T-32 Mentors
Alice Ammerman, DrPH., is the Mildred Kaufman Distinguished Professor, Schools of Public Health/Medicine and Director of the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. Her research centers on health disparities, implementation science, food insecurity/access, and access to care. More recently, she has been involved in several mHealth projects using text message “nudges” to supplement behavioral interventions. Dr. Ammerman has been a mentor for Dr. Isabel Roth.
Search for publications on PubMed using AS Ammerman as search criteria.
Aysenil Belger, Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Director of Neuro-imaging Research, has extensive expertise in functional neuroimaging, including functional MRI. She is interested in the effects of stress/anxiety on brain activity. Dr. Belger will continue to mentor T32 trainees interested in utilizing dynamic neuroimaging approaches to evaluate underlying mechanisms of action of various CIH interventions.
Search for publications on PubMed using A Belger as search criteria.
Research Gate | Google Scholar
Leigh F. Callahan, Ph.D., Mary Link Briggs Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Associate Director, Thurston Arthritis Research Center, Director, Osteoarthritis Action Alliance, is an epidemiologist and health services researcher formerly with the CDC. Her research program examines factors surrounding arthritis and physical activity, health outcomes, and health disparities. She has published on CIH use in patients with rheumatologic conditions. She will continue advising and mentoring fellows interested in CIH use among individuals with chronic musculoskeletal disorders.
Search for publications on PubMed using Callahan LF as search criteria.
Giselle Corbie, MD, MSc., is a Kenan Distinguished Professor of Social Medicine Director of the Center for Health Equity Research (CHER) and an internal medicine physician. She has been PI for several community-based participatory research projects on disease risk reduction among rural racial and ethnic minorities. She co-leads the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program. Dr. Corbie is a coinvestigator on the Giscombé/Gaylord R01, implementing a mindfulness-based intervention for African American women, and has been a long-term mentor to Dr. Giscombé. Dr. Corbie will mentor Fellows involved in health disparity and community-engaged research, which is becoming an increasingly important aspect of CIH research.
Search for publications on PubMed using Corbie-Smith G. as search criteria.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0737-6775
Gabriel Dichter, Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology & Neuroscience. Director, Clinical Affective Neuroscience Lab. As a clinical psychologist with expertise in the neurobiology of psychiatric disorders, including mood disorders and autism. He has mentored past Fellow Dr. Erin Walsh and will continue to mentor post-doctoral Trainees in neuroimaging and psychophysiological techniques.
Search for publications on PubMed using Dichter GS as search criteria.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3407-5417
Barbara Fredrickson, Ph.D., Kenan Distinguished Professor, Professor of Psychology, is the director of the Positive Emotions and Psychophysiology (PEP) Lab at UNC and a leading scholar within social psychology, affective sciences, and positive psychology. Her research focuses on the effects of positive emotions on mental and physical health. As a past mentor for two of our T32 Fellows (Garland, Kiken), she collaborated with Dr. Gaylord on a mindfulness and positive reappraisal study using Dr. Gaylord’s dataset. She will provide access to the PEP Lab, where T32 fellows will be exposed to various novel measurement tools.
Search for publications on PubMed using BL Fredrickson as search criteria.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3890-2646
Flavio Frohlich, Ph.D., a computational neurobiologist, is an Associate Professor in Psychiatry, Cell Biology, and Physiology. He is the Director of the Carolina Center for Neurostimulation and was a mentor for former fellow Nick Wise. Dr. Frohlich will continue to mentor fellows interested in exploring novel therapeutic approaches for disorders of the brain.
Search for publications on PubMed using Frohlich F as search criteria.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3724-5621
Brad Gaynes, MD, MPH, is Professor of Psychiatry and Epidemiology, Director of the Division of Global Mental Health, Associate Chair of Research Training and Education, and Faculty Research Fellow at the UNC Sheps Center for Health Services Research. Dr. Gaynes brings his experience in mentoring, clinical trials, quantitative and qualitative research, systematic reviews, and implementation research to the T32.
Search for publications on PubMed using Gaynes BN as search criteria.
Google Scholar: “BN Gaynes”
Susan Girdler, Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Stress and Health research program, is an accomplished psychophysiological researcher who has focused her career on investigating biopsychosocial factors contributing to symptom expression in both physical and mental illness. Dr. Girdler has conducted a mindfulness intervention for premenstrual mood disorder and directs a mentorship training program for underrepresented minorities, PROMISE.
