Jennifer Bea, PhD, MS
Associate Professor, Health Promotion Sciences
Jennifer W. Bea, PhD is a physiological scientist, focused on body composition and chronic disease research, with an emphasis on cancer. She is currently Co-director for the Body Composition Research Laboratory, a member of UACC Cancer Prevention and Control, and a member of the Collaboratory for Metabolic Disease Prevention and Treatment at UA. As an expert in body composition imaging, lifestyle interventions, circulating biomarkers, and genetics, Dr. Bea has made significant strides in understanding how to tailor interventions to optimize body composition and health, particularly among underserved communities.
Email Address: jbea@uacc.arizona.edu
Cynthia Thomson, PhD, RDN
Professor, Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health
Director, Zuckerman Family Center for Prevention & Health Promotion
Cynthia Thomson, PhD, RDN leads a multidisciplinary research program in cancer prevention research focusing on lifestyle behaviors, cancer prevention and survivorship. Her translational research program integrates novel interventions including mobile health technologies and delivery systems, as well as behavioral theory and cancer-relevant biomarker research to advance understanding of optimal health behaviors to improve health after a cancer diagnosis. Her research predominantly focuses on obesity-related cancers (breast, ovarian, colorectal cancer) and includes dissemination and implementation science to expand the impact of her evidence-based research. She has published over 200 cancer-related peer-reviewed manuscripts and books chapters building the evidence for nutrition and physical activity guidelines for cancer prevention and survivorship.
Email Address: cthomson@arizona.edu
Robin B. Harris, PhD, MPH
Professor, Epidemiology
Robin B. Harris, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. She earned a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Washington and Master’s in Public Health from the University of Texas at Houston. She is Co-Director of the Skin Cancer Institute at the University of Arizona Cancer Center.
Email Address: rbharris@arizona.edu
David O. Garcia, PhD, MS
Associate Professor, Public Health
David Garcia, PhD's current research uses targeted, tailored behavioral programs and mixed methods research among Hispanic males to burden of obesity-related disease and cancers, such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma.
Email Address: davidogarcia@arizona.edu
Terry Badger, PhD, RN, FAPOS, FAAN
Assistant Professor, Family and Community Medicine
Terry Badger, PhD, RN earned her BSN and MSN from Arizona State University and PhD from University of Texas at Austin. She is a board certified psychiatric mental health advanced practice nurse. Currently, she is the Eleanor Bauwens Endowed Chair, Professor and Chair of the Community and Systems Science Division in the College of Nursing. She also holds an appointment as a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry in the College of Medicine. Terry is a member of the Cancer Prevention and Control Program at the University of Arizona Cancer Center.
Email Address: tbadger@arizona.edu
Jacob C. Schwartz, PhD
Associate Director, Cancer Research Training and Education Coordination
Jacob Schwartz obtained a Ph.D. in Biophysics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and studying transcription regulation by nucleic acids and nucleic acid mimics. He did postdoctoral training in the lab of Dr. Tom Cech at the University of Colorado Boulder and studied transcription regulation by an RNA-binding protein through an assembly process known as phase separation. He was awarded the Al Gilman award, two NIH NRSA awards, and an NIH K99 Pathway to Independence award. Dr. Schwartz joined the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Arizona in 2014. He was named a 2015 Kavli Fellow by the National Academy of Sciences and awarded a Research Scholar Grant by the American Cancer Society.
Email Address: jcschwartz@arizona.edu
Alicia Marie Allen, PhD, MPH
Associate Professor, Public Health
Associate Professor, Family and Community Medicine
Alicia Allen, PhD, MPH began working in clinical research on substance use disorders in 2001 as an undergraduate student. This experience prompted her to obtain her masters in community health education, graduate certification in addiction studies and doctorate in social and behavioral epidemiology, all from the University of Minnesota. She also completed a fellowship at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the area of prenatal smoking. She joined the University of Arizona as an assistant professor in 2016. Dr. Allen has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, ClearWay Minnesota, American Cancer Society, and University of Minnesota.
