The department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Florida.
Graduated Students
Spring 2008
Nur Zeinomar
I am currently pursing a PhD in Chronic Disease Epidemiology at the State
University of New York (SUNY), University at Albany. My research interests
include the epidemiology of diabetes and its risk factors, and health disparities.
I am very grateful for all of the guidance I received from my mentor and
faculty at the University of Florida while trying to decide upon an appropriate
career path. My MPH training at UF was truly an invaluable experience which
inspired me to commit to a life in academia. Go Gators!
Ashley Arthur
During my last semester of the Master of Public Health (MPH) program at the University of Florida, I accepted an Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) fellowship in the Epidemiology Branch of the Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, GA. During my time as an ORISE fellow, I worked on a wide variety of projects including: A project examining “The association between alcohol consumption, binge drinking and cigarette smoking behaviors among U.S. high school students: Youth Risk Behavior Survey”; a Qualitative Research Project involving the “Examination of state tobacco control programs addressing tobacco-related disparities”; a youth Quit Line factsheet project in collaboration with the North American Quit Line Consortium (NAQC); and a Youth Tobacco Cessation Collaborative (YTCC) Summer Institute lecture entitled “Prevention strategies for initiation, escalation, and multiple tobacco product use among young adults.” I just recently accepted a Health Research Analyst contractor position with Northrop Grumman Information Technology through which I will be working at OSH providing technical and statistical analysis support for the Adult and Youth Tobacco Surveys (ATS and YTS, respectively). I am so thankful for the wonderful opportunities that have presented themselves as a result of my education and training in the MPH program at UF.
Kevon-Mark Jackman
Upon completing his MPH in Epidemiology at the University of Florida,
Kevon was selected as an apprentice in the Florida Public Health
Apprentice Program (PHAP). PHAP is a three year apprentice program
designed to help develop a workforce for public health program
management and operations cosponsored by the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) and the Florida Department of Health (FDOH).
Florida apprentices are assigned to various public health delivery sites
across the state. Kevon works within the STD prevention program of
Miami-Dade County Health Department. The objective of his position is to
gain a thorough understanding of management and operations of a major
STD prevention program. A large of proportion training is dedicated to
preparing Kevon to expedite ground level HIV/STD prevention services by
becoming a Disease Intervention Specialist (DIS). As DIS, he is
responsible for interviewing patients with STDs and others related to
the infection and to also perform investigative activities to locate
people who may have been exposed to an STD.
PHAP also offers Kevon and other apprentices a number of CDC sponsored training opportunities. CDC training along with local site assignments provides apprentices with a well-balanced experience in route to becoming future public health leaders on local, state and national levels.
Fall 2007
Dana Mora
I obtained my Master in Public Health Program-Epidemiology from the
University of Florida on December 2007, and a BA in Sociology from the
University of Florida on May 2005. My interests include
migrant/immigrant cohorts, family planning & STDs, and maternal & child
health. After graduation from the MPH program I was working for the
health department in a rural county in North Central Florida as part of
a grant intended to reach the under served Hispanic populations, reduce
the infant mortality rate, and promote family planning among those
populations. I am currently doing at internship at the National
Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) working with on two
projects: 1) determining the amount of error introduced by interpolating
missing menstrual cycle endocrine data and 2) researching options to study the relationship between pesticide exposure and reproductive health of farm workers.
Spring 2007
Taj Azarian
In June of 2007, after the completion of an MPH in Epidemiology from the
University of Florida, I was accepted as a FL Epidemic Intelligence Service
fellow with the Florida Department of Health (http://www.doh.state.fl.us/disease_ctrl/epi/FLEIS/Current_Fellows.htm).
This two year post-graduate fellowship involves on-the-job training for
health professionals interested in the field of epidemiology and is intended
to provide experience in epidemiology and public health practice during
placements with county health departments. Throughout the MPH program, my
internship at the Alachua County Health Department and the completion of
my practicum in Infection Control at Shands AGH made me an excellent candidate
for the fellowship. The EIS program application reviewers were thoroughly
impressed with the quality and diversity of experiences that I encountered
during my MPH. Stationed in Jacksonville, FL, I assist the local health
departments in emergency outbreaks and other field epidemiologic investigations.
