Professor Area of Expertise Emerging areas of research Webpage for more info Dr. Lorien Abroms Dr. Elizabeth Andrade Dr. Jeffrey Bingenheimer James Cawley Dr. William Dietz Health communication, smoking cessation, social marketing Behavioral health, evaluation research, global health, health disparities, program evaluation, social determinants of health, chronic disease, health communication Global health, HIV/AIDs, population health, prevention, Chronic disease, epidemiology, health policy, health services research, infectious disease, organizational change Obesity, prevention Dr. Abroms research focuses on the application of communication technologies including emails, text messaging, and smartphone apps--for smoking cessation and other health behaviors. She is currently leading an evaluation of the Text2Quit Program, an interactive text messaging program for smoking cessation. Dr. Andrade s work is dedicated to understanding and addressing health disparities experienced by vulnerable populations, particularly immigrant communities or underrepresented groups. Dr. Bingenheimer is an expert on quantitative research methods, applied statistics and causal inference. He is principal investigator of a NICHD grant examining the influences of gendered parenting practices, peer group norms, and gender role attitudes on adolescent HIV risk behaviors in two communities in southeastern Ghana. Professor Cawley's primary research interests focus on the physician assistant profession, primary care, and health work force policy. William (Bill) Dietz is the Director of the Sumner M. Redstone Global Center for Prevention and Wellness at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at The George Washington University. The center s goal is to implement and evaluate strategies to improve health and to measure on-andcommunityhealth/lorienabroms on-andcommunityhealth/elizabethandrade on-andcommunityhealth/jeffreybingenheimer on-andcommunityhealth/jamescawley on-andcommunityhealth-officedean/williamdietz
Dr. Mark Edberg Dr. Douglas Evans Dr. Kimberly Horn Behavioral health, social determinants of health, prevention, underserved populations, global health, population health Community Health, Evaluation Research, Health Information Technology, Nutrition, Risk Assessment, Management and Communication, Social Marketing, Populations Tobacco control, tobacco and other substance prevention and cessation, Smoking Cessation outcomes globally, nationally and in the Washington, DC community. Dr. Edberg is particularly knowledgeable about how poverty and marginalization intersect with key health issues, such as substance use and youth violence. He has done field or project work in urban areas of North America and in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean and retains a strong interest in immigrant and refugee populations, collaborating closely with organizations in the Hispanic/Latino and Southeast Asian communities. Dr. Evans is the Director of the Public Health Communication and Marketing Program in the School of Public Health and Health Services at GW. He currently focuses on the use of digital media to deliver and evaluate health communication and marketing interventions. Dean Horn has diverse research funding portfolio history from federal, state, and private agencies. Over a decade of 15 years continuous federal funding has afforded her the opportunity to develop an internationally recognized program of research in teen youth and young adult smoking cessation. A significant part of that program is the Not On Tobacco (N-O-T) teen smoking cessation program, which she codeveloped was formally adopted by the American Lung Association. Dr. Horn s most current research includes examination of the multi-level influences of tobacco use, including the use novel products such as e- on-andcommunityhealth/markedberg on-andcommunityhealth-globalhealth/wdouglas-evans on-andcommunityhealth/kimberlyhorn
Dr. David Huebner Dr. Shawnika Hull Dr. Michael Long Dr. Karen McDonnell Social Determinants of Health Social Marketing, Evaluation Research, Health Disparities, Social Determinants of Health, Behavioral Health Obesity, Nutrition, Health Policy Community Health, Maternal and Child Health, Women's Health, Children's Health cigarettes. Dr. Horn also is conducting studies on poly-tobacco use and harm reduction. Dr. Huebner s recent projects include two trials of a community-level intervention for young African American gay and bisexual men. The intervention aims to prevent HIV infection and improve health among those who are infected. He is also working to develop and test interventions for parents of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) youth to improve parents' responses to their children's sexual orientation and thereby facilitate child health. Dr. Hull specializes in strategic public health communication research and practice. Dr. Hull conducts theoretically based, practically useful, mixed methods research that improves health and reduces disparities in health through (mass) mediated communication. This research is focused primarily in the context of HIV prevention, including social and individual determinants. Dr. Long is an expert in research at the intersection of epidemiology and quantitative policy analysis with the goal of identifying cost-effective and politically feasible policy solutions to promote community health. He is currently working on the Childhood Obesity Intervention Cost- Effectiveness Study (CHOICES) project led by Steven Gortmaker, which is evaluating the cost-effectiveness of more than 40 policy and programmatic approaches to prevent childhood obesity in the United States. Dr. McDonnell s most recent work is leading a team to evaluate gender based violence in immigrant communities, development and testing of a community-centered FGM/C prevention project, evaluating the National Domestic Violence on-andcommunityhealth/davidhuebner on-andcommunityhealth/shawnikahull on-andcommunityhealth/michaellong on-andcommunityhealth/karenmcdonnell-phd
