When Stephanie Fitzpatrick began counseling people with obesity to make lifestyle and behavior changes, she realized that she needed to make some of the same changes to improve her own health. Her personal journey has informed her research and given her empathy with the people she studies.
Bobbi Jo Yarborough is passionate about improving health care for people with serious mental illnesses and substance use disorders. She wants providers and the public to know that patients can recover, and that recovery looks different for each person.
As a practicing ICU physician, Richard Mularski knows the challenges of treating critically ill patients while also communicating with their families. Through his research, Mularski has developed palliative care tools to improve treatment and to help families cope with the death of their loved ones.
Allison Naleway was interested in science from a young age, but it was a coincidental suggestion from a visiting professor that led her to choose a career in epidemiology. Her research portfolio includes studies of the flu vaccine, the HPV vaccine, and vaccination during pregnancy.
Beth Liles knows the challenges and difficulties of being a primary care physician, but as a researcher, she also knows she can help to improve primary care for patients and for doctors. Her research focuses on developing better ways to screen patients for breast and colon cancers.
Farming and health research both require meticulous recordkeeping, a skill Matthew Banegas learned from his grandfather, who had a farm in rural New Mexico. Banegas now studies disparities in cancer care with the goal of better understanding and reducing those disparities.
When Gloria Coronado was growing up, her immigrant family had some misconceptions about cancer. Now she helps to dispel similar misconceptions and increase cancer screening among underserved populations.
Charles Elder is one of only a few doctors trained in both conventional and complementary medicine. In addition to studying mind/body techniques, acupressure, and Ayurveda, he also practices some of these techniques himself—including a daily meditation practice that he has maintained for nearly 30 years.
In graduate school, Katrina Goddard became fascinated with the role that human genetics plays in disease. Now a genetic epidemiologist, she focuses on public health genomics and the translation of genetic testing into clinical practice.
For Nangel Lindberg, research is like detective work, allowing her to solve the mysteries behind cultural differences in health and to design interventions tailored to specific ethnic groups.