Dr. Bunz conducts research on the positive effects of technology (e.g. digital games, social media, Internet, mobile phone) across the adult lifespan. This research also includes personality factors that persist over time, health benefits derived from the use of technology, strengthening of inter-generational ties, and overall quality of life.
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Dr. Zilong Xie is Assistant Professor in the School of Communication Science and Disorders. Previously, he was with the University of Kansas Medical Center. Xie earned his doctorate in Communication Sciences and Disorders from the University of Texas at Austin.
Xie’s research involves understanding how age-related changes in auditory and cognitive functions limit speech understanding and translating this new knowledge into clinical strategies to improve the outcomes of older listeners, especially those with cochlear implants.
His work focuses on older adults with cochlear implants and on older adults with mild cognitive impairment.
College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences
Dr. Bahram H. Arjmandi, Ph.D., R.D., is currently a Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Integrative Physiology and Director of FSU's Center for Advancing Exercise and Nutrition Research on Aging. Dr. Arjmandi is a registered Dietitian who received his PhD from the Department of Human Nutrition at Kansas State University where he studied the effect of soluble fiber on sterol synthesis. His current research emphasis is women’s health including osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, and cardiovascular health. He has received numerous recognitions for his scholarly research and graduate student advisement including The Abbott Nutrition Award in Women’s Health from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the Margaret Scruggs Award for Meritorious Research, the Regents Distinguished Research Award at Oklahoma State University, and Distinguished Research Award at Kansas State University.
Dr. Michael Delp received a B.S. degree in Biomedical Chemistry from Oral Roberts University and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Georgia in Exercise Physiology. He was an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the University of Konstanz in Germany and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Missouri. His research examines the effects of physical activity on the cardiovascular system. Work from the Delp laboratory uses aging, microgravity (simulated and actual) and type 2 diabetes to investigate the effects of low levels of physical activity on vascular function, and exercise training to determine whether elevations in physical activity improve indicators of vascular health. According to the American Heart Association, physical inactivity is a major risk factor for developing coronary artery disease, stroke and peripheral vascular disorders. It also contributes to other risk factors, including obesity, high blood pressure, low levels of HDL cholesterol, and diabetes. Work from the Delp laboratory has focused on the full spectrum of physical activity on smooth muscle and endothelial cell function of arteries, and how activity-related alterations in vasomotor function alters control of arterial pressure and tissue perfusion.
Dr. Shengli Dong earned his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park. He conducts research on workplace accommodations for people with disabilities, as well as vocational rehabilitation. Dr. Dong also investigates the relationship between mindfulness and mental health, and multicultural counseling.
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Dr Frank Fincham is an Eminent Scholar and Director of the Florida State University Family Institute who received his doctoral degree in psychology from Oxford University, England. His research focuses on cognitive processes relating to conflict in marital relationships and forgiveness as a relationship repair process. He has developed a bi-dimensional model of relationship quality along with a brief measure for its assessment. Current work also includes study of mindfulness and prayer in romantic relationships as well cardiovascular functioning and hemodynamics.
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Dr. Elizabeth B. Goldsmith is FSU Professor Emerita and Research Affiliated Faculty in Virginia Tech's College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. She earned her Ph.D. at Michigan State University. Currently, she gives speeches on women's economic security and researches time management. She co-authored “The Relationship Between Retirement Wealth and Householders’ Lifetime Personal Financial and Investing Behaviors” in the Journal of Consumer Affairs.
Dr. Bradley Gordon‘s research is focused on understanding how stimuli such as nutrients, hormones, and physical activity regulate changes in skeletal muscle mass and muscle function in diseased and non-diseased conditions. He utilizes both in vivo and in vitro model systems, including synergistic ablation, acute and long-term aerobic exercise training, high frequency muscle contractions, and castration, to test his hypotheses.
Dr. Gordon received his Ph.D. in Applied Physiology from the University of South Carolina and conducted postdoctoral work in cell and molecular physiology at the Penn State College of Medicine.
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Dr. Amy R. Guerette, Ed.D., is the College of Education Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and an Associate Professor in the Program on Visual Impairments. She currently oversees academic affairs, student affairs, and accreditation in the College. Prior to working in higher education, Dr. Guerette worked as a Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments and a Deafblind Specialist in P-12 education. She serves on national and state committees in the field of visual impairment and deafblindness, as well as various state and university committees regarding teacher preparation and academic integrity. Her research interests include the development of literacy skills in students with visual impairments and deafblindness, accommodations and workplace barriers for adults with visual impairments, and teacher preparation.
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Dr. Robert Hickner is a Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Integrative Physiology with a broad research agenda investigating how exercise and nutrition affect the regulation of blood flow and metabolism in peripheral tissues to improve cardiometabolic disease risk across the lifespan.
Dr. Hickner received B.S and M.S. degrees in Biology from Indiana University and Ball State University, respectively, as well as a Ph.D. in Physiology from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. He subsequently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Washington University School of Medicine.
Dr. Jasminka Ilich-Ernst is a registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN) and the Fellow of the American College of Nutrition (FACN). She is an inducted member of the Bosnian & Herzegovinian-American Academy of Arts and Sciences (BHAAAS). Dr. Ilich-Ernst earned her Ph.D. in Medicinal Sciences at the Ohio State University and the University of Zagreb in Croatia and her master’s degree in Nutrition at University of Utah. She is currently a collaborating faculty in the Center on Better Health and Life for Underserved Populations, FSU and visiting professor at the University of Zagreb, Croatia and University of Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina.
