Curricula Vitae in Health Prom., Educ. & Behavior

Name	Personal Focus	Summary
Isabella (Bella) Alonso Instructor		Isabella Alonso, MPH is an Instructor in the Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior in the College of Arnold School of Public Health.
John Bernhart Research Assistant Professor		John Bernhart, Ph.D., MPH, CHES is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior in the Arnold School of Public Health College.
Dr. Christine Elizabeth Blake Associate Professor	Focuses on understanding how contexts and cognitions interact to influence what foods mean to people, and food choice behaviors, particularly among low-income parents	My research provides insight into food-related behaviors to inform development of theory-based approaches for promoting healthy dietary intake. More specifically, my work focuses on understanding contextual and cognitive factors that influence food-related behaviors with an emphasis on people and organizations that shape these behaviors in children. My work draws heavily on schema theory, and involves the use of novel mixed-methods approaches.
Marta J Bornstein Assistant Professor	infertility and perceived (in)fertility within different populations, reproductive decision making among LGBTQ+ individuals, abortion patient and provider experiences	Dr. Bornstein is a mixed methods researcher focused on sexual and reproductive health (SRH), including fertility, infertility, contraceptive use, and abortion. She is keenly interested in how fertility and infertility are social constructed and experienced. In all of her research, Dr. Bornstein incorporates a reproductive justice framework to understand how individual experiences and health outcomes related to SRH are shaped by structural and social inequalities.
Dr. Rachel Davis Associate Professor	health promotion, health communication, survey methodology	My research focuses on three areas relevant to eliminating racial and ethnic health disparities among Latino and African American populations: (1) developing and testing culturally tailored interventions to prevent child obesity and promote type 2 diabetes management; (2) understanding how interactions between individuals and their socio-cultural environments influence obesity-related behaviors; and (3) reducing culturally associated measurement error in health-related survey data.
Jennifer Fillo Assistant Professor	Interpersonal processes in health behavior, Alcohol and other substance use, Military populations	Dr. Fillo has expertise in close relationship processes, substance use, and the design and analysis of dyadic and longitudinal studies. She examines social and interpersonal processes related to health behavior, with a particular focus on the influence of close others (e.g., friends, family members, romantic partners) on the use of alcohol and other substances. She also focuses on the effects of service-connected stress and trauma on US military service members and their partners.
Daniela Beth Friedman Department Chair/Professor	health communication, health literacy, healthy aging, cancer prevention, mass media	Dr. Friedman's community- and partner-engaged research is focused on communication and aging specifically regarding cancer prevention and control and Alzheimer's disease. She serves as Principal Investigator of the South Carolina Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network and the South Carolina Healthy Brain Research Network. She has also conducted research on how to communicate with communities about participation in clinical trials and about the Affordable Care Act.
Dr. Edward A. Frongillo, Jr. Professor	infants and young children, families, parenting, nutrition, hunger, policy, programs	Dr. Edward Frongillo, Jr.'s work is primarily focused on the study of nutrition. His work includes establishing growth standards and improving the development and feeding of infants and young children. Additionally, his work examines the role that family stress and parenting as well as the role of policy can and do play in improving nutrition.
Hala Ghattas Associate Professor	links between inequity, food insecurity, nutritional status and health	Dr Ghattas' work explores the social and structural determinants, and health consequences of both under and over-nutrition in the contexts of the global nutrition transition, and regional conflicts in the Middle East. She has developed novel tools to measure food environments and food insecurity experience in low and middle-income settings. She has also led the nutrition and health components of multidimensional poverty surveys and vulnerability assessments.
Cassandra Goldston Giraudy Senior Instructor	First Aid/CPR, Adult Education, International Education (TESOL, F-1/J-1)	Dr. Giraudy is The Academic Programs Coordinator for HPEB and teaches HPEB 335 - First Aid and Emergency Response, which is an undergraduate course especially popular with nursing and exercise science students. She also teaches University 101, a 3 credit hour seminar course that is designed to increase student retention and improve academic outcomes. This course is consistently recognized by US News & World Report’s Best Colleges edition as a course with documented impact.
Dr. Edena Guimaraes Clinical Associate Professor	HIV, STIs, Teen pregnancy prevention	With more than 30 years of experience in the health care industry, Dr. Guimaraes’ interests include HIV, STIs and teen pregnancy prevention, as well as the utilization of community health care workers in marginalized and high risk communities. Dr. Guimaraes' work has a particular focus on newly immigrated, limited English-proficient Latinos in South Carolina. In the Arnold School, she teaches a variety of undergraduate, graduate, and online graduate courses.
Dr. Andrew Kaczynski Associate Professor		Dr. Kaczynski's research adopts a social ecological perspective to understand how the built environment, including the design of neighborhoods and communities, influences recreational and utilitarian physical activity. Dr. Kaczynski's personal and professional background is in the area of parks and recreation management and public health and much of his work focuses on the role of community parks in increasing physical activity and reducing obesity amongst children and adults.