Search for publications on PubMed using Girdler SS as search criteria.
Michael Kosorok, Ph.D., is W. R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Biostatistics Professor, Statistics and Operations Research at UNC-Chapel Hill, and PI of the “Big Data to Knowledge Training Program” (T32CA201159). His research focuses on statistical methods for novel cancer clinical trials in precision medicine.
Kosorok Precision Health and Artificial Intelligence Research (PHAIR) Lab
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Jennifer Leeman, DrPH, MPH, MDiv, is a Carolina Nursing Associate Dean for Research and Professor with expertise in designing, implementing, and expanding, evidence-based interventions, with a focus on preventing chronic illness and reducing health disparities. Dr. Leeman is a principal investigator of the UNC member center in the Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network (2012-2024). This NIH/CDC-funded center works with 7 other centers to accelerate the development and implementation of cancer prevention and control interventions. She is also an MPI of the CDC-funded Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Core Project, which is testing strategies to scale up a healthy lifestyle intervention in Federally Qualified Health Centers and Health Departments, and serves as the lead implementation scientist for the NHLBI-funded Coordinating Center for the DECIPHeR Network ( Disparities Elimination through Coordinated Interventions to Prevent and Control Heart and Lung Disease Risk).
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Michael Lewek, PT, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Division of Physical Therapy, Department of Allied Health Science, and Associate Director of the Rehabilitation Engineering Center in the joint UNC/NCSU program in Biomedical Engineering. His research is focused on post-stroke walking function and other movement disorders. He will share his expertise on biomechanics and neural control of movement, as well as technologies for mobile monitoring of individuals’ post-stroke movement and for biomechanical analyses of movement. He will serve as a mentor and supportive faculty for Fellows interested in movement analysis and CIH interventions for movement disorders, particularly stroke recovery.
Search for publications on PubMed using Lewek M as search criteria.
Sam McLean, MD, MPH, is Associate Professor and Vice Chair of Research in the Dept. of Anesthesiology. His research focuses on acute and chronic musculoskeletal pain and related disorders, particularly in mechanisms in variation of pain episodes and in the transition from acute to chronic pain following physical trauma. He has extensive experience mentoring fellows and is willing to mentor and collaborate on research related to acute and chronic musculoskeletal pain.
Search for publications on PubMed using McLean SA as search criteria.
Shabbar I. Ranapurwala, PhD, MPH, BHMS, is an Assistant Professor of epidemiology and core faculty at the UNC Injury Prevention Research Center. He conducts advanced analytical research in injury and violence prevention. His work utilizes a diverse set of epidemiological study designs including cluster randomized trials, retrospective cohorts, case-control, and ecologic studies. He researches opioid poisoning prevention, violence prevention, and occupational injury prevention.
Search for publications on PubMed using Ranapurwala SI as search criteria.
Raza Shaikh, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Nutrition Department who investigates how metabolites synthesized from dietary n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, known as specialized pro-resolving lipid mediators (SPMs) can be developed to enhance the function of antibody secreting B cells in pre-clinical and clinical models of health and disease. He is mentor for current Fellow, Zach Kadro, ND.
Search for publications on PubMed using Shaikh SR as search criteria.
Susan Sumner, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Nutrition, directs metabolomics cores for an NIDDK-funded Nutrition Obesity Resource Core and has directed an NIH Common Fund Metabolomics Core designed to increase utilization of metabolomics and train metabolomics scientists. She will provide guidance to fellows in rigor and reproducibility related to metabolomics research.
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William Whitehead, Ph.D., Professor of Gastroenterology and Hepatology is Director of the Center of Functional GI and Motility Disorders and Co-director of the NIH NCCIH-funded Center for Gastrointestinal Biopsychosocial Research. He is involved in mechanisms for altered pain sensitivity in patients with IBS. Dr. Whitehead collaborated with Dr. Gaylord in the Mindfulness for IBS R21 and will mentor fellows on CIH interventions for GI motility disorders.
Search for publications on PubMed using Whitehead WE as search criteria.
Bharathi Jayanthi Zvara, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Maternal and Child Health. Dr. Zvara is completing an NIH-funded K01 focusing on factors that predict negative parenting behaviors in new mothers with a history of child maltreatment. She has been funded through an NIDDK-funded R01 to identify risk factors for childhood obesity. Dr. Zvara is a mentor for former Fellow and current PM&R faculty member, Dr. Christine Lathren.
Search for publications on PubMed using Zvara BJ as search criteria.