Health Experts Database

Dr. Chen’s research focuses on developing novel laser-based approaches to facilitate transdermal drug/vaccine delivery, improving vaccine/adjuvant safety and fabricating the right formulation and device for such purposes.

Dr. Taveira’s research focuses on the evaluation of pharmacist-coordinated cardiac risk reduction care models and the impact of mental health conditions on diabetes and cardiac risk factor control.

Dr. DiTomasso’s areas of specialty include antepartum, labor & delivery, post-partum, lactation, and newborn care. He research focuses on breastfeeding, infant weight loss and growth.

Professor Hames’ research interests lie in issues surrounding death and bereavement, specifically as they relate to children and nursing education. Her research focuses on thanatology, grief and loss in children and adolescents and death education.

Dr. Larrat, Dean of the URI College of Pharmacy, specializes in drug benefit design issues, formulary compliance strategies, pharmacoeconomic evaluation, decision analysis, outcomes assessment, health policy and drug utilization management.

Dr. Mahler’s research focuses on motor speech disorders and cognitive-linguistic abilities in adults with neurological diagnoses, including Parkinson’s disease, brain injury, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, Down syndrome and cerebral palsy. She investigates how principles of motor learning can drive activity-dependent changes in neural plasticity with long-term benefits that improve functional communication. She also evaluates the impact of deep brain stimulation on speech and swallowing abilities in people with Parkinson disease and essential tremor, and on the role of cognition in diet and exercise for older obese women.

Ms. DeAngelis-Chichester’s primary expertise is developing and integrating authenticated high-fidelity human patient simulation models into healthcare curricula, extending into several related fields including nutritional science, molecular pathology, cell biology and pharmacology.

Dr. Weyandt’s research focuses on the study of pharmacological and nonpharmacological interventions for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in children and young adults. She studies the misuse of prescription stimulant medication, clinical neuroscience and the executive functions in clinical and nonclinical populations.

Dr. Audette initiated the Broadening Experience at URI, which allows students to broaden their view of physical therapy locally, nationally and internationally through two-week non-clinical experiences. Every year as part of this program, she travels with students to the highlands of Guatemala to work at a center for children with disabilities. She has done physical therapy related work in China, Haiti, Suriname and Guatemala.

Dr. Feret’s research and practice interests include delivery and assessment of experiential education, a pharmacist’s role in emergency preparedness, and self care.

Dr. Ward’s research focuses on drug information, literature evaluation, biostatistics, women’s health (contraception, pregnancy/lactation, infertility) and medication adherence.

Dr. Tovar works across the disciplines of nutrition and psychology. She focuses on community-based participatory interventions to prevent obesity at early stages in life and among ethnic minority populations, in particular.

A certified health fitness specialist and strength and conditioning specialist, Armstrong’s research interests include strength and conditioning, biomechanics, and youth physical activity.

Professor Dassie’s research focuses on prostate and testicular cancer research, minority health issues, men’s health issues, and diversity in nursing issues.

Ms. Rakovic’s research focuses on school-age children and their speech and language disorders, including autism and illiteracy.

Dr. English’s research focuses largely on technology. Her interests include creating, implementing and evaluating electronic techniques to improve the educational experience of undergraduate students.

Dr. Faust is a clinical psychology professor who focuses his research on psychology and law (methods for improving courtroom evaluations, cross-cultural applications and issues, and science-legal interface), neuropsychology (strengths and limitations of assessment methodology and means of enhancing accuracy; cross-cultural issues in neuropsychological evaluation; legal applications), clinical judgment and decision making (identification of practices that impede or enhance diagnostic and predictive accuracy; increasing use of scientifically-based methods for maximizing accuracy) philosophy/psychology of science (examining scientists’ higher level decision making, such as theory evaluation, and developing methods for enhancing scientific judgment), and methodology, especially applied issues in psychological and neuropsychological assessment.

Dr. Rowley’s research focuses on marine natural products chemistry, antibiotics drug discovery and marine microbial chemical ecology.

Dr. Sullivan’s research focuses on prematurity, children at risk, context of development including risk and protection, longitudinal methods, biobehavioral models, stress mechanisms and allostatic load.

