Pediatric Psychology Lab
Faculty
- Barber, Dave
- Freeman, Natalie
- Ilacqua, Vito
- Kane, Andrew
- Krueger, Traci
- Mayer, Brian
- Okech, Bernard
- Roberts, Stephen
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Dave Barber, PhD
Dr. Barber received a Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of Arizona in 1997 for studies on pulmonary arsenic metabolism. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine in Blacksburg, VA from 1997-2000 where he studied the mechanisms underlying organophosphate-induced delayed neuropathy. Dr. Barber is an assistant professor at the University of Florida Center for Environmental and Human Toxicology and serves as director of the Aquatic Toxicology Laboratory. His current research focuses on biochemical mechanisms of toxicity.(Full CV) |
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Natalie Freeman,
PhD, MPH Dr. Natalie Freeman is Associate Professor of Environmental Health in the College of Public Health and Health Professions. She is also a member of the Center for Environmental and Human Toxicology. She received her Ph.D. from Rutgers University in psychobiology in 1976 and her M.P.H. in epidemiology and quantitative methods from the joint Robert Wood Johnson Medical School-Rutgers University program in public health in 1990. She was formerly a member of the faculty at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the School of Public Health of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and a member of the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute in Piscataway, NJ. Dr. Freeman's primary research area is residential exposure assessment and for the past 15 years her specific focus has been on children's non-dietary exposure to metals and pesticides, and factors contributing to childhood asthma. While much of her work has focused on house dust and its components as metrics of exposure, she has also collaborated in multi-media multi-pathway exposure research incorporating indoor and outdoor air, soil, house dust, drinking water, and food. Recently she has been exploring environmental and community concerns of residents near Lake Apopka. Dr. Freeman has served as an advisor for several community-based and school-based asthma reduction programs in New Jersey, has served as an ad hoc member of EPA Scientific Review panels and is a member of the EPA Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee. She is an associate editor of the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology. (full CV) |
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Vito Ilacqua, PhD
Dr. Ilacqua received his PhD in Environmental Sciences from Rutgers University in 2002 where he examined the use of house dust to reconstruct historical air pollution. He was a post-doctoral researcher at the National Public Health Institute in Kuopio, Finland, from 2002 to 2005, studying human exposure to urban air pollution. His current research interests include, among others, exposure to mixtures, urban and indoor air pollution in developing countries, and methods for retrospective exposure assessment. (full CV) |
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Andrew Kane, PhD Dr. Kane is an Associate Professor of Environmental Health in the College of Public Health and Health Professions. He is also faculty with the UF Emerging Pathogens Institute and directs the Aquatic Pathobiology Laboratory. Dr. Kane received his Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University, his Master of Science from the Ohio State University, and his PhD from the University of Maryland. Dr. Kane's research interests include environmental pathology and toxicology of aquatic and marine organisms with emphasis on regional fauna and captive fish species. Specific research focus is on sublethal indicators of contaminant and water quality stressor on fish models. Fish and other aquatic organisms serve as important sentinels for environmental health, and recent areas of study include endocrine disruption and quantitative behavioral changes associated with reproduction and social dynamics; alterations in metabolic enzyme profiles; effects of acoustic stress; and mechanisms for species-selective toxicity and disease susceptibility. Additional interests include the use of dynamic outreach and teaching modules using interactive, computer-based multimedia. (full CV) |
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Traci Krueger, DVM,
MPH Dr. Traci Krueger is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Environmental Health in the College of Public Health and Health Professions. She is also a clinical large animal veterinarian with the University of Florida Animal Care Services. She received her D.V.M. degree and the International Veterinary Medicine Certificate from the University of Florida in 2003, and an M.P.H. from the University of Florida in 2007. Her M.P.H. concentration was in Public Heath Practice with a dual focus on Epidemiology and Environmental Health. Formerly, Dr. Krueger was an associate veterinarian at a predominantly large animal, mixed practice in High Springs, Florida. She was also Program Coordinator at the University of Florida, College of Veterinary Medicine's Office of International Programs where she coordinated and taught international courses and training for the DVM students enrolled in the International Veterinary Medicine Certificate