Email Address: aliciaallen@arizona.edu
Maria I. Altbach, PhD
Professor, Medical Imaging
Maria I. Altbach, PhD obtained her PhD in Chemistry from Louisiana State University working on solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance of small molecules. Her work transitioned to the field of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) during postdoctoral training focusing on technology development with an emphasis on improving the diagnosis of disease. She is currently Professor and Vice-chair for Research in the Department of Medical Imaging at the University of Arizona with a joint appointment in Biomedical Engineering. Her research provides unique training for engineer and basic science students interested in medical imaging. Her group has been funded by the NIH since 1997.
Email Address: maltbach@arizona.edu
Julie Armin, PhD
Assistant Professor, Family and Community Medicine
Julie Armin, PhD has her training as a medical anthropologist and received her PhD from the University of Arizona's School of Anthropology in 2015. Her goal is to improve healthcare and reduce health disparities for historically underserved populations using qualitative, multi-method and community-based methodologies. Her research program is broadly focused on addressing gaps in cancer prevention and treatment for populations that have been historically marginalized due to hierarchies of race, gender, and social class.
Email Address: jarmin@arizona.edu
Jennifer Kehlet Barton, PhD
Director, BIO5 Institute
Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Professor, Optical Sciences
Jennifer Barton, PhD received her BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and University of California Irvine, respectively. She worked for McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) on the Space Station program before returning to the University of Texas at Austin to obtain the Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering in 1998. She is currently Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Optical Sciences, and Biosystems Engineering at the University of Arizona, as well as Director of the BIO5 Institute, and Thomas R. Brown Distinguished Chair in Bioengineering. She is a fellow of SPIE and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
Email Address: barton@arizona.edu
Jefferey L. Burgess, MD, MPH, MS
Professor, Community, Environment & Policy
After graduating from the University of Washington School of Medicine, Dr. Jefferey Burgess completed a residency in Emergency Medicine, a Medical Toxicology fellowship, and a master’s degree in Toxicology and Industrial Hygiene at the University of Arizona, followed by an Occupational and Environmental Medicine fellowship and a Master of Public Health at the University of Washington. He returned to the University of Arizona in 1997 and is currently a Professor and Director of the Center for Firefighter Health Collaborative Research at the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. Dr. Burgess also previously worked as an Emergency Medicine physician, Medical Toxicologist and Occupational and Environmental Medicine physician.
Email Address: jburgess@arizona.edu
Scott C. Carvajal, PhD, MPH
Department Chair, Health Promotion Sciences
Professor, Public Health
Scott C. Carvajal, PhD, MPH, is the Chair of our Health Promotion Sciences Department and the Director of the Arizona Prevention Research Center (AzPRC), and is a multi-discipline trained applied social and quantitative psychologist with expertise in health promotion theory, Latino/cultural behavioral research methods, intervention design and evaluation methods. His principal research (funded by NIDA, NIAAA & currently NICHD & CDC) has focused on understanding a range of health behaviors that convey risk or protection (e.g., substance abuse, sexual risk taking, healthy food choice, physical activity) and mental health outcomes (e.g., bicultural stressors, depressive symptoms, coping strategies), with a major emphasis on testing social ecological models within minority populations. Dr. Carvajal was the Director of Substance Abuse Core for an NCMHD/NIH-funded (2003-2009) Center for Health Equality, a Center of Excellence focusing on eliminating health disparities in Arizona Latinos and American Indians. As part of that Center he had an important role in review and oversight of pilot research activities, and in the mentoring of junior investigators and fellows. More recently as Director/PI of the CDC funded University of Arizona Prevention Research Center, he is responsible for the research oversight of multiple CBPR lead programs that include aims of the promotion of physical activity, health eating and health screening with under-served border populations.
