Public health

Frank A von Hippel

Professor, Public Health
Professor, Clinical Translational Sciences
Member of the General Faculty
Member of the Graduate Faculty
Primary Department
Department Affiliations
Contact
(520) 621-8447

Work Summary

I conduct research at the nexus of ecotoxicology, mechanisms of toxicity, and health disparities. I study wildlife and laboratory animals as models for human exposure and disease, as well as to solve problems in conservation biology. I am especially interested in health disparities experienced by vulnerable populations and I employ a Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) approach. I integrate a variety of methods to establish routes of exposure and mechanisms of developmental disruption ranging from the genome to the whole organism and its environment.

Research Interest

Frank von Hippel, Ph.D., is a professor of environmental health sciences in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and the lead of the college's One Health Research Initiative. He conducts research at the nexus of ecotoxicology, mechanisms of toxicity, and health disparities. He uses locally occurring wildlife and laboratory animals as models for human exposure and disease. He is especially interested in health disparities experienced by vulnerable populations, and he employs a community-engaged approach. Examples of current projects include investigations of endocrine disruption and disease in Yupik people due to exposure to persistent organic pollutants originating from Cold War military installations in the Arctic and health effects associated with pesticide and perchlorate exposure in migrant Mexican farmworkers on the U.S. border. His lab integrates a variety of approaches to establish routes of exposure and mechanisms of developmental disruption ranging from the genome to the whole organism and its environment. From 2015-2018 he served as Associate Editor of the Elsevier journal Environmental Pollution, where he now serves on the editorial board. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Science Communication Network (http://sciencecommunicationnetwork.org/), which brings media attention to environmental health. He is also the creator and host of the Science History Podcast (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/science-history-podcast/id1325288920) and the author of The Chemical Age, published by the University of Chicago Press in 2020.

Purnima Madhivanan

Associate Professor, Public Health
Associate Professor, Medicine
Associate Professor, Family and Community Medicine
Associate Professor, Psychology
Director, Global Health and MCH Programs
Member of the Graduate Faculty
Associate Professor, BIO5 Institute
Primary Department
Department Affiliations
Contact
(520) 626-6317

Work Summary

Purnima Madhivanan is an epidemiologist and biomedical researcher examining the intersection of infectious diseases and cancer using -omics technology. Her current work is examining the vaginal and gut microbiome and their role in women's reproductive health. She has conducted several large mixed methods epidemiological studies in the US and internationally.

Research Interest

Purnima Madhivanan, MBBS, MPH, PhD, is an Associate Professor with Tenure in the Department of Health Promotion Sciences at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona. Dr. Madhivanan holds a joint appointment in the College of Medicine, and is a member of the UA Cancer Center. She is the Director of the Global Health Training Program at University of Arizona and serves as a co-PI for the GHES consortium in collaboration with Stanford, Yale and University of California, Berkeley. She is also the Founding Director of Public Health Research Institute of India and the Medical Director of Prerana Women's Health initiative in India. For the last 20 years, her research has focussed on disadvantaged populations, elucidating the dynamics of poverty, gender and the social & environmental determinants of health, in particular the impact on women and children living in rural communities. Her current research focusses on the intersection of infectious diseases and cancer. Dr. Madhivanan serves as an advisor to a number of state departments of Public Health, non-profit as well as governmental research organizations. In 2007, she received the prestigious International Leadership Award from the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation for her work on HIV prevention. Dr. Madhivanan’s global health research credentials and clinical service has brought unique opportunities for collaborations; most recently benefiting students and faculty interested in learning about Global Health and service in a developing world setting.

Kristen M Pogreba Brown

Associate Veterinary Specialist, Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences
Assistant Professor, Public Health
Member of the Graduate Faculty
Assistant Professor, BIO5 Institute
Primary Department
Contact
(520) 626-3076

Research Interest

Kristen Pogreba Brown, Ph.D., M.P.H., is an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. Prior to joining the faculty, Dr. Pogreba-Brown was an Epidemiologist with the College as the director of the Student Aid for Field Epidemiology Response (SAFER) team. In addition to continuing to oversee the SAFER program, her research projects are focused on foodborne diseases and improving methodology to respond to outbreak investigations. She is currently working on a project to identify the risk factors related to foodborne infection as well as the risk factors related to specific chronic outcomes following acute disease. She has recently initiated a One Health Program at the University to form collaborative research teams from across campus and develop a graduate level certificate program. She is also actively involved in public health preparedness activities, specifically for large events. Dr. Pogreba-Brown works with various county health departments in Arizona as well as the state health department to aid in outbreak investigations and serves on the state’s Foodborne Taskforce Committee.

Walter W Piegorsch

Professor, Applied Mathematics - GIDP
Professor, Public Health
Director, Statistical Research and Education
Professor, Agricultural-Biosystems Engineering
Professor, Mathematics
Professor, Statistics-GIDP
Professor, BIO5 Institute
Primary Department
Department Affiliations
Contact
(520) 621-2357

Work Summary

Data science for environmental and public health applications, with emphasis on environmental risk assessment and informatics for precision medicine.

