Meet Our Faculty

Chair

Stephen Kimmel

Stephen Kimmel

Dean’s Professor And Chair
Research Interests:
  • Cardiovascular Epidemiology
  • Pharmacoepidemiology
  • Prediction Modeling

Core Faculty

Takis Benos

Takis Benos

William Bushnell Presidential Chaired Professor
Research Interests:
  • Aging
  • Causal inference
  • Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
  • Computational biology
  • Liver Disease
  • Lung cancer
  • Machine learning and applications
Shantrel S Canidate

Shantrel S Canidate PhD, MPH

Assistant Professor; EPI Associate Director For Outreach And Community Partnerships
Natalie E Chichetto

Natalie E Chichetto PhD, MSW

Assistant Professor
Research Interests:
  • Alcohol Abuse
  • Behavioral Health Syndemics
  • Cardiovascular Epidemiology
  • Gut Microbiome
Robert L Cook

Robert L Cook M.D., M.P.H.

Professor
Linda B Cottler

Linda B Cottler PhD, MPH, FACE

Dean’s Professor Of Epidemiology
Research Interests:
  • Substance Use Epidemiology, particularly opioids
  • Drug addiction
  • community engagement
Kelly K Gurka

Kelly K Gurka MPH, PhD

Assistant Professor
Research Interests:
  • Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology
  • Community-Engaged Research
  • Harm Reduction
  • Injury & Violence Epidemiology
Yiyang Liu

Yiyang Liu

Research Assistant Professor
Research Interests:
  • Alcohol and substance use
  • HIV
  • HIV Prevention
  • Mental Health
  • data science
  • electronic health records
Jinling Liu

Jinling Liu

Assistant Professor
Research Interests:
  • Aging
  • Cancer
  • Cardiovascular Disease
  • Causal inference
  • Genetic Epidemiology
  • Machine Learning
Catalina Lopez-Quintero

Catalina Lopez-Quintero

Assistant Professor
Research Interests:
  • Access to prevention and care
  • Alcohol and substance use
  • Behavioral epidemiology
  • Health disparities and vulnerable populations
  • Population Neuroscience
Volker Mai

Volker Mai

Associate Professor
Ashley Malin

Ashley Malin

Assistant Professor
Research Interests:
  • Environmental Epidemiology
  • Environmental Toxicology
  • Neurodevelopmental Disorders
  • Nutrition and Wellness
Simone Marini

Simone Marini

Assistant Professor
Research Interests:
  • Antimicrobial Resistance
  • Data Integration
  • HIV
  • Inflammation
  • Machine Learning
Mattia Prosperi

Mattia Prosperi PhD, FAMIA

Professor And Associate Dean For AI And Innovation
Jerne J Shapiro

Jerne J Shapiro

Instructional Assistant Professor
Research Interests:
  • Applied Epidemiology
  • COVID-19
  • Field Epidemiology
  • Infectious disease epidemiology
  • Infectious disease surveillance
  • Local and State Health Department
  • Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)
Ronald I Shorr

Ronald I Shorr

Director, Geriatric Research Education & Clinical Center, Malcom Randall VAMC, Research Professor, Department of Epidemiology, University of Florida
Research Interests:
  • Patient Safety
  • Pharmacoepidemiology
Heather A Stark

Heather A Stark

Clinical Associate Professor
Research Interests:
  • Global Health
  • Maternal and Child Health
  • Nutrition and Wellness
Catherine L Striley

Catherine L Striley PhD, MSW, MPE

Associate Professor
Research Interests:
  • Access to prevention and care
  • Health disparities and Social determinants of health
  • Multimorbidity and functional decline
  • Substance Use Disorders
  • community engagement
Krishna Vaddiparti

Krishna Vaddiparti

Assistant Professor
Research Interests:
  • Exposure to violence and victimization
  • HIV Stigma and outcomes
  • Medical Marijuana – PTSD and Sleep
Deepthi S Varma