Email Address: carvajal@arizona.edu
Sara Centuori, PhD
Shared Resource Director, Flow Cytometry
Assistant Research Professor, Medicine
Sara M. Centuori, PhD, is a Research Assistant Professor of Medicine, and Director of the Flow Cytometry and Immune Monitoring Shared Resource at the University of Arizona Cancer Center. She received her PhD from the University of Arizona in 2011 in the area of Cancer Biology with a predominant focus in the area of Tumor Immunology. She completed her postdoctoral training in 2018 also at the University of Arizona, where she received two T32 training awards, an R01 Minority Supplement, and actively served on the UArizona Cancer Center executive committee as postdoctoral representative. Her education and training resulted in unique expertise in Cancer Prevention and Immune Profiling of human biospecimens.
Email Address: smb4@arizona.edu
Hsiao-Hui (Sherry) Chow, PhD
Research Professor, Medicine
Research Professor, Pharmaceutical Sciences
Research Professor, Pharmacy Practice-Science
Sherry Chow, PhD is a Research Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona Cancer Center (UACC). She has led the UACC Analytical Chemistry Shared Resource since 2001 and co-led the UACC Cancer Prevention and Control (CPC) Program since 2015. She has a long track record of leading early phase cancer prevention clinical trials, development and implementation of biochemical and molecular biomarkers for evaluation of cancer risk and drug efficacy, and pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamics study design and data analysis.
Email Address: schow@azcc.arizona.edu
Clara Curiel-Lewandrowski, PhD
Interim Director of Research, Cancer Center
Co-Director, Skin Cancer Institute, Cancer Center
Program Director, Dermatology Residency Program
Chief, Division of Dermatology, Department of Medicine
Clara Curiel-Lewandrowski, PhD's role as a member of the UACC is to establish and foster research activities related to the skin cancer field across multiple disciplines. She is currently the Co-Director of the Skin Cancer Institute and Director of the Cutaneous Oncology Program. She has served as a lead dermatologist in seven clinical studies and as a PI in seven clinical trials through the PO1-Skin Cancer Chemoprevention Grant, the UA NCI/DCP/Cancer Chemoprevention Consortium Agreement, and sponsored studies. She has been instrumental in establishing research collaborations between the UACC and the College of Optical Sciences, Bioengineering, and the Department of Radiology to evaluate novel imaging modalities in the skin cancer arena.
Email Address: ccuriel@arizona.edu
Leslie Dennis, PhD, MS
Professor, Public Health
Leslie Dennis, PhD's research focus is on melanoma, hepatocellular and prostate cancer etiology and prevention as related to environmental risk factors with R03, R01 and K07 funding. She has used tools such as mailed questionnaires, telephone interviews along with molecular analyses of trace elements and sexually transmitted infections to conduct this research, but also has interest in genetics. She also has expertise in conducting meta-analyses as related to risk factors for cancer. Dr. Dennis is a reviewer for several cancer and epidemiological journals. She has reviewed R03 and K07 applications for the NCI and spent 5 years as a grant reviewer for the American Cancer Society including chairing the Clinical Research, Cancer Control and Epidemiology peer grant review committee. She has served on the Diversity and Inclusiveness Committee at the College of Public Health and is currently the College’s representative on the University of Arizona’s Undergraduate Council and its Curriculum and Polices subcommittee.
Email Address: ldennis@arizona.edu
Sally Dickinson, PhD
Research Associate Professor, Pharmacology
Sally E. Dickinson, PhD earned her B.S. in Biology at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. She then trained at the NIH for two years before entering graduate school at the University of Arizona, where she earned her PhD in the laboratory of Dr. Qin Chen, studying oxidative stress-induced signaling in heart cells. She then worked as a post-doc for Dr. G. Timothy Bowden studying UV-induced NMSC, first under an R25T fellowship and then under a K07 Career Development Award, both of which focused upon skin cancer prevention. In addition to being a Cancer Center member, she is currently Research Associate Professor in the Pharmacology Department at the UofA. She is also a member of the CBIO GIDP.