Dr. Ilich-Ernst’s research includes clinical studies in older women with nutritional interventions incorporating behavioral modification and modes of physical activity for augmentation of bone and body composition. She has identified a triad incorporating a simultaneous deterioration of bone and muscle tissues with adipose tissue expansion in older individuals and termed it “osteosarcopenic obesity syndrome,” now recognized throughout the world. Her research also includes outreach to underserved communities for education and health promotion interventions to foster obesity prevention, improvement in cardiovascular risk factors and overall healthier lifestyle.
Dr. Fengfeng Ke is a Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems.
Dr. Ke’s current research focuses on digital game-based learning, mixed-reality-based immersive learning, computer-supported collaborative learning, and inclusive design of e-learning. She investigates intergenerational learning in the creative and playful learning environment, and intergenerational groups in computer supported collaborative work.
She is the principal investigator of multiple research projects on technology-based, interactive learning systems.
Dr. Ke’s research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, Spencer Foundation, and MacArthur Foundation. She has authored and co-authored many articles that have been published in academic journals, such as Computers and Education, Educational Technology Research & Development, International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, The Journal of Educational Research, British Journal of Educational Technology, American Educational Research Journal, and The Internet and Higher Education.
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Dr. Amy Chan Hyung Kim is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sport Management at Florida State University. Dr. Kim’s research interest focuses on promoting sport for health from a social epidemiological perspective at various levels such as non-institutionalized older adults. Her primary research inquiry aims to: (1) examine the effectiveness of sport participation on individual’s social, psychological/mental health outcomes from a social epidemiological perspective, and (2) develop evidence-based interventions to promote sport participation and participants’ health and well-being.
For her research projects, Dr. Kim has worked with various sport organizations such as Tallahassee Parks, Recreation & Neighborhood Affairs; United States Tennis Association; the United States America Pickleball Association; and others.
Dr. Kim earned her doctoral degree and master’s degree from The Ohio State University and her bachelor’s degree from Yonsei University.
Dr. Jonathan Kimmes is an assistant professor in the Department of Family and Child Sciences in the College of Human Sciences. He earned his Ph.D. in Family Studies and Human Services from Kansas State University in 2016.
Dr. Kimmes' research focuses on the association between mindfulness and romantic relationship processes and, by extension, various aspects of psychological and physical health and well-being.
Dr. Ravinder Nagpal is Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Integrative Physiology. He received his Ph.D. in Food & Dairy Microbiology from National Dairy Research Institute in Haryana, India, and undertook postdoctoral trainings in gut microbiology from Juntendo School of Medicine in Tokyo and Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C.
His research spans around understanding the host-associated microbiome and the dynamics of diet-gut-brain interface at the extremes of aging and in aging-associated metabolic and cognitive health. Dr. Nagpal’s lab aims to discover novel signatures of gut dysbiosis in host metabolic diseases including obesity and Type-2 diabetes and neuropsychiatric disorders including stress, anxiety and depression, with an aim to explore how microbiome modulation with specific nutritional interventions including dietary elements, micronutrients, probiotics and prebiotics could ameliorate the pathology of these aging-associated disorders.
Dr. Joshua I. Newman is Co-Director of the Center for Sport, Health, and Equitable Development (SHED) and Professor of Sport, Media, and Cultural Studies in the Department of Sport Management.
He currently serves as Ph.D. Program Coordinator and Associate Chair in the Department of Sport Management. He has published three books and more than 100 articles and chapters on issues related to social inequalities, cultural politics, and political economics and ecologies of sport and physical activity. His two most recent books have been selected as CHOICE Outstanding Academic Titles and his journal articles have been published in top international journals within the field. Dr. Newman’s work has featured in episodes of The Society Pages, the Somatic Podcast, the Global Sport Institute Podcast, and in interviews for The Washington Post, TIME magazine, Buzzfeed, and the Associated Press. He is a Past-President and Research Fellow of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport (NASSS).
Dr. Newman earned his Ph.D. at the University of Maryland.
Dr. Michael Ormsbee is Professor of Nutrition and Integrative Physiology, the Associate Director of the Institute of Sports Sciences & Medicine, and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa.
Dr. Ormsbee joined the FSU faculty in 2010, after spending two years at Skidmore College (Saratoga Springs, NY) in the Department of Health and Exercise Sciences.
He completed his Ph.D. in Bioenergetics (interdisciplinary program in Exercise Science, Physiology, & Biochemistry) from East Carolina University, his M.S. in Exercise Physiology and Sports Nutrition from South Dakota State University, and his B.S. in Exercise Science/Business from Skidmore College.
Dr. Ormsbee is a Fellow of both the American College of Sports Medicine and the International Society of Sports Nutrition. His research expertise involves the interaction of exercise training, nutrition, and supplementation to improve metabolism and achieve optimal body composition, human performance, and health in athletic and clinical populations. Dr. Ormsbee was honored as the 2014 FSU Undergraduate Teacher of the Year, 2017 Nutrition Researcher of the Year by the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), 2018 FSU Graduate Student Mentor of the Year, 2020 FSU Distinguished Teacher of the Year, and the 2020 Sport Scientist of the Year by the NSCA. His course, “Changing Body Composition Through Diet and Exercise” is available through The Great Courses. Follow him @mikeormsbee.