Research Interest

Walter W. Piegorsch, Ph.D., PStat, is a Professor of Mathematics and the Director of Statistical Research & Education at the University of Arizona’s BIO5 Institute. He is also a Professor of Public Health and a Member (and former Chair) of the University’s Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Statistics. Dr. Piegorsch studies data science for environmental and public health applications, with emphasis on environmental risk assessment and informatics for precision medicine. He has developed new bioinformatic methods for identifying differentially expressed genetic pathways with single-subject data, and he currently leads a team developing statistical methods for estimating benchmark dose markers in environmental risk assessment. This latter research has been funded by the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. National Cancer Institute. He also has constructed statistical models for data from transgenic bio-technologies, developed guidelines for the design of bioassays in select transgenic animal systems, and has proposed retrospective designs for analyzing gene-environment and gene-nutrient interactions in human population studies. Dr. Piegorsch’s work has led to over 200 journal articles and book chapters, five books, and he has served as Editor for two scientific encyclopedias. Dr. Piegorsch has held a number of professional positions, including Chairman of the American Statistical Association Section on Statistics & the Environment (2004) and election to the Council of the International Biometric Society (2002-2005). From 2010-2019 he served as Editor-in-Chief of Environmetrics, the oldest scientific journal publishing on the development and application of quantitative methods in the environmental sciences. He also has served as Joint-Editor of the Journal of the American Statistical Association (Theory & Methods Section), and as a member of many journal editorial boards, including Environmental and Ecological Statistics, Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis, Mutation Research, and Biometrics. Dr. Piegorsch has been honored as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, a Member (by Election) of the International Statistical Institute, and has received the Distinguished Achievement Medal of the American Statistical Association Section on Statistics and the Environment. Keywords: "statistics", "data analytics", "environmetrics", "quantitative risk assessment"

Yann C Klimentidis

Associate Professor, Public Health
Assistant Professor, Genetics - GIDP
Associate Professor, BIO5 Institute
Primary Department
Contact
(520) 621-0147

Work Summary

I use human genetic data to find associations of genetic markers with complex traits and diseases, to shed light on disease pathophysiology, causal pathways, and health disparities, and to inform precision medicine.

Research Interest

Yann C. Klimentidis, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona. His research centers on improving our understanding of the links between genetic variation, lifestyle factors, metabolic disease, and health disparities. In the past, he has used measures of genetic admixture and genomic tests of natural selection to understand the genetic basis of population differences in disease susceptibility. His most recent work examines the use various statistical approaches for the analysis of high-dimensional genetic data for improving prediction of genetic susceptibility to type-2 diabetes. In addition, his work examines gene-by-lifestyle interactions in type-2 diabetes, as well as understanding the causal links between metabolic traits such as dyslipidemia and type-2 diabetes. Keywords: Genetics, epidemiology, Cardiometabolic disease, Physical activity

Melanie D Hingle

Associate Professor, Nutritional Sciences
Associate Professor, Public Health
Member of the Graduate Faculty
Associate Professor, BIO5 Institute
Primary Department
Department Affiliations
Contact
(520) 621-3087

Work Summary

Melanie Hingle's work focuses on understanding determinants of energy balance behaviors (i.e. how and why behaviors are initiated and sustained), and identifying contributors to the success of interventions (i.e. when, where, and how interventions should be delivered) are critical steps toward developing programs that effectively change behavior, thereby mitigating unhealthy weight gain and promoting optimal health. Current projects include: Determinants of metabolic risk, and amelioration of risk, in pediatric cancer survivors, Guided imagery intervention delivered via a mobile software application to increase healthy eating and physical activity in weight-concerned women smokers, and Family-focused diabetes prevention program delivered in partnership with the YMCA.

Research Interest

Identify and understand determinants of behavioral, weight-related, and metabolic outcomes in children, adolescents, and families, including how and why so-called “obesogenic behaviors” (unhealthy dietary habits, sedentary behaviors) are initiated and sustained. Develop and test novel approaches to motivate healthy lifestyle changes in children, adolescents, and families, including development, testing, and assessment of face-to-face and mobile device-based interventions.

Paloma Beamer

Professor, Public Health
Professor, Chemical and Environmental Engineering
Professor, American Indian Studies-GIDP
Professor, BIO5 Institute
Member of the General Faculty
Member of the Graduate Faculty
Primary Department
Contact
(520) 626-0006

Research Interest

Paloma I. Beamer, Ph.D., joined the College of Public Health in 2007 as an assistant professor in Environmental Health Sciences. The central motivation behind her research is in the development of tools that can help provide more robust exposure and dose estimates and improve the demonstration of a relationship between measured environmental concentrations and resulting health effects, particularly amongst children and underserved populations. Currently Dr. Beamer is using both computer modeling and laboratory techniques in her research. She is currently using GIS techniques to assess the risk of wheezing from exposure to traffic pollutants in early childhood. As an expert in micro-activity patterns she is examining the activity patterns of older children and utilizing them to estimate dust ingestion. Dr. Beamer has built a laboratory to characterize exposure and risk of water-borne contaminants. Currently she is using this laboratory to measure the concentration of tricholoethylene in breastmilk and water contaminants in Nogales. Dr. Beamer is also involved field sampling and exposure modeling projects aimed at understanding children's exposures to pesticides in agricultural communities and metals near hazardous waste sites. Dr. Beamer has served as Academic Councilor on the Board of the International Society of Exposure Science. She has been a long time member of the Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers and the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science. She has received the "Scientific Technological Achievement Award" from US EPA, "Mentored Quantitative Research Development Award" from NIH, and the "40 under 40" Award from the Arizona Daily Star and Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.