Dr. Qian (Jackie) Zhang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems. She received her Ph.D. in Quantitative Psychology from the University of Notre Dame.

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.

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. 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.

Dr. Ravinder Nagpal is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Integrative Physiology. He received his Ph.D. in Food & Dairy Microbiology from the National Dairy Research Institute in Haryana, India, and undertook postdoctoral training in gut microbiology at Juntendo School of Medicine in Tokyo and Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C.

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.

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. 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. 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. 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.