Program. Being fluent in Spanish, Dr. Krueger has international experience working as a veterinarian in Ecuador, Haiti, Bolivia, Mexico and Cuba. Dr. Krueger's veterinary residency training is in food animal reproduction and medicine and was completed at the UF Veterinary Medical Center with the Food Animal Reproduction and Medicine Service (FARMS). Her clinical area of interest is small ruminant dairy production medicine and herd health. She is active with the Florida Dairy Goat Association providing training and workshops on common dairy goat veterinary and husbandry practices. She also continues to lecture on small ruminant production medicine and on food safety for first and second year veterinary students at the UF College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Krueger is currently working with the joint DVM/MPH program to develop courses and lectures that cover topics that play a major role in veterinary public health careers such as zoonotic diseases, disaster preparedness, and bioterrorism. (full CV) |
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Brian Mayer, PhD
Brian Mayer recieved his PhD in Sociology from Brown University in 2006. His research areas include environmental sociology, medical sociology, social movements, and the risk communication. Dr. Mayer's research focuses on the intersection of these disciplines, where social movement actors often contest with scientists and policy makers over environmental causes of disease. In addition, he is interested in social stratification and inequality, especially the distribution of environmental inequalities in our society. Currently, Dr. Mayer is working on a book examining the formation of social movement coalitions between labor and environmental organizations in the United States. Other projects include an analysis of the public's perception of the relationship between asthma and air pollution and a new project investigating the role of environmental discourses in the national debate over chemical safety and security. (full CV) |
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Bernard A. Okech,
PhD PHHP Bldg, Rm 2148
Mosquito transmitted diseases such as malaria, dengue, West Nile virus and Rift Valley fever feature highly in the public health agenda. Malaria still kills millions of people in developing countries of Africa and Asia, while pathogens like dengue and rift valley fever are on the rise. Unlike HIV and tuberculosis that are transmitted directly from human to human, malaria is spread when an infected female Anopheles mosquito bites for a blood meal. A mosquito gets infected from an infected person, amplifies the parasite, and injects it into a naïve person where the parasite is again amplified. The fight against malaria, as is with other arthropod borne diseases, is aimed at preventing sickness and death. For malaria, prompt and effective treatment is the first line of defense. The Plasmodium parasite often mutates conferring resistance to available drugs: hence the need to search for new, resistant proof drugs. If effective vaccines are developed, they will complement the drugs and help stop the deaths due to malaria. Equally effective is killing the mosquito vector to break the transmission cycle: few mosquitoes present means near zero disease transmission. My research goals are to find methods of killing the vectors of disease without harming environment. To achieve this goal, I study in great detail the biology of food uptake by cells in mosquito intestines and I also experiment on methods of blocking such food uptake and how it affects mosquito survival. Understanding these processes may offer new methods to potentially reduce disease vector populations and/or prevent pathogen transmission without harming the environment. In addition, I also study environmental factors that regulate mosquito longevity in nature. (full CV) |
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Stephen M. Roberts,
PhD Dr. Steve Roberts is Director of the Center for Environmental & Human Toxicology at the University of Florida, and is a Professor with joint appointments in the Department of Physiological Sciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine and the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics in the College of Medicine. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Utah College of Medicine in 1977, and subsequently completed a National Institutes of Health (NIH) individual postdoctoral fellowship in pharmacokinetics at SUNY Buffalo. He has previously served on the faculties of the College of Pharmacy at the University of Cincinnati and the College of Medicine at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Dr. Roberts has an active research program to examine mechanisms of toxicity. His teaching responsibilities at the University of Florida include graduate courses in General Toxicology, Toxic Substances, and Risk Assessment, as well as invited lectures in other graduate and professional courses. Dr. Roberts has previously served on the FIFRA Scientific Advisory Panel for the U.S. EPA and the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Toxicology Program of the Dept. of Health and Human Services. He currently serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the National Center for Toxicological Research, U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (full CV) |
