Welcome New Faculty and Staff

Faculty News

Sean Young, Ph.D., has accepted a assistant professor position in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health. He began on June 19 and comes to the COPH from Iowa City, IA.

After completing his undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University, Young earned a Master of Arts in geography from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and a doctorate in geography from the University of Iowa.

Health and medical geography uses geographic concepts and methods to investigate health and disease topics. This includes looking at spatial patterns and spatio-temporal trends created by interactions between the host, the environment, and a pathogen or external agent. By incorporating population, behavioral, and environmental characteristics, medical geography and disease ecology are uniquely positioned to examine relationships between the environment and health outcomes.

Young will serve as a Medical Geographer for the college. His background is in geospatial mapping, GIS, and remote sensing. Young’s interests are in a number of areas. Specifically, he studies numerous infectious diseases in the Unites States and abroad, including influenza, MRSA, and MERS; and other health topics such as allocation of and access to health care services, environmental justice, and area-level covariates of newborn health.

C O P H Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology Mohammed S. Orloff, P h D — Mohammed Orloff, PhD

Mohammed Orloff, Ph.D., associate professor in the epidemiology department will be collaborating as a visiting associate professor at Aga Khan University in Nairobi. He will be working with the university to study the behavior of cancers in Kenya compared to the United States and South America.

Orloff and colleagues have also recently presented his research a numerous conferences in the form of a oral presentation, poster presentation or panelist. These include:

Orloff, M. Microbiome changes associated with lung cancer. Third Annual Conference Arkansas Bioinformatics Consortium (AR-BIC) – Microbiome and Biomedical Informatics, Little Rock, April 24-25, 2017. http://www.arkansasbioinformatics.org/docs/AR-BIC_2017_V6.pdf
Bircan, E., Jin, J., Penney, R., Apopa, P., Orloff, M. OLFML3 and SP1 Together Act as Biomarkers to Distinguish Subtypes of Lung Cancer. 14th Annual MidSouth Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (MCBIOS) Conference, March 23-25, 2017. Poster.
Orloff, M. Microbiome and Host Genome Cross-talk in Lung Cancer Tissues. 14th Annual MidSouth Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (MCBIOS) Conference, March 23-25, 2017. Invited talk.

Please Welcome

C O P H Department of Epidemiology Executive Assistant, Theresa Faye Bard — Theresa Faye Bard

Theresa Faye Bard, Executive Assistant, Department of Epidemiology. Ms. Bard previously worked at UAMS from 1976 to 1992. During that time, she worked as an Administrative Assistant in the College of Medicine for three departmental chairs and for Dean Tom Bruce and then as the Educational Coordinator for the AHEC program. She left in 1992 to manage her husband’s medical practice. Major heart surgery forced his retirement. After several years helping him regain his health, she decided to return to work. “Since I always felt UAMS to be home, my choice was easy. The College of Public Health’s Department of Epidemiology was looking, I applied and have been here almost a year. Just recently I went into the EA position. Yes, basically I am the EA to Dr. Lori Fischbach, but I am really here to serve all the students and faculty in Epi. I really enjoy the department.”

C O P H Dean’s Suite Administrative Anaylst Michaela Beard — Michaela Beard

Michaela Beard, Administrative Analyst, COPH Dean’s Suite. Ms. Beard has worked for UAMS 9½ years. She started out at Arkansas CARES as a Caregiver III, then worked at the UAMS Medical Center Hospital’s Mother and Baby Unit as a Nurse Assistant/Patient Service Assistant and as a Program Eligibility Specialist for the KIDS FIRST Following Baby Back Home program.

C O P H Master of Health Administration (M H A) program Adminstrative Analyst Talana Nelson — Talana Nelson

Talana Nelson, Administrative Analyst, Master of Health Administration (MHA) program. Ms. Nelson started working at UAMS as a UTemp employee for the MHA program in the Department of Health Policy and Management in September 2015. She became a permanent employee in February.

New COPH Epidemiology Faculty Member to Serve as UAMS Cancer Institute Co-director

C O P H Profressor, Department of Epidemiology Joseph Su, P h D, M P H — Joseph Su, Ph.D., MPH

Joseph Su, Ph.D., MPH, joined the faculty of the Department of Epidemiology at the UAMS Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health on Oct. 1. He will also serve as Co-director of the Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences program at the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute.

Dr. Su most recently served as the Chief of the Epidemiology Evaluation and Research Branch of the US Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health within the FDA Office of Surveillance and Biometrics at Silver Spring, M.D..

In a recent interview, he said that he is looking forward to furthering the COPH Department of Epidemiology’s successful record in faculty and student recruitment.

“I would like to contribute by attracting more high quality faculty and students here to collaborate with other national centers of excellence so it can be a place that improves population health and is a model for other states with similar populations,” Dr. Su said.

At the Cancer Institute, his priorities will be increased publications and funding as well as the submission of the application for National Cancer Institute designation as a NCI Comprehensive Cancer Center. The overarching goal will be “to identify some cancer prevention strategies to alleviate health disparities and to reduce cancer incidence in Arkansas,” Dr. Su said.

Dr. Su described himself as an optimist who likes working as part of a team. When asked how many people he will direct at the Cancer Institute, he corrected: “I collaborate. I believe in that and love to do that.”

His optimism extends to garnering more funds for research, which, in the current funding environment, he sees as “challenging but doable.” One field ripe for groundbreaking research in cancer prevention, in his view, is epigenetics.

According to Dr. Su, much of the work to date in that relatively new field has involved statistical modeling for gene and environmental interactions. He would like to see more studies that show the actual epigenetic changes associated with a particular environmental exposure. Because every individual has a unique genetic makeup, exposures such as those occurring through diet or lifestyle choices, as well as pharmaceutical drugs, affect everyone differently.