Dr. Melissa Napolitano Dr. Olga Price Dr. Rajiv Rimal Obesity, Physical Activity, Digital Intervention Strategies Access to Health Care, Community Health, School Health, Populations Global Health, Program Evaluation Hotline/loveisrespect Helpline, taking a public health approach to gender based violence and HIV, and evaluating multi-systems changes in the Clinical Translational Science Institute with Children s National and GWU. Dr. Napolitano s work specifically focuses on physical activity promotion, weight loss, and prevention of weight gain (e.g., among college students, following smoking cessation). She is particularly interested in the developmental life stage of emerging adulthood and contributing to the understanding of the formation of positive eating and exercise behaviors, as well as eating disorder risk behaviors. She currently is the PI of a two-site R01 (DK 100916) examining the efficacy of digital strategies, including Facebook and text messaging for promoting weight management among young adults. Dr. Napolitano is a consultant to the 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee (PAGAC), specifically working with the Physical Activity Promotion Subcommittee. Her research goals are to develop, implement and disseminate effective theory-based interventions on a broad scale. Dr. Price's primary research activities have been in the area of school mental health, prevention, resilience, community violence, and program development and evaluation. She is currently principal investigator of an initiative aimed at identifying and developing strategies for sustaining behavioral health prevention and promotion programs. Dr. Rimal's research focuses on the use of social and behavioral theory for disease prevention. His current scholarship merges social norms theory with social network analysis on-andcommunityhealth-exerciseand-nutritionsciences/melissanapolitano on-andcommunityhealth/olgaacosta-price on-andcommunity-
Dr. Kathleen Roche Dr. Monica Ruiz Dr. Caroline Sparks Mental health Epidemiology, Global Health, Health Disparities, Health Policy, Reproductive Health, Populations Aging, Evaluation Research, Smoking Cessation techniques to understand how women make family planning decisions. This work is being done in Kenya. He is leading another study that assesses the effectiveness of mass media, supplemented with a social media push, to disseminate information about global climate change in order to motivate people to take personal and political action. Dr. Roche is currently involved in research examining the intersecting influences of culture, parenting, and community context on the mental and behavioral health of Mexican and Central American youth in immigrant families. Her longitudinal research uses structural equation modeling techniques to examine direct and indirect pathways to positive youth adjustment as related to issues of culture, context, and parent-child relationships during transitions through adolescence. Dr. Ruiz current interests include nonvaccine HIV prevention strategies (such as topical microbicides and preexposure prophylaxis), HIV in correctional systems, and syringe exchange policy. Dr. Ruiz is the Principal Investigator of DC POINTE: Policy Impact on the Epidemic. The purpose of this research is to conduct an impact evaluation to determine whether or not the change in syringe exchange funding policy in Washington, DC, is associated with increased access to syringe exchange services, increased linkage to other relevant HIV prevention services for IDU, and new cases of HIV infection associated with IDU reported in the District of Columbia Dr. Sparks is the Principal Investigator for an "Exercise for Seniors" study funded in 2012 by the National Collaborative on Aging. She is the evaluator for the five-year American health/rajiv-rimal on-andcommunityhealth/kathleenroche on-andcommunityhealth/monicaruiz on-andcommunity-
Dr. Freya Spielberg Dr. Monique Turner Dr. Amita Vyas Behavioral health, mobile health, populations Social Marketing, Health Disparities, Nutrition, Obesity, Program Evaluation Maternal and Child Health, Reproductive Health, Women's Health Psychological Association's Behavioral and Social Sciences Volunteer (BSSV) program on HIV/AIDS. She recently served as the evaluator for the Partnership for Prevention's nine-state tobacco cessation alliance project. She is testing a positive mental health curriculum for the elderly, including Hispanic seniors and is working on a textbook for teaching public health advocacy. Dr. Spielberg recently developed a research agenda in the US to improve the health of urban underserved populations through web based home counseling and testing services (IknowSFBay). In India and Bangladesh she launched a program (HealthBox) to provide mobile tools to health workers to increase the quality and scope of the health care that they provide to include full health assessments, guided point of care testing, targeted counseling and critical referrals. Dr. Turner s expertise is in campaign message design and evaluation, risk communication, risk perception, and cognitive processing of health risks including informed decision making and critical thinking. Dr. Turner is the author of the Anger Activism model a behavioral theory explaining the conditions when emotions (anger) can be constructive versus deleterious. Dr. Vyas research focuses on health behaviors and gender-based violence among South Asian immigrants in the U.S; teen pregnancy prevention and family planning utilization in the U.S; and the use of Girl Rising media tools and campaigns to address genderbased discrimination globally. health/carolinesparks on-andcommunityhealth/freyaspielberg on-andcommunityhealth/moniqueturner on-andcommunityhealth/amitavyas