Dr. Lynn Panton is a Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Integrative Physiology. She is a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine. Dr. Panton’s research interests are in strength training and the effects on the physiological measurements of strength, blood pressure, cholesterol, body composition, and functional outcomes of healthy elderly adults and chronically diseased populations. Her recent research has focused on the effects of strength training in women breast cancer survivors. She received her BS from Emory University, and MSESS and Ph.D. from University of Florida.
Dr. Michelle S. Parvatiyar is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Integrative Physiology and earned her doctorate in Pharmacology from the University of Miami. Her research is focused on understanding age-related factors that drive cardiovascular disease development and understanding the parameters that govern force transduction in striated muscle.
Dr. Gloria Salazar obtained a M.S. in Biochemistry in 1993 and a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology in 2000 from the Catholic University in Santiago, Chile. Dr. Salazar’s research has established a novel interplay among mitochondrial function, autophagy and zinc metabolism in the regulation of vascular aging. These studies will provide a foundation for novel therapeutic interventions to promote healthier aging and prevent/delay age-related diseases including atherosclerosis.
Dr. Kyle Smith is an Assistant Professor in Sports Nutrition. He received his Doctorate of Philosophy, Physiological Sciences with a Minor in Molecular Medicine in May 2023 from the University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ. His research is primarily focused on how diet, exercise, and stress alter the immune system. Changes in lifestyle factors can drastically affect how our immune cells respond to insults, and much of his laboratory’s work is aimed at developing economical adjuvants to current cancer immunotherapies. Related to this work, he also investigates the effects of spaceflight on the immune system in an effort to bolster immune function for future long-duration missions. Lastly, he is interested in dietary modification and supplementation to enhance sports performance in a variety of different settings.
Dr. Jennifer Steiner earned her doctorate in Applied Physiology at the University of South Carolina and is now an assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition and Integrative Physiology..
Dr. Steiner conducts research into the integration of exercise physiology and nutrition and the role of these factors in the prevention and treatment of disease as well as the promotion of optimal health and performance. Her current work focuses on the impact of alcohol, sepsis or different dietary and exercise interventions in regards to the maintenance of skeletal muscle health and its interaction with other organ systems.
Dr. Joseph C. Watso is Assistant Professor in the Department of Health, Nutrition, and Food Sciences. He earned his Ph.D. in Applied Physiology from the University of Delaware in 2019.
His research focuses on prevention and treatment strategies for cardiovascular disease, with specific interests in obesity, hypertension, and aging.
College of Engineering
Dr. Juyeong Choi, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. He earned his B.S. in Architectural Engineering from University of Seoul and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Civil Engineering from Purdue University. His research interests include infrastructure and facility planning, infrastructure system-of-systems, operational simulation modeling, and capital rehabilitation planning in the context of disaster risk reduction.
With regard to the research for aging populations, he is interested in infrastructure planning for aging populations in post-disaster situations (e.g., hurricane shelter planning, etc.).
Maxim A. Dulebenets, Ph.D., P.E., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering of the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. His research interests include but are not limited to: operations research, optimization, simulation modeling, NP-hard problems, mathematical programming, metaheuristics, hybrid algorithms, evolutionary computation, transportation engineering, freight transportation, intermodal freight facilities, railroads, liner shipping scheduling, and GPS data processing.
Dr. Dulebenets holds B.S. and M.Sc. degrees in Railway Construction from the Moscow State University of Railroad Engineering and M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Memphis in Civil Engineering, with a concentration in transportation.
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Dr. Jingjiao Guan researches Micro/nano -devices for biosensing and drug delivery. He earned his B.E. in Metal Physics in 1995 at the University of Science and Technology in Beijing as well as his M.E. in Materials Physics in 1998. In 2003 he earned a M.S. in Biophysics at The Ohio State University, and in 2005 Dr. Guan earned his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at The Ohio State University.
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Dr. Yan Li earned her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Tsinghua University in Beijing China in 1995. In 2002 she earned her Ph.D.in Chemical Engineering at The Ohio State University. Dr. Li studies Stem cell technology and engineering; Tissue engineering and biomaterials; and Cell processing and bioprocessing.
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Dr. Leo Liu is an Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering. He received his Ph.D. from the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and Pettit Institute of Bioengineering and Biosciences at Georgia Institute of Technology in 2020.
Dr. Liu directs a research group that studies biofluid mechanics of living fluids such as blood. His current research focuses on understanding the effect of hemodynamics on blood-clot formation at the molecular, cellular and tissue level using multiscale computational modeling and experimental micro/macro-fluidic techniques. His research aims to facilitate successful longevity through developing diagnostic, preventive and therapeutic strategies for cardiovascular and hematologic problems such as heart attacks and strokes that are the leading causes of death in the United States.
Dr. Eren Erman Ozguven, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of the FAMU-FSU Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. His research interests are focused on multi-modal emergency transportation operations, evaluation of roadway crashes, emergency inventory management, modeling of transportation networks, and intelligent transportation systems. Dr. Ozguven’s research program has evolved towards studying the accessibility and safety of the multi-modal transportation networks in order to assess the transportation needs of the aging populations. Dr. Ozguven has authored articles in respected journals such as Transportation Research Part C, Transportation Research Record, Transport Reviews and American Society of Engineers journals. He is actively involved in Transportation Research Board activities. He teaches courses in transportation engineering and statistics.
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Dr. John Sobanjo is Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Director of the Center for Accessibility and Safety for an Aging Population and a Faculty Affiliate of the Institute for Successful Longevity.