Dr. Schwartz-Barcott’s research focuses on pain, anxiety and other central phenomena experienced by patients across nursing care settings, community health, inductive approaches to theory development and sociocultural influences in health and illness.

Dr. Rossi’s research focuses on two areas of interests — quantitative methods (statistical power analysis, meta-analysis, effect size and the null hypothesis testing controversy, measurement modeling, psychometric methods and structural equation modeling) and health psychology (transtheoretical model of behavior change, including applications to sun exposure, smoking cessation, weight control, physical activity, healthy diets and numerous other behaviors; multiple health behavior change; and computer-tailored interventions.

Dr. Florin’s research examines community change, particularly planned change, which is designed as part of community-wide prevention or health promotion programming. He is focused on how changes in community conditions, institutions and process are brought about and the effects of such changes on individual and collective well being. His most recent efforts are centered around three federally funded evaluations of community level alcohol and other drug abuse prevention programs.

Dr. Slitt’s research interests focus on how expression of drug transporters affects chemical disposition and toxicity; how nutrition and intake of dietary antioxidants affects the expression of drug transporters; how liver disease (i.e. diabetes, cholestasis and ethanol cirrohsis) affects transporter expression and chemical disposition; and how transporter expression affects cholesterol transport and susceptibility to gallstone formation.

Dr. Xu’s research focuses on strategies that lead to increased physical activity participation in different age groups, and beneficial effects of physical exercise. Dr. Xu also studies the factors associated with physical activity opportunities and behavioral choices of physical activity. Her research encompasses the fields of physical activity assessment and lifetime physical activity.

Professor Lateef’s research focuses on diabetes and geriatric medicine.

Dr. Blissmer’s research focuses on delivering theoretically based interventions to promote a healthy lifestyle and analysis of the psychosocial outcomes of those interventions. This research involves collaboration with faculty in Psychology and Nutrition and has included populations ranging from adolescents to older adults. He has also focused on continuing to evolve the emerging field of multiple behavior change, physical activity promotion, health behavior theory, psychosocial outcomes of PA engagement.

An interest in maternal-child health and evidence based care practices. A specific focus on birth practices such as the management of the umbilical cord in term and preterm infants.

Dr. Roush’s research focuses on professional issues and disability studies including incorporation of a social model of disability into the work of health care providers, perceptions of sexual boundaries in physical therapy clinical practice, empathy in physical therapy students, accommodating allied health students with disabilities, and physical therapy patient satisfaction.

Dr. Weiss’ research focuses on the role of emotion dysregulation in posttraumatic stress disorder and the risky, self-destructive and health compromising behaviors that frequently co-occur with PTSD. In particular, her research aims to clarify the role of emotion dysregulation in the development and maintenance of PTSD, as well as explore whether maladaptive ways of responding to emotions heighten involvement in risky behaviors among individuals with PTSD. Dr. Weiss is also interested in the conceptualization and measurement of difficulties regulating positive emotions, and examination of the role of emotion dysregulation stemming from positive emotions in PTSD and related risky behaviors.

Dr. Sabik’s specializes in areas of psychology, gender studies and public health, examines whether negative self-perceptions are linked to higher levels of stress and poor health, and delves into how self-perceptions and identity “get under the skin” to affect individuals’ health and psychological-well being. Her two primary lines of research examine how perceptions of gender, age, ethnicity and other social and identity factors influence the health and well-being among older women; and explore potential biological pathways linking social and individual perceptions to health outcomes.

Dr. Kim studies early childhood preservice teacher education and early childhood policy and practice. She is particularly interested in preservice teacher psychological factors such as motivation, teaching efficacy and passion related to their perspectives on educational policy and practice. Dr. Kim focuses on teaching and learning in urban settings, family-school-community partnerships, pre-k and Kindergarten.

Dr. Petrie’s research interests include acute care outcomes, outcome tools in geriatric practice and clinical education.

Dr. Manfredi researches the effects of aerobic and strength training on skeletal muscle morphology in older adults; metabolic related diseases and skeletal muscle mitochondria in older adults; and aging heart and skeletal muscle morphology.

Professor Palmer’s research interest is in demonstrating optimal maternal child health outcomes using physiological care in the extended postpartum period and demonstrating optimal outcomes for maternal child health utilizing the midwifery model of care.