In addition, I am involved in a myriad of large scale epidemiological studies
utilizing a multitude of statistical analysis and analytical methods. Other
FL EIS activities include; pandemic influenza preparedness, emergency preparedness
and hurricane response, bioterrorism response, trend analysis and public
health surveillance. During my fellowship I often come across other MPH
students completing their practicums. I am continually impressed with the
knowledge and professionalism that they bring with them and am thankful
for the extent at which the MPH program prepared me for my professional
career.
Chaz Rhone
As of September 24th I have been working at Munroe Regional Medical Center
in Ocala Florida as an Infection Control Practitioner. My preceptor from
my internship at Shands Alachua General Hospital in Gainesville linked me
to this job and also served as a reference. My internship was very intense
and comprehensive. Within a 3 month period I was able to learn all the basic
tools that an infection control practitioner needs as well as many of the
daily challenges that I would face. When I interviewed for the job the interviewers
were quite impressed with both my educational training as well as all that
I had learned in my internship. I was actually the first and only candidate
considered for the position that was not a registered nurse. By the end
of the interview I was informed that I was the most qualified candidate
for the position thus far. I must say that I am highly pleased with the
quality of the Public Health program at UF as well as the invaluable experience
I had as an intern at AGH. Without either I would not be as successful in
my career as I am now. Even still, there is potential to reach even greater
educational and career oriented goals.
Katherine H. Winter
Katie is currently in her second year at the University of Florida
College of Medicine. As a medical student, she has remained active
in the field of public health. She is an officer at a student run
clinic here in Gainesville that provides free care for the
underserved and uninsured. She also recently returned from Cusco,
Peru after a month working in a clinic for the poor, indigenous
population. During that period, she and 9 other medical students
conducted surveys in Spanish to assess knowledge about prenatal
care and Leschmaniasis, a common infection among workers in the
jungle spread by sandflies. In April, she will travel to the
Dominican Republic with 25 other students to serve the
impoverished there. She is also working to publish a paper that
she began during her MPH training using BRFSS data to examine the
relationship between caregiver choice in caring and subsequent
stress.
Fall 2006
Cindy Prins
Just before finishing my MPH in Epidemiology in December 2006, I accepted
a position as an Infection Control Practitioner at Shands at UF. I absolutely
love my new job and am learning something every day. I am one of five practitioners
who work to track and control hospital acquired infections and the spread
of resistant microorganisms. I interact with a variety of people because
Infection Control is also involved in purchasing new products, training
new employees, consulting on construction projects, and planning disaster
drills. My epidemiology and statistics skills are naturally important to
my position, but I also use what I learned in other courses such as Environmental
Health and Social and Behavioral Sciences. On the social side of things,
I’m happy to be able to stay in Gainesville and be near friends and
family. I bought my first home recently and am spending my free time (and
my paychecks) fixing it up.
Dinah P. Welch
After graduating from UF, I took a position as an assistant professor in
the school of nursing at Virginia Commonwealth University. I currently teach
community health nursing and my research focus is on examining residential
social inequalities and biological burden (i.e. allostatic load). My research
concentrates on neighborhoods and housing as chronic stressors that may
impact women’s health. This research is guided by an ecosocial perspective,
which accentuates the social origins of health disparities through concurrent
biological and ecological analyses.
Spring 2006
Erin Defries
After completing her MPH in Epidemiology in Spring 2006, Erin DeFries accepted
a position as Research Manager for Elena Andresen, PhD within the Department.
Erin works on a variety of projects relating to disability, health, and
caregiving. Current projects center around the Caregiver Module developed
by Dr. Andresen's team as a set of state-added questions for the North Carolina
BRFSS, and include an analysis of these data by cognitive status of the
care recipient, and the implementation of the Module in four new states
in 2007 (Hawaii, Kansas, Rhode Island, Washington).
April Johnson
April Johnson received her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the 
University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine in 2002. She
continued her education by pursuing a PhD in virology at University of
Florida's College of Veterinary Medicine. In 2003, she concurrently
enrolled in the MPH program in Epidemiology at UF's College of Public
Health and Health Professions. She received both degrees in 2006.