Dr. Sobanjo has a diverse background in civil engineering, with specific interests in the areas of transportation infrastructure systems, safety, resilience, sustainability, and applications of advanced technologies. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and a licensed professional engineer in the states of California and Florida. He earned his Ph.D. in civil engineering from Texas A&M University.
Dr. Lisa Spainhour received her Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from North Carolina State University in 1994, and studies traffic safety with a focus on aging drivers. Since 2002, she has led a team of researchers and programmers that develop, deploy, and support traffic crash and citation software, currently supported in over 150 agencies with over 16,000 users. Dr. Spainhour is the Director of the Center for Transportation and Public Safety, and the Education and Outreach Coordinator for the FSU Transportation Center for Accessibility and Safety for an Aging Population.
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Dr. Yanshuo Sun is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, Florida State University. Dr. Sun specializes in developing large-scale optimization models and computerized systems for multi-modal transportation systems planning, operations, and management. His research has been sponsored by various federal and state agencies, including the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Energy. He has more than 40 publications in leading peer-reviewed transportation journals and conferences as the lead author. He received numerous research awards from national organizations, such as the Federal Aviation Administration and the American Public Transit Association.
Dr. Sun holds a Ph.D. in transportation engineering from the University of Maryland. One of his recent studies is to improve the accessibility and mobility for transportation-disadvantaged population groups, including seniors, by developing advanced scheduling and communication tools.
College of Fine Arts
Dr. David Gussak, Ph.D., ATR-BC ., is a Professor and the Chairperson for The Florida State University Department of Art Education; he is also Clinical Coordinator for the Department’s Graduate Art Therapy program. David has published and presented extensively internationally, nationally and regionally on: art therapy in forensic settings, working with aggressive and violent clients, and the work of the art therapist.
Dr. Lisa Kinch Waxman, Ph.D., is a professor and chair of the Interior Design department at Florida State University. Her research includes topics related to sustainable design, the design of spaces that foster community, and design for special populations. She is a NCIDQ certificate holder, a LEED-AP, and a licensed interior designer in Florida. She teaches computer-aided design, sustainability, and studio.
College of Medicine
Dr. Damaris Aschwanden is a Post Doctoral Researcher in the College of Medicine. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology in 2018 from the University of Zurich, Switzerland. During the work on her doctorate, she was a fellow of the International Max Planck Research School on the Life Course (LIFE), a joint international Ph.D. program of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, the Freie Universität Berlin, the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the University of Michigan, the University of Virginia, and the University of Zurich.
Her research addresses the associations between personality, health, cognitive aging, and dementia. She investigates these links using data from both long-term longitudinal and ambulatory assessment studies. Her recent work has focused on the evaluation of risk factors for dementia applying machine learning and on the predictive value of cognitive performance and personality traits for daily cognitive behaviors.
Dr. Pradeep Bhide received his degree in veterinary medicine from Veterinary College, Bangalore, India, and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. He undertook postdoctoral training in developmental neurobiology at University College, London; Yale University; and Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Bhide is the Jim and Betty Ann Rodgers Eminent Scholar Chair of Developmental Neuroscience and the director of the Center for Brain Repair at the Florida State University College of Medicine.
Henry J. Carretta, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the College of Medicine conducts health services research, public health systems and services research, and public health law research. Prior to joining the College of Medicine, Dr. Carretta was Medicare Research Director at the Veterans Affairs Information Resource Center. Earlier, he was an Instructor and Adjunct Professor for the Department of Health Administration and the Department of Pediatric Dentistry at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he received his Ph.D. in Health Services Organization and Research. He earned his M.P.H. in Epidemiology from the Eastern Virginia Medical School.
Dr. Judy Delp, Ph.D., is Professor in the College of Medicine. Her research program reflects a longstanding interest in adaptations of the resistance vasculature to aging and vascular disease associated with cardiovascular risk factors. Her work focuses on the ability of aerobic exercise training to reverse adverse vascular adaptations associated with advancing age.
Dr. Nicole Ennis is an Associate Professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences & Social Medicine in the College of Medicine. She received her Ph.D. from Kent State University in 2001 (Clinical Psychology, Health Psychology Track). Dr. Ennis completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Miami through a National Institute of Mental Health training grant focused on biopsychosocial research in immunology and AIDS.
The goal of Dr. Ennis' current program of research is to improve patient care among medically under-served populations through evidence-based behavioral interventions in the context of learning health-care systems. Her research aims to understand and intervene on factors that influence health outcomes among patients coping with HIV/AIDS and other chronic/life-limiting illnesses. In addition, Dr. Ennis' work examines and identifies implementation strategies that improve patient care in real world settings.
Dr. Gail Galasko earned her Ph.D from Queen Mary College University of London. Research in the Galasko Lab is focused on understanding the mechanism of action of insulin and what causes the insulin resistance found in type 2 diabetes mellitus. They have isolated 2 small compounds which act as second messengers in the insulin signaling pathway, and a third which inhibits insulin action. Her hypothesis that these compounds have an important physiological role in the maintenance of normal blood sugar, and that lack of the insulin second messengers is an important factor in diabetes and its complications. She believes that findings from her studies will have important implications in understanding of and developing new treatments for diabetes.