Dr. Kisler’s research primarily focuses on sexual aggression, women’s sexual, psychological, and relational health, and couple and family therapy training. She is also focused on the use of technology (sexting, texting, social media) on psychological, sexual and relational health.

Dr. Greaney’s future research efforts are focused on promoting physical activity, healthy eating and other healthful behaviors using participatory research methods and ecological models. Her research program aims to identify personal, social and environmental factors associated with physical activity and other healthy behaviors, as well as identify sociodemographic, behavioral and health-related factors associated with intervention engagement.

Dr. Willis has established national and international reputations in cognitive developmental neuropsychology, professional decision making in psychology, and professional practice issues in school psychology.

Dr. Boatright-Horowitz focuses on the teachings of anti-racism and public perceptions of domestic violence. She also researches the importance of different aspects of traditions and cultures in primate learning and cognition.

Dr. Burbank’s research includes topics such as exercise promotion among older adults, participation in interdisciplinary research on the effects of interventions using the Transtheoretical Model to change exercise and nutrition behavior in older adults, an evaluation of a fall prevention program with community-dwelling older adults, and a survey of the needs of older gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender elders in Rhode Island.

Dr. Kogut specializes in managed care pharmacy, pharmacoeconomics, quality in medication use, technologies for improving medication use, and off-label prescribing.

Dr. Wolfe, Dean of the College of Nursing, focuses her research on eating disorders and dieting behavior in women, specifically focusing on the relationship between biological correlates of clinical symptoms and the implications for intervention and relapse prevention.

Dr. Spillane’s research examines substance use, with a specific focus on underserved populations and health disparities. Her work primarily focuses on indigenous populations in North America, including American Indians in the United States and First Nations in Canada. Dr. Spillane’s work helps facilitate the development and/or adaptation of treatment and prevention programs to reduce the harm associated with substance use in native communities. She also has interest in applying positive psychology to addictive behaviors.

Dr. Ward-Ritacco’s research focuses on the independent and interactive effects of physical activity, nutrition, and body composition on quality of life, with particular interest in physical function and feelings of energy and fatigue. She also has research experience investigating the role of dietary supplementation on resting metabolic rate and cognitive performance.

Dr. Murphy’s research interests include suicide, loss, grief, sexuality, gender and radical pedagogy.

Dr. Li’s research focuses on chemical biology of nucleic acid modification: the intersection of DNA repair, metabolism and antiviral drug design.

Ms. Larson’s research focuses on implementing and evaluating new strategies in the classroom to enhance student learning, including collaborative testing in large general education courses.

Dr. Van Nostrand has been working in Alzheimer’s disease (AD)research for more than 30 years, He was the first to purify and characterize amyloid precursor protein (APP), the progenitor of amyloid-beta (A-beta).  Van Nostrand’s research focuses on vascular-mediated aspects of cognitive impairment and dementia, which are key elements of AD and related disorders. Current studies include the causes of abnormal accumulation of A-beta in AD and a related condition called cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA). Van Nostrand has also developed transgenic animal models of disease which has helped to provide key insights into disease processes.

Dr. King’s research focuses on metabolism and enzymology of endo- and xenobiotics (including medications, hormones, neurotransmitters, dietary substances); variation in metabolism caused by disease state, age, genetic polymorphisms and presence of inhibitor/activators/suppressors; protein structure bioinformatics; and drug design.

Dr. Eisenhower’s research interests include preventing use of inappropriate medications in the elderly, geriatric syndromes, adverse drug reactions, medication reconciliation and prevention of hospital readmissions.

Professor McLinden stresses integrated clinical experience, facilitating “real life” scenarios for students. He has done extensive research on ergonomic handle design for tools, and the effects of cryotherapy and exercise on the body. His studies have enhanced his teachings in musculoskeletal and professional issues courses.

Dr. McCurdy’s research focuses on promoting optimal child and family development among vulnerable families. Her research investigates the effectiveness of child abuse prevention programs and parental decisions to engage in home visiting programs. More recently, she has investigated the correlation between family food behaviors and child obesity among low-income families.

Dr. LaPlante’s foremost research expertise is in the treatment, outcomes, prevention, virulence inhibition (biofilm and toxin) and decolonization of multiple drug resistant bacteria, specifically Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Her research program has recently expanded to include an antimicrobial research outcomes component, which focuses on antimicrobial stewardship and comparative effectiveness research using the National Veterans Affairs database and statewide initiatives.