April was then accepted into a 2-year applied epidemiology fellowship at
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention where she served as an
Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer in the Influenza Division,
working with avian and human influenza. As an EIS officer she had the
opportunity to respond to outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza
H5N1 in Ghana and Egypt and assisted in establishing a population-based
surveillance system for respiratory illness in the Department of Santa
Rosa, Guatemala. Following completion of the fellowship in 2008, she
went to work as an Assistant Professor of Public Health Epidemiology at
Purdue University's School of Veterinary Medicine. In addition to
researching veterinary public health issues, she will be working to
develop a program so that veterinary students have the option to
specialize in veterinary public health during clinical training and/or
to enroll in an MPH program while pursuing a DVM. The need for
veterinarians trained in public health continues to rise, and she is
currently working through Purdue University to help meet that need.
Juan Rodriguez
Since graduating from Florida with my MPH, I have been doing a fellowship
at the CDC in the Epidemiology and Applied Research Branch, in the Division
of Cancer Prevention and Control. I am working directly with one of our
branches behavioral scientist doing research on cancer survivors. We actually
just received word that we were forward funded for a large population based
study to assess the health behaviors of long-term colorectal cancer survivors.
Aside from doing literature reviews, helping develop the protocol for our
study, and preparing IRB and OMB approval packets, I do some secondary data
analysis using the large national surveys (BRFSS, NHIS, etc). I have also
had the opportunity to work with researchers at the American Cancer Society
on a cancer survivors study they are currently wrapping up. Aside from work,
life in Atlanta is good and there is a large UF alumni association up here,
but I do miss actually going to the football and basketball games as opposed
to watching them at the local bars
Spring 2005
Amber
Beitelshees
Upon completing her postdoctoral fellowship and MPH degree at the University
of Florida in 2005, Amber accepted her first faculty position as Research
Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Cardiovascular Division at Washington
University. Her research is aimed at understanding how variability in genes
related to cardiac metabolism impact response to commonly used cardiovascular
medications, such as ACE inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers, and
B-blockers.
Helena
J. Chapman, MPH
After graduating with an MPH from the University of Florida in Spring 2005,
Helena continued working as Project Coordinator for Dr. Maude Rittman at
the Rehabilitation Research Outcomes Center (RORC) of Excellence at the
North Florida/South Georgia VA Medical Center in Gainesville, Florida. She
also continued analyzing data from her MPH graduate research projects focusing
on the impact of mosquito-transmitted Dengue fever on the health and quality
of life for Hispanic communities in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican
Republic (DR).
In January 2006, Helena began medical school at the Iberoamerican University (UNIBE) in Santo Domingo, DR. In April 2006, she represented UNIBE School of Medicine and presented her quantitative and qualitative research and posters at the First Annual University Research Fair at UNIBE. In December 2006, one of her research studies with Co-Investigator Dr. Bienvenido Veras was published in Spanish for the Colegio Medico Dominicano of Santiago, DR. In February and April 2007, Helena presented her research findings at Global Health international conferences held in Santo Domingo, DR, and Orlando, Florida.
Helena's UF MPH training in Epidemiology has been a valuable asset in her medical school education, as she utilizes her knowledge and research skills in preventive medicine. Her graduate research skills have been instrumental in expanding her understanding and applying the medical and public health models to her interactions with fellow medical students and early rotations at the hospital. In April 2007, Helena organized health promotion seminars and educational tabling on infectious and chronic conditions common in the DR during the First Annual Health Awareness week at UNIBE as a participating university in APHA’s National Public Health Week. In June 2007, per request by the School of Medicine, she will use similar health promotion techniques for activities in the “UNIBE Dengue Fever Prevention Campaign.” Her MPH leadership and skills to improve health behaviors have been noted at UNIBE School of Medicine as an example to the value of service-learning opportunities.
Reia Jaber
As an MPH graduation requirement, I worked on research in evaluating the
effect of varicella virus vaccine in HIV infected children who were actively
seen at Shands Pediatrics Immunology and Infectious Diseases Clinic in Gainesville,
FL. My research project was not only important for the MPH graduation requirement,
but also it was of interest in the management of that group of children
which led me to continue working after graduation to better serve that group
of patients. I have just presented my research in the 25th Annual Pediatrics
science Day on March 22, 2007.
My background in medicine from a foreign medical school combined with public health and epidemiology training helped me pursue work in research. I work at the University of Florida in the College of Medicine’s Division of Infectious Diseases, which works specifically in fungal infection.