Dr. Robert Glueckauf is Professor of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine in the College of Medicine. He received his B.A. in Psychology from the University of Florida and his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Florida State University. Prior to returning to FSU in 2003, he served as Professor and Director of the Center for Research on Telehealth and Healthcare Communications at UF. Earlier in his career, he was Director of Clinical Training in the Department of Psychology at the Purdue School of Science at Indianapolis.
Professor Glueckauf is also former president of the American Psychological Association’s Division of Rehabilitation Psychology and a fellow of the American Psychological Association. He has written more than 125 empirical and theoretical articles, books and chapters in the fields of telehealth and rehabilitation psychology. He has had continuous grant funding since 1992 from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, National Institutes of Health, Health Resources and Services Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, as well as other public and private sources.
His research interests lie in the development, evaluation and dissemination of culturally-responsive, telecommunication-mediated interventions for individuals with chronic health conditions and their family care partners, outcomes measurement, and spirituality and health.
Dr. Akash Gunjan is a research scientist trying to understand how chromatin structure and its components such as histones contribute to the maintenance of genomic stability, especially in response to DNA damage, using yeast and human cells in culture. Genomic instability is a hallmark of cancer cells and is also associated with aging. An important aging related project in Dr. Gunjan’s lab is to evaluate the role of individual histone genes and rDNA metabolism in aging using the budding yeast as a model system. Overall, Dr. Gunjan’s research will improve our understanding of the basic mechanisms underlying cancer and cellular aging. Apart from research, Dr. Gunjan is involved in teaching various graduate level courses that draw upon his expertise in the fields of chromatin biology, molecular biology, biochemistry, genetics and epigenetics. Dr. Gunjan also facilitates small group sessions in Medical Biochemistry and Genetics, Microanatomy, Microbiology, Pathology, Pharmacology and Physiology for first and second year medical students.
Dr. Yang Hou is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine in the College of Medicine at Florida State University and the PI of the Development, Equity, and Resilience (DEaR) Lab. Dr. Hou earned her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. Broadly, her research centers on how environmental and biological factors influence the neurobehavioral (cognitive, academic, socioemotional, behavioral) development of individuals in underrepresented groups such as ethnic minorities and families with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). Her current primary line of research aims to use innovative and advanced quantitative methods to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the patterns and predictors of neurobehavioral development of individuals with NF1 across the lifespan. Her research has been funded by the USA Department of Defense and the Children’s Tumor Foundation. She also received multiple international awards, for example, Rising Star from the Association for Psychological Science and Early Career Outstanding Paper Award from the American Psychological Association.
Dr. Pascal Jean-Pierre earned his PhD from the University of Rhode Island in 2005. He completed NIH postdoctoral cancer control research fellowship and his postdoctoral MPH from the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry in 2009. He is interested in cancer and treatment-related neurocognitive dysfunction (CRND) and other cancer-related biobehavioral sequelae such as fatigue and psychological distress. Dr. Jean-Pierre’s cancer control research program focuses on 1) understanding the neural substrate and underlying neurocognitive mechanisms involved in CRND) 2) developing and testing reliable methods to facilitate diagnosis, optimal patient care, and successful neurocognitive rehabilitation for CRND; 3) understanding brain plasticity and the changes that accompany recovery of neurocognitive operations in the context of cancer and its treatments; and 4) developing and testing behavioral and pharmacological interventions to treat CRND and other cancer-related adverse effects for patients and survivors. An overarching goal of Dr. Jean-Pierre’s research is to develop cancer control assessment and interventions strategies that are applicable across multicultural populations, reduce cancer burden and sufferings, and improve quality of life for all cancer patients and survivors.
Dr. Paul Katz is a widely published author and noted speaker on aging issues. He graduated with an M.D. from the University of Michigan, where he was a member of Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society, and completed a geriatric medicine fellowship from SUNY Buffalo at the VA Medical Center in Buffalo, N.Y. Dr. Katz is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Geriatrics, and is currently leading research on The North and Central Florida Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Partnership, a partnership between FSU, community-based primary care, and community based education organizations.
Dr. Choogon Lee obtained a B.S. from Seoul National University in South Korea. He attended Rutgers University, where he obtained his Ph.D. in microbiology and molecular genetics in 1999. He currently studies the molecular basis for Circadian rhythms.
Dr. Martina Luchetti earned her Master’s Degree in Clinical and Community Psychology in 2009 and her Ph.D. in Psychological Sciences (Clinical Psychology) in 2015 at the University of Bologna (Italy). Her research addresses the psychological understanding of personally-meaningful experiences and adjustment to stressful-life events (e.g., physical illness and injuries) across the adult lifespan. Her interests also extend to the study of how psychological functioning and other health-related factors affect cognitive aging.
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Dr. Timothy Megraw received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He investigates the functions of centrosomes and cilia in cell division, development and disease. This includes asymmetric division of stem cells, the regulation of centrosomal and other microtubule-organizing centers (MTOCs), metabolic disorders due to loss of centrosome proteins, and regulation of primary cilium assembly and function. Dr. Megraw’s lab uses Drosophila, mouse, and human cell culture models.
Dr. Jose Pinto earned his Ph.D. in 2006 from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. His research of study was Muscle Biochemistry and Biophysics. He researched as a postdoctoral scholar from 2006 to 2010 at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine, under the mentoring of Dr. James D. Potter. His postdoctoral research focus was on the Molecular Mechanisms of Inherited Cardiomyopathies. In 2010, Dr. Pinto became a research assistant professor until he joined the FSU College of Medicine’s Biomedical Sciences Department in 2011.