Dr. Chichester’s teaching and research interests are in pharmacology, connective tissue metabolism, connective tissue pharmacology, collagen degradation in osteoarthritis and alterations in drug metabolism in septic shock.

Dr. Blanpied specializes in biomechanics and musculoskeletal therapeutics. His research focuses on synthesizing evidence for conservative management of neck pain and the use of ultrasound imaging to identify myofascial trigger points.

Dr. Matson’s research focuses on judicious antimicrobial use to prevent and control bacterial resistance, the use of novel antimicrobials within the pediatric population, substance abuse education and childhood nutrition and obesity prevention.

Professor Fuvich’s areas of interest for future research include the application of the self-efficacy theory with nursing students in both the clinical and classroom setting. She is also interested in the use of simulation and computer mediated learning with nursing students across the curriculum.

Dr. Paiva’s research In behavioral statistics includes measure development analyses (principal components analysis, structural modeling), cross-sectional analyses, longitudinal methods and cluster-randomized designs. Particular interests include applied undergraduate and graduate student training in statistics and research methodology. In health psychology, her focus has been on health behavior change and applications of the transtheoretical model to health-related behaviors, with particular interest in substance abuse prevention, alcohol harm reduction, HPV vaccine adherence, blood donation and distracted driving behaviors.

Dr. Milner’s research focuses on aural rehabilitation, particularly in adults.

Professor McGrane’s research interest is in the area of school nurse teacher presence and positive student outcomes in the educational setting.

Dr. Kusz’ research focuses on examining the cultural politics of sports and media spectacles involving sport and sport celebrities. He seeks to make visible ways in which sporting media spectacles, sports-related films, sporting celebrities and sporting cultures operate as often overlooked and under-theorized political terrains that often play key roles in contemporary debates about race, gender and nationalism. In particular, he researches the role sports media narratives play in re-centering white masculinity and masking white privilege in post-civil rights America.

Dr. Oaks focuses on maternal and child nutrition within the United States and internationally, with the goals of reducing adverse birth outcomes in high-risk populations and determining the long-term effects of prenatal and early childhood nutrition.

Dr. Martins’ research is with vulnerable populations in the community, and includes a descriptive phenomenological study of the homeless person’s health care experiences, analysis of food insufficiency and hunger with homeless families, strategies used to survive in the lives of woman facing adversity, and methods to increase nursing students’ knowledge and appreciation with older adults in the community and with the prison population.

Professor Dugas’ research focuses on gerontology, and community health nursing.

Dr. Breines’ research focuses on behavioral science, examining how people process and respond to social evaluative threats, with a focus on the effects of self-compassion and self-criticism on health-relevant behavioral and biological outcomes.

Dr. Laforge’s area of focus is behavioral epidemiology with specific emphasis in harm reduction approaches to substance abuse, biostatistical methods, survey research and cancer epidemiology. He also has interest in health behaviors from college student drinking and alcohol harm reduction in the general public.

Dr. Clark, professor and director of both the URI gerontology department and the Rhode Island Geriatric Education Center, focuses on interprofessional education, health promotion with older adults, ethical issues in geriatric care, comparative health care policy, narrative gerontology, and aging and disability.

Dr. Bach’s research focuses on NMR spectroscopy, structure elucidation and biophysical chemistry.

Dr. Adams is a licensed practitioner in family psychology, and investigates factors in the therapy process that lead to more successful outcomes for couples and families. He focuses on two related areas that inform this research: understanding how some couples sustain high degrees of happiness throughout their relationship, while others end up divorcing; and the impact of adolescent substance abuse on families. Dr. Adams is actively investigating the skills needed to be an effective teacher of family clinicians, and the role of supervision in developing the skills of emerging professionals.

Dr. Pawasauskas’ research focus is on the development of pain management education strategies for interdisciplinary practice.

Dr. Delmonico’s research focuses on physical activity, sarcopenia, physical function, aging and epidemiology.