Email Address: sdickinson@uacc.arizona.edu
Jennifer Edrich, MD, MPH, MFA, FACS, FSSO
Assistant Professor, Surgery
Jennifer Erdrich, MD, MPH, FACS, is a surgical oncologist and assistant professor with the Division of Surgical Oncology at the University of Arizona Department of Surgery. A member of the University of Arizona Cancer Center, she specializes in melanoma, sarcoma and breast cancers. Dr. Erdrich earned her Medical Degree from Harvard Medical School. She attained a Masters in Public Health with a concentration in cancer prevention and completed an NCI-funded research fellowship at Harvard School of Public Health. In addition, she completed her general surgery residency at Stanford University, followed by a fellowship in surgical oncology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California.
Email Address: jerdrich@surgery.arizona.edu
Leslie V. Farland, DSc
Assistant Professor, Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Leslie V. Farland, PSc is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Prior to joining the faculty, she was an Instructor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Harvard Medical School and served as the Director of Epidemiologic Research at the Center for Infertility and Reproductive Surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Her research program focuses broadly on women’s health and can be categorized into three major themes: i) the intersection between women’s reproductive health and chronic disease risk, ii) etiology and risk factors for endometriosis, infertility, and polycystic ovary syndrome, iii) disparities in access to infertility care and fertility treatment utilization.
Email Address: lfarland@arizona.edu
Janet L. Funk, MD
Professor, Medicine
Clinical Instructor, Pharmacy Practice-Science
Janet Funk, MD oversees cancer research on bone metastases in women with stage IV breast cancer. More specifically, her work is clarifying the importance of bone specific metabolism of dietary polyphenols for bioactivity, and the development of unique and more clinically relevant models of breast cancer bone metastases.
Email Address: jfunk@arizona.edu
Judith S. Gordon, PhD
Associate Dean for Research, Nursing
Professor, Nursing
Professor, Family and Community Medicine
Judith S. Gordon, PhD received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Oregon. She has almost 30 years of experience in tobacco cessation and prevention research, cognitive-behavioral interventions aimed at improving lifestyle behaviors, integrative health, and digital health. Dr. Gordon has been Principal or Co-Investigator on more than 40 projects funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, NASA, private foundations, and the University of Arizona totaling over $56 M. She has authored or co-authored over 125 publications in peer-reviewed journals, books, chapters, and products. Dr. Gordon has numerous invited presentations, and has presented at more than 135 local, regional, national, and international scientific conferences. She is the recipient of many awards for service, leadership, and mentoring, and was recently nominated for fellowship in the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco.
Email Address: judithg@arizona.edu
Heidi Hamann, PhD
Associate Head of Strategic Initiatives, Psychology
Associate Professor, Clinical
Director, Psychosocial Research in Oncology Lab
Email Address: heidihamann@arizona.edu
Karen Hastings, MD, PhD
Professor and Chair, Dermatology
Professor, Basic Medical Sciences
Professor, Immunobiology
Karen Hastings, PhD is an immunologist and dermatologist recruited to join the founding faculty of the UArizona College of Medicine – Phoenix in 2006. Previously, she taught immunology and dermatology to medical students and residents at Harvard Medical School and Yale University School of Medicine. She co-directs the immunology and skin cancer curriculum for the first- and second-year medical students at the College of Medicine – Phoenix. She also mentors medical and graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in her laboratory and provides dermatologic clinical care at the Phoenix VA Health Care System.
Email Address: khasting@arizona.edu
Jennifer Hatcher, PhD, MPH, MSN
Intermin Associate Vice President, Diversity and Inclusion
Professor, Public Health
Jennifer Hatcher, PhD, MPH's work is aimed at improving the health of underserved minorities with an emphasis on chronic diseases, especially cancer. She uses community engaged research strategies to explore the social determinants of health and leverage community strengths to improve the heath of communities.