“Looking at epigenetic markers after exposure could provide very good predictors of cancer treatments,” Dr. Su said. “That is the natural way of looking at gene-environmental interactions.”

Dr. Su is a molecular epidemiologist for whom nutrition figured prominently in his training and research. He holds bachelor degrees in chemistry and nutrition, a master’s in public health with an emphasis in public health nutrition and a doctorate in nutritional epidemiology.

“There is more and more evidence for the effects of dietary patterns in cancer prevention; for example, eating fruits and vegetables has been shown to prevent some cancers,” Dr. Su said, adding that there is no “single magic pill such as a supplement that can prevent cancer.”

Cancer is complex with perhaps a multitude of contributing factors that include lifestyle choices and environmental exposures, he noted. Given that, he is not ready yet to say what he would recommend as a starting point in the effort to identify effective cancer strategies.

“I have to say that I really don’t know yet,” Dr. Su said. “My job in the next few months is to find out. I don’t have an answer yet.”

Please Welcome

C O P H Department of Epidemiology Research Associate Patrick Apopa, P h D — Patrick Apopa, Ph.D.

Patrick Apopa, Ph.D., joined the Department of Epidemiology on March 9 as a Research Associate in the laboratory of Associate Professor Mohammed Orloff, Ph.D.. He will work on identifying and characterizing genomic variants in the population of Arkansas to aid mapping of cancer-related genes; his main focus will be on breast and lung cancers. The hope is that this research will make it possible to develop biomarkers for the purpose of early cancer detection and personalized care.

This research will be done by taking advantage of samples obtained from UAMS cancer patients using non-invasive sampling methods and/or from archival samples. Prevalence of these cancers has been shown to vary significantly by population, ethnic background and/or geographical region. Hence, this research is geared towards helping understand the development and diagnosis of the different cancer clinical subtypes that are associated with different genetic variants and/or backgrounds.

Dr. Apopa received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from West Virginia University in Morgantown and then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, CDC/NIOSH, also located in Morgantown. He completed a second postdoctoral fellowship at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Penn. He previously worked on small molecule inhibitors of human platelet-type 12-lipoxygenase and their effects on platelets activity and has also worked with nanoparticles, looking at their effect on cellular oxidative stress and cytoskeletal dynamics.

Please Welcome

C O P H Director of Admissions and Alumni Affairs Jordan O ’ Roark, E d D, M S

Jordan J. Oroark, MS, joined the COPH Office of Student Affairs in January to serve as the Director of Admissions. He was a faculty member in the Division of Academic Success at Pulaski Technical College and previously worked as the Associate Dean of Students at Henderson State University. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology/Sociology from the University of Central Arkansas (UCA) and a Master of Science degree in Higher Education Administration from UCA, and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Educational Leadership from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR). He is the president of the Arkansas College Personnel Association.

Mr. Oroark is a Texas native who moved to central Arkansas as a youngster and graduated from Jacksonville High School. He and his wife, Ashley, have been married seven years and have one daughter and are expecting another this spring.

C O P H Post Doctoral Fellow Sara Prior, P h D

Sara Prior, Ph.D., joined the COPH this month to work as a post-doctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Igor Koturbash, studying the effects of high LET (linear energy transfer) radiation on the DNA methylation patterns of retrotransposons and repetitive elements. Dr. Prior is from Sherwood and graduated from University of Arkansas at Monticello in 2009. She earned her Ph.D. at UAMS in December 2014 while working in the laboratory of Dr. Masahiro Higuchi.

Shaquina Danielle White joined the Department of Epidemiology as a Graduate Assistant in December. Ms. White, who is from North Little Rock, earned a Bachelor of Science degree, with an emphasis in Health Education and Promotion, from UALR. In her new job, she is working on a project with Department Chair Eric Johnson, M.D.. Ms. White is a student in the MPH program and plans to concentrate in Biostatistics. Her goal is to work as a statistician to help lower the spread of infectious disease in Arkansas. “I know that my time here at UAMS will be very beneficial to my future,” Ms. White says.

Please Welcome

C O P H Project Manager Kimberly Harris, P h D, M S — Kimberly Harris

Kimberly Harris, Ph.D., MS, joined COPH Oct. 22 as Project Manager for two projects, FAITH in the Delta and The WORD. Karen Yeary, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the COPH Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, is the principal investigator for both projects. Dr. Harris has experience in childhood obesity research and prevention and community-based, participatory research of health disparities in the Arkansas Delta. She is an adjunct professor in fitness and health promotion for Concordia University in Chicago and is certified as a Performance Enhancement Specialist. She has a Ph.D. in health science, a master’s degree in kinesiology, and a bachelor’s degree in exercise science. Dr. Harris, her husband and 11-year-old daughter live in Maumelle, where she co-pastors the Gener8ions Church with her husband.

C O P H Student and Health Services Specialist Salima Merchant — Salima Merchant

Salima Merchant, joined the Department of Epidemiology on Oct. 20 as a Health Services Specialist.

C O P H Executive Assistant for Associate Dean for Professional Programs Kevin Ryan, J D, M A, Danielle Porter — Danielle Porter

Danielle Porter, joined the Dean’s Office on Nov. 3, as the Executive Assistant for Kevin Ryan, Associate Dean for Professional Programs. Danielle has worked for UAMS in various capacities for 14 years and brings a wealth of knowledge about UAMS and has an extensive administrative support background. She comes to us from the Department of Nursing (Clinical Administration) as an Administrative Assistant. She is married with two children, both of whom are currently attending college.