Dr. Emily Pritchard earned her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She is currently studying vascular disease and cognitive disorders in older adults, focusing on new diagnostics and treatment paradigms at the College of Medicine’s Department of Biomedical Sciences.
Dr. Julia Sheffler is research faculty at the College of Medicine’s Center for Translational Behavioral Science. She earned her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Florida State University in 2018. Her research broadly involves the development and assessment of interventions for mental-health problems and neurocognitive disorders in older adults.
Dr. Sheffler’s current research involves the assessment of adverse childhood experiences on health outcomes across the lifespan, the implementation of an intervention for emotion dysregulation in older age, and assessment of the implementation of dietary interventions and preventions for neurocognitive disorders.
Dr. Branko Stefanovic joined the faculty of the FSU College of Medicine in August 2002 after serving for eight years as a research assistant professor in the Division of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition in the Department of Medicine at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. After earning his doctorate in molecular biophysics at FSU in 1991, he did post-doctoral training at the University of Bern in Switzerland. Dr. Stefanovic is a tenure track scientist who conducts research in the area of molecular mechanisms of liver fibrosis. He also teaches and facilitates small groups in pharmacology, biochemistry and physiology.
Dr. Angelina Sutin earned her Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of California, Davis, and did a postdoc at the National Institute on Aging before joining FSU's College of Medicine. Her work takes an intergenerational lifespan approach to address how psychological factors contribute to health and well-being.
Professor Sutin's lab currently focuses on the role of personality traits in cognitive aging and risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
Dr. Antonio Terracciano received his doctoral degree from the Seconda Università degli Studi di Napoli and Università degli Studi di Cagliari. Before joining the Department of Geriatrics, Dr. Terracciano was a staff scientist at the National Institute on Aging, NIH. His research focuses on how psychological traits and genetic factors contribute to physical and mental health across the lifespan. Dr. Terracciano uses longitudinal and cross-cultural methodologies to examine changes in traits with age, from adolescence to older adulthood.
Dr. Terracciano has also led and participated in large collaborative genome-wide association studies to identify common genetic variants associated with personality traits, depression, and cigarette smoking. His research aims to individuate factors that contribute to health and longevity, by reducing health risk behaviors and promoting resilience against diseases of aging, such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Dr. Robert J. Tomko Jr. earned his Ph.D. from the University Of Pittsburgh School Of Medicine and completed an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University. His lab probes the basic mechanisms that underpin failure of the cell’s protein quality control machinery in aging-associated protein misfolding diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and type II diabetes.
Dr. Yanchang Wang came to the FSU College of Medicine from Baylor College of Medicine, where he was a postdoctoral fellow. He obtained his Ph.D. degree from the University of Virginia in 1997. Dr. Wang’s research interest is in the area of the regulation of cell cycle and the response to the expression of damaged proteins. He teaches medical students in medical microbiology and basic sciences in small group sessions. He also teaches graduate students for Bioregulation and Research techniques.
College of Music
Dr. Alice-Ann Darrow, Ph.D., MT-BC, is Irvin Cooper Professor of Music in the College of Music at Florida State University. Before coming to FSU in 2003, she taught at The University of Kansas for 20 years where she held courtesy appointments in the Departments of Speech and Hearing and Special Education and was associated with the Kansas School for the Deaf. Her research is related to music perception and hearing loss and nonverbal communication in clinical practice. Her current research is concerned with the Effect of Nonverbal Displays on Seniors’ Self-Efficacy and Selected Physiological Measures. She is director of an Intergenerational Choir that includes FSU music majors and seniors over 65. She is co-author Music in Special Education, Music Therapy and Geriatric Populations, and editor of Introduction to Approaches in Music Therapy.
Dr. Darrow has been the recipient of research and clinical practice awards from the American Music Therapy Association. She has served on the editorials boards of the Journal of Music Therapy, Music Therapy Perspectives, Creative Arts Therapy, JRME, Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, General Music Today, Bulletin for the Council on Research in Music Education, Reviews of Research in Human Learning and Music, and Florida Music Director. She recently served as Chair of the Commission on Music and Special Education for the International Society for Music Education.
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Dr. Lori Gooding, Ph.D., MT-BC, is Assistant Professor of Music Therapy. Her clinical background includes music therapy in mental and physical healthcare and her research has focused on music therapy in psychosocial care, patient-and family-centered care in music therapy, and music therapy education. Her publications appear in journals like the Journal of Music Therapy and Music Therapy Perspectives.
Dr. Gooding is President Elect of the American Music Therapy Association. She has presented nationally and internationally, and currently serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Music Therapy. She has also received research grants from organizations like AARP, the National Institute on Aging, The Awesome Foundation, and the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs.
Dr. Jayne M. Standley, Ph.D., MT-BC, NICU-MT is a Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor at The Florida State University and the Ella Scoble Opperman Professor of Music with a courtesy appointment in the College of Medicine. She directs the Music Therapy program at FSU and the National Institute for Infant and Child Medical Music Therapy .. Most recently, she has specialized in research studies investigating music therapy to facilitate medical treatment and early intervention with premature infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.Dr . Standley received the Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Music Therapy and the Ph.D. degree in Habilitative Sciences from FSU. She was appointed to The Florida State University faculty in 1976.
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College of Nursing
Dr. Laurie Abbott earned her Ph.D. from Florida Atlantic University. Her research program involves health promotion and prevention of chronic disease presentation, progression, and exacerbation.
