UW-Milwaukee: Joseph J. Zilber School of Public Health adds eight new faculty members

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Joseph J. Zilber School of Public Health, established in 2009, has hired eight new faculty members for the fall, 2011 semester, bringing the school’s total to 14 faculty members. They include:

Lance S. Weinhardt, Professor of Community and Behavioral Health Promotion: Health Disparities

Weinhardt’s primary areas of interest are developing effective primary and secondary HIV-prevention interventions, the ways in which societal and structural factors affect health-related behaviors and strategies to help communities become more resilient to emerging public health challenges. Among other projects, he is currently studying the effects of sustainable economic development programs on food security and health outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa. Before joining UWM, he was with the Medical College of Wisconsin. He earned his B.S. in psychology at Indiana State University and his M.S. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Syracuse University.

Young Ik Cho, Associate Professor of Community and Behavioral Health Promotion: Health Disparities

Cho’s research work focuses on issues involved in substance abuse behaviors and treatment, neighborhood effects on health behavior, and research design and program evaluation. Cho has also done work on smoking cessation programs for economically disadvantaged women, as well as studies on the links between health literacy and health status and use of health services. Prior to joining UWM, Cho was at the University of Illinois-Chicago. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s from Western Illinois University and his doctorate from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Karla Bartholomew, Assistant Professor of Public Health Policy

Bartholomew joins the faculty of the Zilber School of Public Health after completing a joint J.D./Ph.D. program in health policy at Vanderbilt University. Her research interests include the spectrum of public health law and the intersection of public policy and public health, particularly as it relates to maternal and child health. In addition to health law and health services delivery, her background includes clinical experience as a physician assistant (B.M.S. – Emory University), community health education (B.S. – University of Maryland), and public health practice and administration (M.P.H. – University of Alabama at Birmingham).

Amy Kalkbrenner, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology

Kalkbrenner’s research focus is environmental epidemiology. Her current studies are looking at potential links between air pollutants and disorders like autism and attention deficit disorder. She earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology and biology from Indiana University, her master’s of public health in epidemiology/biostatstics and public health nutrition at the University of California, Berkeley, and her doctorate in epidemiology at the University of North Carolina.

Emmanuel Ngui, Assistant Professor of Community and Behavioral Health Promotion: Health Disparities

Ngui’s expertise is in maternal and child health and health disparities research, and program planning and evaluation. His research includes epidemiological and health services research in minority health, and health disparities, particularly birth outcomes and access and use of health services by children with and without special health care needs. He serves on the Wisconsin Statewide Minority Health Leadership Committee and as the principal investigator on the City of Milwaukee Fetal and Infant Mortality Review (FIMR) project. He received his doctoral training in maternal and child health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health. He comes to UWM from the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Renee E. Walker, Assistant Professor of Community and Behavioral Health Promotion: Health Disparities

Walker’s research focuses on disparities in obesity with a focus on the role of social determinants of health, including socioeconomic position, race/ethnicity and racial discrimination, and residential neighborhood contexts. Her recent research explores disparities in the neighborhood food environment and in access to healthy and nutritious foods. She earned her doctorate in public health in behavioral and community health sciences from the University of Pittsburgh. She also holds a master’s in public health from Drexel University in community health and prevention, and a B.A. in biology from Lake Forest College. Prior to joining UWM, she was a joint Kellogg Health Scholar and Yerby Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Xuexia (Helen) Wang, Assistant Professor of Biostatistics

Wang’s main research area is statistical genetics. Her focus is on developing statistical methods and computational tools to identify genetic variants that influence susceptibility to complex diseases. She earned her bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Shandong Normal University in China, her master’s in biostatistics/mathematical sciences from Michigan Technological University, a doctorate in quantitative economics from Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing, China, and a doctorate in biostatistics/mathematical sciences with a concentration in statistical genetics from Michigan Technological University. Prior to coming to UWM, she was a researcher at City of Hope.

Fang (Alice) Yan, Assistant Professor of Community and Behavioral Health: Health Disparities

Yan’s research focuses on eliminating health disparities in minority populations through Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR), public health surveillance and applied translational research. Her research is characterized by two unique aspects: 1) applying a multidisciplinary approach to investigating the interrelationships of social (e.g., income inequality and race/ethnicity) and environmental factors on individual behaviors (e.g., physical activity, food/nutrition, substance abuse and sexual risk behaviors) and a variety of health outcomes (e.g., obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer) in minority populations; and 2) using health informatics (i.e., GIS) and effective health communication strategies to develop public health surveillance systems and to design tailored health education and health promotion interventions. Yan earned her doctorate in public health from the University of Maryland School of Public Health and her medical degree from Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in China. Before joining UWM, she held a tenure-track position at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

The Joseph J. Zilber School of Public Health at UW-Milwaukee currently has 14 faculty and three academic programs (Master’s of Public Health, Graduate Certificate in Public Health and Ph.D. in Environmental & Occupational Health). The school has a thematic focus on social and environmental justice.