Minji Kim Assistant Professor	targeted and tailored health communication, examining the effects of targeted marketing and counter-marketing of emerging tobacco products	Dr. Minji Kim's research focuses on targeted and tailored health communication. Kim's recent projects include examining the effects of targeted marketing and counter-marketing of emerging tobacco products, including e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, with emphasis on the impact on vulnerable populations including youth and Asian Americans.
Leila Larson Assistant Professor		Dr. Larson's interests lie in community nutrition and human development throughout the lifespan. She is interested in maternal and child nutrition, the consequences of malnutrition, and interventions to improve early life health outcomes in resource limited settings. Dr. Larson works predominantly in global health, studying the risks of poor growth and development and assessing prenatal and postnatal solutions to improve stunting, developmental potential, and other health outcomes.
Dr. Xiaoming Li Professor		Xiaoming Li, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior (HPEB); South Carolina SmartState Endowed Chair of Clinical Translational Research; Director, South Carolina SmartState Center for Healthcare Quality (CHQ); Director, UofSC Excellence Initiative Big Data Health Science Center (BDHSC); Interim Chief Public Health and Prevention Research Officer, Health Science South Carolina, Columbia, SC
Dr. Emily S. Mann Associate Professor	reproductive health and justice; maternal health, sociology of health and medicine, sociology of gender and sexuality	Dr. Mann is a medical sociologist whose research focuses on topics related to reproductive health, rights, and justice. Her work uses qualitative research methods to examine how reproductive health promotion efforts unfold in variety of institutional contexts and how social factors influence the reproductive decision making and experiences of diverse groups.
Dr. Courtney Monroe Assistant Professor	Physical activity, Behavioral weight control	Courtney Monroe is an Assistant Professor for the Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior Arnold School of Public Health at University of South Carolina.
Shan Qiao Associate Professor	HIV prevention and treatment in the context of global health, women living with HIV/AIDS in South Carolina	Dr. Qiao's academic training is in sociology, anthropology and public health and her research projects use both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Her interests are in HIV prevention and treatment in the context of global health, as well as women living with HIV/AIDS in South Carolina.
Dr. Anne Caroline Rudisill Associate Professor	health economist who conducts applied research related to health behaviors, economic evaluation can play a role in coverage decisions in health systems worldwide	Dr. Rudisill is a health economist who conducts applied research related to health behaviors. She examines individual decision-making regarding health-related behaviors, in particular treatment choices and preventative behaviors in the face of risk such as using financial incentives with patients in primary care and prevention settings, seeing how risk perceptions impact vaccination uptake and understanding how people behave in the face of health-related risks such as avian flu.
Dr. Cheuk Chi Tam Research Assistant Professor	technology-based psychosocial intervention for prescription drug misuse, Psychological and behavioral aspects of COVID-19, Resilience-based intervention to mitigate HIV-related stigma	Dr. Cheuk Chi (George) Tam earned his Ph.​D.​ and M.​S.​ in Health Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University and a M.​A.​ in Developmental and Counseling Psychology from Beijing Normal University. He has been dedicated into developing, delivering, and evaluating psychosocial-theory-based interventions (e.​g.​, Resilience) among vulnerable population and people living with HIV/AIDS.
Dr. James Thrasher, PhD Professor	Health Communication, Public Health Policy, Tobacco Prevention and Control	My research generally involves clarifying how social and cultural factors influence both health behaviors and the efficacy of communication and policy efforts to promote these behaviors. The mixed-method, interdisciplinary approach I take draws from my training in health behavior, epidemiology, anthropology, and psychology. Furthermore, the transnational nature of my research reflects my commitment to illuminating and engaging with health issues at home and abroad.
Dr. Gabrielle Turner-McGrievy Professor	obesity, nutrition, mHealth	My research focuses on discovering ways to help people eat healthier, lose weight, and prevent chronic disease. To achieve this goal, I explore ways to use emerging technology to assist with dietary self-monitoring, physical activity tracking, and provision of social support. My research also focuses on dietary approaches that do not require dietary self-monitoring, such as plant-based diets. My work is with traditionally underrepresented populations, particularly African Americans.
Dr. Ken Watkins Clinical Associate Professor	Gerontology, Self-regulation of chronic illness, Quality of life/Faith and health	Dr. Ken Watkins interests are gerontology, quality of life, self-management of chronic illness, and faith and health issues.
April L Winningham Senior Instructor		April Winningham, DrPH, MHS is a Senior Instructor for the Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, Arnold School of Public Health.
Dr. Xueying Yang Assistant Professor		Xueying Yang, Ph.D. is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, Arnold School of Public Health.
Dr. Nicholas Andrew Younginer Clinical Assistant Professor		Nicholas Younginer earned his PhD in Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior from University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC in 2016. He earned his MA in Anthropology from University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC in 2009. He earned his BA in Anthropology from University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC in 2016. He earned his AAS in Culinary Arts from Johnson and Wales University, Charleston, SC in 2003.