As a board-certified advanced public health nurse, Dr. Abbott has conducted two cluster randomized trials that tested culturally relevant evidence-based health promotion and disease risk reduction interventions in rural community settings. She has also explored protective and contributory factors of disease including acute and chronic stress, social support, and resilience.
Dr. Jie Chen is an assistant professor at the Florida State University College of Nursing. His research projects focus on pain and symptom management in older adults with multiple chronic conditions (MCC), i.e., cancer and cardiovascular disease. He is also interested in promoting cardiovascular health of older adults with cancer. His long-term research plan is to develop a comprehensive understanding of the bio-behavioral and multi-omics mechanisms of pain and pain self-management among older adults with MCC. His dissertation titled “Pain Management in Older Adults with Heart Failure” was supported by the American Nurses Foundation from the Virginia Stone Fund, the Eastern Nursing Research Society (ENRS)/CANS dissertation award, and the STTI Mu Chapter research award.
Dr. Lucinda J. Graven earned her Ph.D. from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2014. She conducts research in heart failure patients and their caregivers. Her current research focuses on the development and testing of coping interventions to improve physiological and psychological health and well-being in these populations. She has expertise in cardiovascular health, social problem-solving, social support, and community-based interventions. Dr. Graven also conducts research related to heart failure symptom science and instrument development.
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Dr. Geraldine Martorella is an associate professor in the College of Nursing. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Montreal (Canada) and was a postdoctoral fellow at McGill University (Canada). Her program of research consists in developing and evaluating innovative non-pharmacological interventions for pain management and chronic pain prevention. Using experimental and mixed method designs, she focuses her research on psychosocial factors of pain, the use of information technologies, and complementary and alternative therapies.
Dr. Martorella currently is a member of the American Psychological Association’s Guideline Development Panel for the Treatment of Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain in Adults. She is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.
Dr. Mia Newlin-Bradner, Ph.D., R.N., M.S.N., is Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing. Dr. Newlin-Bradner’s initial educational pursuits were in the field of exercise physiology, in which she received a B.S. from Florida State University, an M.S. from the University of Georgia and a Ph.D. from Florida State University. She then expanded her education to the field of nursing and obtained her B.S.N. from FSU followed by an M.S.N. in Nursing Education, also from FSU.
Dr. Newlin-Bradner’s research interests are focused on the role of physical activity in the prevention and management of chronic disease, with a specific emphasis on women with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.
Dr. Hyejin Park, who earned her Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, is Associate Professor in the College of Nursing and a Registered Nurse. Her research interests focus on developing and use of technology for caregivers and people with dementia. This line of study especially focuses on underrepresented populations, such as Korean Americans and older adults. For example, her previous study focused on identifying support needs of Korean and Chinese American caregivers of persons with dementia in order to support future development of a culturally and linguistically appropriate caregiving mobile app.
Her other lines of studies involve data-driven analyses. These studies implement data mining and text mining techniques (a) to classify mobile based health resources from the literature and (b) to capture needs of people with dementia and their caregivers from social media.
Dr. Kofi Sorkpor, Ph.D., MPH, RN, is an assistant professor in the College of Nursing. The fundamental premise of his research is health equality, with particular emphasis on health promotion interventions for underserved and marginalized groups, including older adults and members of racial and ethnic minorities. His research focuses on community-based strategies for managing chronic health conditions, such as pain, using approaches that include but are not limited to technology in the form of wearables, smartphone-based mobile applications, and other consumer-facing devices to provide chronic condition management to people in their natural settings with little to no disruption to their daily lives.
Dr. Jing Wang, Ph.D., MPH, RN, FAAN, is Dean and Professor in the College of Nursing and Adjunct Professor in Biomedical Informatics and Public Health at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
Her research uses mobile and connected health technologies to optimize multiple-behavior lifestyle interventions and improve patient-centered outcomes among the chronically ill and aging populations with multiple chronic conditions, especially among the rural, underserved, and minority populations. Recently, she led interdisciplinary research that uses artificial intelligence to develop health care data analytics methods to characterize the dynamic pathways to the emergence of common multiple chronic conditions in minority populations and optimize multiple-behavior intervention through smart and adaptive clinical trials. She is the editorial board member of The Diabetes Educator and the Editor-in-Chief of JMIR Aging.
She’s an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, 2013 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholar, 2015 TEDMED Scholar, 2016 Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation Macy Faculty Scholar. As a Health and Aging Policy Fellow and American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow, she works with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and serves as a Senior Scientific Advisor to Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). She’s selected as the 2021-2024 National Academy of Medicine Emerging Leader in Health and Medicine.
College of Social Sciences and Public Policy
Anne Barrett, Ph.D., is Professor of Sociology and faculty associate of the Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy. Her research interests include gender and aging, subjective aging, ageism, and cultural constructions of later life.
Dr. Barrett received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Duke University.
Dr. Timothy S. Chapin is Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy and a professor of Urban and Regional Planning. Prior to stepping into the interim dean’s role in May 2016, he served a six-year term as chair of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and two years as Associate Dean for Development for the college. Since joining FSU in 1999, Chapin has undertaken research on the effectiveness of Florida’s growth management system and the role of sports facilities in the promotion of urban redevelopment. He is a noted expert on land use and comprehensive planning, growth management, and urban redevelopment. Chapin’s current research interests revolve around how Florida’s demographic trends influence urban patterns and transportation systems in the state. Over his career he has secured more than $3 million in outside funding from federal, state, and local governments to support his research.