Email Address: jhatcher@arizona.edu
Melissa Herbst-Kralovet, PhD
Professor, Basic Medical Sciences
Melissa Herbst-Kralovetz, PhD received her bachelor's degree from Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction, CO and her doctoral degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, TX in the Experimental Pathology Program. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the Biodesign Institute at ASU in the Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology. Dr. Herbst-Kralovetz joined the University of Arizona, College of Medicine-Phoenix in 2009 as Oncology Block/Course Director in the medical curriculum. Dr. Herbst-Kralovetz was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in the Departments of Basic Medical Sciences and Obstetrics and Gynecology in 2016 and Director of the Women’s Health Microbiome Initiative at the College of Medicine-Phoenix in 2017.
Email Address: mherbst1@arizona.edu
Elizabeth T. Jacobs, PhD
Professor, Public Health
Professor, Nutritional Sciences
Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD primary research areas are genetic and environmental risk factors for colorectal cancer within the setting of cohort studies. Her current study's goal is to investigate the genetic and lifestyle factors that modify the effect of selenium supplementation on the development of early neoplastic lesions.
Email Address: jacobse@arizona.edu
Kang Dongkyun, PhD
Associate Professor, Optical Sciences
Kang Dongkyun, PhD received his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Prior to joining the UA, Dr. Kang worked as an Assistant professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.
Email Address: dkkang@arizona.edu
Yann C. Klimentidis
Associate Professor, Public Health
Yann Klimentidis, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona. His research focuses mainly on the use of genetic information to learn about body composition, health-related behavior, and cardio-metabolic, and neurodegenerative traits/diseases. The broad goals of his research are to: 1) understand mechanisms of disease, 2) identify risk factors for disease, 3) understand health disparities, and 4) improve prediction of disease risk. Approaches include genome-wide association studies, Mendelian randomization, gene-by-environment interactions, and genetic ancestry studies.
Email Address: yann@arizona.edu
Kirsten H. Limesand, PhD
Professor, Nutritional Sciences
Kirsten H. Limesand, PhD earned her BS in Microbiology from North Dakota State University and her PhD in Microbiology with an emphasis in Virology from Colorado State University. She then completed post-doctoral training at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center where she first began her work on the regulation of apoptosis in salivary glands exposed to different damaging agents. In 2005, she was hired as an Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona. She was promoted to Associate Professor in 2011 and Full Professor in 2015.
Email Address: limesank@arizona.edu
Purnima Madhivanan, PhD, MBBS, MPH
Associate Professor, Health Promotion Sciences
Purnima Madhivanan, PhD is an Associate Professor with Tenure in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. She holds joint appointments in the College of Medicine, Bio5 Institute and is a member of the UA Cancer Center. She completed her medical training in India and received a MPH/PhD in Epidemiology from the University of California Berkeley. She completed her postdoctoral training at San Francisco Department of Public Health on Clinical Trials Management. She is currently the Director of the NIH funded Global Health Training Program at UA and serves as a co-PI for the GHES consortium in collaboration with Stanford, Yale and University of California, Berkeley.
Email Address: pmadhivanan@arizona.edu
Valentine N. Nfonsam, MD, MS, FACS
Professor, Surgery
Interim Chief, Division of Surgical Oncology
Valentine N. Nfonsam, MD, MS, FACS, is a professor with the University of Arizona Department of Surgery Division of Surgical Oncology. He specializes in colon and rectal surgery, colorectal oncology, and complex pelvic floor disorders. Dr. Nfonsam performs surgeries for inflammatory bowel disease, anorectal disease, and benign and malignant colorectal diseases. He is an expert in the surgical management of pelvic floor disease, especially fecal incontinence. He also performs colonoscopies and endoscopic treatment of polyps. Dr. Nfonsam is one of just a few surgeons in the nation using minimally invasive techniques for colon and rectal surgery, such as advanced laparoscopy, single-incision surgery, and robot-assisted surgery, which have been shown to reduce the patient's wound infection rate, post-operative pain, length of stay in the hospital, and overall recovery time.