Dr. Spivak’s main area of research is social and emotional development in early childhood through adolescence, generally focusing on prosocial behavior, altruism, empathy, tolerance, civic engagement, and peaceful and mutually beneficial conflict negotiation. She also studies cross-ethnic/race prosocial behavior, ethnic/racial bias in prosocial behavior, peer conflict, social and emotional learning interventions, teacher practice and education, early childhood education and intervention, parent education and social-emotional instruction infusion into academic curricula.

Dr. Lofgren’s specializes in lipid and lipoprotein metabolism, obesity and cardiovascular disease.

Dr. Vyas’ research focuses on treatment patterns, quality of care, pharmacoepidemiology, secondary and claims databases, and systematic review and meta-analyses.

Dr. Xiao’s research focuses on family financial wellbeing, consumer financial capability, consumer financial behavior, money and happiness, sustainable consumer behavior, financial development of young adults and Chinese consumer behavior.

Dr. Hume’s research focuses on interprofessional education/practice, geriatric pharmacotherapy, integrative medicine, and applying evidence-based guidelines in primary care.

Dr. Zhang’s central research goal is to apply nanotechnology in drug delivery and advance the development of nanomedicine and immunotherapy. His research focuses on: designing novel subunit vaccines and RNA-based vaccines for cancer therapy, and potentially applying the vaccine platforms to the prevention of infectious diseases; potentiate antitumor immune responses in tumor microenvironment through .nanoparticle-mediated targeted delivery of small molecules and RNA therapeutics; and immune stimulation regimens.

Dr. Cohen’s research focuses on patients with diabetes and other cardiovascular risk factors, such as hyperlipidemia and hypertension. Didactic responsibilities include self-care lectures on nutrition supplementation, ear care, diabetes and foot care. Other didactic responsibilities include hypertension, men’s health and endocrine conditions.

Dr. Clapham’s research has centered on “new” physical education, girls sports, motivation and physical activity participation and ocean therapy for children with disabilities. As an avid surfer, she has always been interested in the benefits of ocean therapy. She noticed the calming effects she personally experienced after time spent in the ocean and wondered what impact surfing ocean therapy would have on the children with disabilities. After implementing a surfing program for children with disabilities, she studied the effects of surfing and ocean therapy on the children’s physiological, social and emotional responses.

Dr. Hatfield specializes in athletic performance, nutritional supplementation, children’s health and exercise. Her research focuses on hormonal responses to resistance exercise, particularly the responses of insulin-like growth factor and growth hormone.  She also has investigated the role of supplementation and resistance exercise, children and exercise, and the weight-loss and health benefits of differing diets in combination with resistance training.

Dr. Deng’s research focuses on bile acids and cholesterol homeostasis; drug transporters, toxicology and delivery; and biological and pharmaceutical therapy development. The long-term objective of his research program is to understand how cholesterol metabolism and bile acid homeostasis are regulated in physiological as well as pathological conditions.

Professor Doyle-Moss’ research focuses on matters concerning disaster preparedness in bioterrorism, and simulation in nursing education.

Dr. Bratberg’s research focuses on opioid safety, overdose prevention, infectious diseases, public health, emergency preparedness, bioterrorism, pharmacy professionalism, technology in teaching, team-based learning and pharmacy advocacy.

Dr. Dugault’s studies focus on research utilization, evidence-based practice, competency-based evaluation, pain management, evaluation/outcomes research and translation research.

Dr. Robbins’ research interests focus on health promotion, disease prevention and decision-making, particularly for planned change at both the individual level and on a population basis. His current efforts are centered on the Transtheoretical model to better understand decision-making and behavior change in organ donation and transplantation, blood donation, advanced care planning and multiple health behavior change.

Dr. Harlow’s research focuses on increasing interest, participation, performance and diversity in quantitative science; multivariate statistics, structural equation modeling, methodology, meaning in life, and women’s health.

Dr. Seeram’s research group, the Bioactive Botanical Research Laboratory, investigates plant foods and natural products for therapeutic and preventive effects against chronic human diseases. The research focuses on bioassay-guided discovery of natural products from medicinal plants including medicinal foods targeting neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, diabetes and inflammation; investigation of bioavailability, metabolism, tissue disposition and mechanisms of action of bioactive food components.

Dr. Lemay’s research focuses on clinical services provided by the community pharmacist in the community pharmacy and ambulatory care settings.