Chapin also serves as the Senior Associate Editor and Review Editor for the Journal of the American Planning Association. He holds a BA in Sociology from Emory University, a Master’s in City and Regional Planning from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in Urban Design and Planning from the University of Washington.
Dr. Michael Duncan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning in the College of Social Sciences & Public Policy. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. His research and teaching focus on sustainable transportation planning that mitigates environmental impacts and improves social equity. This includes research that focuses on providing better transportation options for older adults.
Dr. R. Mark Isaac is the John and Hallie Quinn Eminent Scholar and Department Chair of Economics at Florida State University. He received his Ph.D. in Social Science from Caltech in 1981 and taught for many years at the University of Arizona before moving to Tallahassee in 2001. He is the author of numerous journal articles and book chapters, which can be found on his website at mailer.fsu.edu/~misaac. His research interests are in laboratory experimental evaluation of issues in public goods provision, auction and mechanism design, and decision making under risk and uncertainty. He is a co-author (with Daniel Friedman, Duncan James, and Shyam Sunder) of the book Risky Curves: On the Empirical Failure of Expected Utility (Routledge, 2014).
Dr. Miles Taylor earned her Ph.D. from Duke University in 2005 and is Professor of Sociology. Dr. Taylor’s research primarily focuses on racial and educational disparities in physical and mental health trajectories in later life. Her recent work also involves the application of complementary statistical techniques to analyze trajectories across the life span. Other research interests include the impact of family and relationship factors on health and the association between psychological resilience and health across the life course.
College of Social Work
Dr. Amy Ai earned her Ph.D. in Psychology and Social Work, and was a National Institute on Aging postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan in 1996. Her current interests involve Gerontology, Health Disparities, Cultural Diversity, Behavioral intervention, Mindfulness, Mental Health, Spirituality, as well as Stress and Coping. In her previous services, she was a Gubernatorial Appointee of the former Washington State Governor as a board member on the Washington State Council on Aging and an At-large Delegate and Representative of Academic Settings to the 2005 White House Conference on Aging. Dr. Ai is Fellow of the GSA, APS, and APA Div. 20, 36, 38, as well as a Hartford Geriatric Faculty Fellow.
Dr. Katy (Qiuchang) Cao is an assistant professor at the College of Social Work and a faculty associate of Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy. Dr. Cao received her Ph.D. in social work from the Ohio State University with a focus on aging and health. Her scholarship centers on improving the physical, mental, cognitive, and social health of older adults using qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods, and network analysis. Her scholarship on Age-friendly Communities highlights the importance of the community’s social/built environment in the health and well-being among older adults. She also conducts secondary data analysis of nationally representative datasets (e.g., Health and Retirement Study) to examine the social mechanisms (e.g., education, employment) across the life course that contribute to health disparities among older adults.
Dr. Jean Correll Munn is Associate Professor in the College of Social Work. Dr. Munn received her Ph.D. and Master’s in Social Work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her B.A. in Psychology from Duke University. As a doctoral student, she was awarded a John A. Hartford Doctoral Fellowship to complete her dissertation: Defining a Good Death for Residents in Long-Term Care. She received additional dissertation support from the Duke Institute on Care at the End of Life. At FSU, Dr. Munn has been awarded a John A. Hartford Faculty Scholar award and in 2016, she visited Charles University in Prague as a Fulbright Faculty Scholar.
Currently, she is directing the multi-disciplinary Certificate in Gerontology at FSU. For several years she has been a co-Principal Investigator on the Independent Assessment of the Florida Statewide Medicaid Managed Care Long-term Care Program (Leslie M. Beitsch, PI), heading the Quality of Care component.
FSU Claude Pepper Center
Dr. Dawn C. Carr is Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Claude Pepper Center. She received her Ph.D. in Social Gerontology and Master’s in Gerontological Studies at Miami University and her Bachelor of Arts in Music Performance at Arizona State University. Dr. Carr’s expertise lies in understanding the factors that bolster older adults’ ability to remain healthy and active as long as possible.
Dr. Carr’s recent work focuses on understanding social, physical, cognitive, and psychological health in the context of major life transitions like retirement, disablement, widowhood, and caregiving.
FSU Office of Research
Dr. Rachel Goff-Albritton, Ph.D., is Assistant Director of the Office of Research Development in FSU’s Office of Research and an Affiliate of the Institute for Successful Longevity.
Dr. Goff-Albritton primarily works with junior faculty, providing guidance for grant activity to support their individual research and creative activities. She also conducts faculty workshops related to effective research mentoring.
Dr. Goff-Albritton also is a speech-language pathologist, providing educational resources and support for patients with aphasia, a language disorder acquired after a stroke or brain injury. She collaborates on projects at the FSU Aphasia Lab with Dr. Elizabeth Madden, also a Faculty Affiliate of the Institute for Successful Longevity. Dr. Goff-Albritton will be supervising an undergraduate project this summer, sponsored by the Scott and Ina McNichols Undergraduate Research Award, that will provide a Virtual Aphasia Choir to people with aphasia living in Florida, collaborating with faculty from the FSU Department of Music Therapy and School of Communication Sciences and Disorders.
Dr. Goff-Albritton earned her Ph.D. from the University of South Florida, M.S. from University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and B.A. from Florida State University in Communication Sciences and Disorders.