Email Address: vnfonsam@surgery.arizona.edu
Denise J. Roe, DrPH
Professor, Public Health
Associate, Center for Toxicology
Director, Biometry Shared Services
Denise J. Roe, DrPH received a B.A. in Biology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), a M.S. in Biometrics from the University of Colorado, and a Dr.P.H. in Biostatistics from UCLA. She has been on the faculty of the University of Arizona since 1988. She was promoted to Professor in 2006 in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. She has been the Director of the Biostatistics Shared Resource in the University of Arizona Cancer Center since 2009.
Email Address: droe@arizona.edu
Richard J. Simpson, PhD
Associate Professor, Nutritional Sciences
Richard J. Simpson, PhD completed his training in exercise physiology and immunology at Edinburgh Napier University in Scotland before spending nine years as a faculty member at the University of Houston. He studies the effects of exercise and stress on the immune system. Major cross-cutting themes of his work are aging (immunosenescence), cancer and spaceflight, with a particular interest in how adrenergic receptor signaling can be used to improve cellular products for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and immunotherapy. He serves on the editorial board of the following journals: Brain, behavior & Immunity; Immunity and Ageing; and Exercise Immunology Reviews. His current research is supported by NASA and the National Cancer Institute.
Email Address: rjsimpson@arizona.edu
Meghan B. Skiba, PhD, MS, MPH, RDN
Assistant Professor, Nursing
Assistant Professor, Biobehavioral Health Science
Meghan B. Skiba, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing Biobehavioral Health Science Division at the University of Arizona. She received her doctorate in Health Behavior Health Promotion from the Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, has additional formal graduate training in epidemiology and nutritional sciences, and completed post-doctoral training at Oregon Health & Science University. Dr. Skiba has experience delivering remote diet and physical activity interventions as well as health coaching, accelerometry, mixed-methods, and data analysis. Her research has emphasis in biological aging, technology, and dyads. She is interested in addressing cancer health disparities by connecting cancer survivors and their caregivers to the skills and behaviors to live their healthiest and longest life.
Email Address: mbskiba@arizona.edu
Jeffrey Stone, PhD
Director, Social Psychology of Sport Laboratory
Director, Self and Attitudes Laboratory
Email Address: jeffs@arizona.edu
Celina I. Valencia, DrPH
Assistant Professor, Family and Community Medicine
Email Address: celina@arizona.edu
Srinvasan Vedantham, PhD, DABR, FAAPM
Professor, Medical Imaging
Director, Biomedical Imaging Innovation/Clinical translation – Next-Gen CT
Srinivasan Vedantham, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Medical Imaging. He is a biomedical engineer and board-certified medical physicist. Dr. Vedantham’s research interests are in the design, development and clinical translation of novel x-ray imaging systems and imaging techniques with particular focus on oncological and interventional imaging. Currently, he is working on developing advanced tomographic techniques and systems for breast imaging and its clinical translation. This design, development and clinical translation-oriented research is funded by the National Institutes of Health. He also conducts research in interventional imaging with a focus on the development of advanced detector technology.
Email Address: svedantham@arizona.edu
Karen L. Weihs, MD
Professor, Psychiatry
Karen L. Weihs, MD is a graduate of the University of Iowa College of Medicine. She completed her residency in Family Medicine and practiced on the faculty of Family Medicine at Brown University prior to returning to a Psychiatry Residency Training, including child psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin. She then obtained a K24 Scientist Development Award for Clinicians to obtain research training and experience at the George Washington University, College of Medicine, Center for Family Research under the mentorship of David Reiss, M.D. She has an active program of research as well as a clinical and teaching practice of psychoOncology and psychotherapy at UA.
Email Address: weihs@arizona.edu