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

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