Deepthi S Varma

Research Assistant Professor
Research Interests:
  • Maternal and Child Health
  • Mental Health
  • Qualitative Research
  • mHealth
Yan Wang

Yan Wang

Assistant Professor
Drew A Westmoreland

Drew A Westmoreland MSPH, PhD

Assistant Professor
Research Interests:
  • Alcohol and substance use
  • Behavioral epidemiology
  • HIV
  • LGBTQ+ health
  • Sexual health
  • Sexually transmitted infections
Lusine Yaghjyan

Lusine Yaghjyan

Associate Professor
Research Interests:
  • Breast cancer risk factors
  • Breast cancer risk prediction
  • Cancer Screening
  • Endocrine disruptors
  • Environmental contributors to breast cancer
  • Gut microbiome and breast health
  • Molecular epidemiology
Sai Zhang

Sai Zhang

Assistant Professor
Research Interests:
  • Computational biology
  • Genetics
  • Genomics
  • Machine Learning
  • Precision Medicine
Jinying Zhao

Jinying Zhao MD, PhD

Deans Endowed Chair And Professor Director, Center For Genetic Epidemiology And Bioinformatics (GeneBio), Preeminence Faculty
Research Interests:
  • Aging and Age related disease
  • Alzheimer’s Disease
  • Cardiovascular Disease
  • Diabetes
  • Genetic Epidemiology
  • Machine Learning
  • Major depression
  • Multi-omics
  • Precision Health
  • Statistical Genetics
  • Translational Bioinformatics

Joint Faculty

Emeritus Faculty

Dejana Braithwaite, PhD, MSc

Dejana Braithwaite, PhD, MSc

Professor And Division Chief, Population Health Sciences; Associate Director For Population Sciences, UF Health Cancer Center

Graduate Faculty

Graduate faculty may serve as supervisory committee chairs, co-chairs, and internal members, but they may not serve as external members.

Name Title Email
George J Arnaoutakis George J Arnaoutakis Associate Professor gja10@ufl.edu
Rebecca J Beyth Rebecca J Beyth Professor Emeritus rbeyth@ufl.edu
Muna Canales Muna Canales Clinical Associate Professor muna.canales@medicine.ufl.edu
Yenisel Cruz-Almeida Yenisel Cruz-Almeida Associate Professor & Associate Director, Pain Research & Intervention Center Of Excellence cryeni@ufl.edu
Derek A Cummings Derek A Cummings Professor; EPI Associate Director For Education And Graduate Programs datc@ufl.edu
Awewura Kwara Awewura Kwara Professor Of Medicine, VA Section Chief awewura.kwara@medicine.ufl.edu
Michael Lauzardo Michael Lauzardo Associate Professor Of Medicine; Deputy Director Of Emerging Pathogens Institute mike.lauzardo@medicine.ufl.edu
Ira M Longini Ira M Longini Professor ilongini@ufl.edu
Todd Manini Todd Manini Professor; Division Chief Of Clinical And Population Health Integration; Co-Director Of The Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center tmanini@ufl.edu
J. Glenn Morris J. Glenn Morris Director, Emerging Pathogens Institute jgmorris@epi.ufl.edu
Michael G Perri Michael G Perri Dean Emeritus mperri@ufl.edu
Sonja A Rasmussen Sonja A Rasmussen Professor skr9@ufl.edu
Marco Salemi Marco Salemi Holloway Professor In Experimental Pathology; EPI Associate Director For Research Initiatives salemi@pathology.ufl.edu
Stephanie Staras Stephanie Staras Associate Chair Of Faculty Development And Associate Professor sstaras@mail.ufl.edu
Marie N Séraphin Marie N Séraphin Assistant Professor nancy.seraphin@medicine.ufl.edu
Scott L Tomar Scott L Tomar Professor stomar@dental.ufl.edu
Almut G Winterstein Almut G Winterstein Distinguished Professor, Director For CoDES, Director For Consortium For Medical Marijuana Clinical Outcomes Research almut@ufl.edu