The college is proud to showcase the following CHHS faculty, whose accomplishments and ongoing research represent a truly global reach.
Public Health
Stephanie Brodine, M.D., is a Professor and Head of the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. She is board certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases with active research interests and expertise in International Health. She is the Program Director of the California Native American Research Center for Health, and U.S. coordinator of the VIIDAI program. She is active in U.S./Mexico border educational and research collaborations.
Zohir Chowdury, Ph.D., M.S., is an Assistant Professor in the Environmental Health (EH) Division in the Graduate School of Public Health. Dr. Chowdhury’s research interests are in Air Pollution focusing on particulate matter (PM)-both in urban and in rural regions as well as in indoor and in outdoor environments. Dr. Chowdhury’s research seeks to measure air pollution from particulate matter and understand its sources, chemistry, and health effects, both in the US and across the world, particularly in India, China, and Guatemala.
John Elder, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.A., currently serves as Principal Investigator of four NIH funded research projects. Dr. Elder has consulted for USAID, DoD, the Rockefeller Foundation and WHO projects in 20 different countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe. His international work has been in the areas of child survival, MCH, AIDS/HIV, dengue fever control, research design, and social marketing.
Hala Madanat, Ph.D., M.S., is a health educator and medical sociologist. Her interests include the impact of culture, traditions, and western influence on health in the global setting with emphasis on the Middle East. In her research, she focuses on tobacco prevention, smoking cessation, and the impact of westernization on diet and nutrition. Currently, she is developing culturally appropriate tobacco policies for Jordan.
Thomas E. Novotny, M.D., M.P.H., is a medical epidemiologist and family physician specializing in global health and non-communicable disease control. He was with the U.S. Public Health Service for 23 years, and served as assistant surgeon general and deputy assistant secretary for international and refugee health.
P.J.E. Quintana, Ph.D., M.P.H., is an Associate Professor of Environmental Health. In conjunction with researchers at Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Tijuana, she has studied birth defects in Baja California, markers of DNA damage in placentas from a Tijuana hospital, and exposure to toxic air pollution inside vehicles crossing the US-Mexico border. She is currently the co-Director of the new PhD program in Public Health, concentration in Global Health.
Carleen H. Stoskopf, Sc.D., M.S., is a professor whose areas of research include access to and utilization of health services, patient outcomes, health insurance reform, and health disparities among vulnerable populations such as those living with HIV/AIDS, the elderly, the mentally ill, and African Americans. Dr. Stoskopf started two doctoral programs overseas, a Ph.D. in the Republic of China and a Dr.P.H. in the Republic of South Korea.
Gregory Talavera, M.D., M.P.H., is a bilingual, bicultural physician trained in public health and preventive medicine. His current research interests explore the culture-specific beliefs that serve as barriers to chronic disease prevention and control. Research areas include diabetes, cancer, oral health, border health and health promotion in Latin America.
Social Work
David W. Engstrom, Ph.D., M.A., is an Associate Professor who has written extensively on the plight of vulnerable immigrant populations, such as torture survivors and trafficked persons, and has explored the role of bilingual social workers in service delivery. He founded the MSW Thailand Summer Internship Program in 2002. Dr. Engstrom is presently setting up collaborations with academic institutions in Mexico.
Loring Jones, D.S.W., has extensive teaching, research, and practice experience focused in the area of international social services. His research in Thailand has included an investigation of recruitment for human trafficking. For the past eight years he has accompanied SDSU students to Thailand on their annual summer study tour. This experience has given him extensive knowledge of Thai culture, health care, social services, economics, and language.
Sally M
athiesen, Ph.D., M.S.W., is an Associate Professor whose research agenda addresses mental health over the life span. Her interest in international social work has resulted in trainings and presentations in several Caribbean countries, and is currently focused on collaborative relationships with professionals in the border cities between the US and Mexico. In addition, she leads groups of SDSU students on a 6 week Social Work study abroad program in Prague, in conjunction with the Florida State University College of Social Work.
Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences
Karen Emmorey, Ph.D., focuses on what sign languages can reveal about the nature of human language, cognition, and the brain. Dr. Emmorey currently holds several research grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. She collaborates with researchers in England, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and Canada. Dr. Emmorey is also an Associate Editor for the Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, is on the Advisory board for the Centre for Deafness, Cognition, and Language, based at University College London and is a member of the Canada Research Chairs College of Reviewers.
Lewis Shapiro, Ph. D., M.A., is the Principal Investigator on an NIH grant which includes collaboration with colleagues at McGill University in Canada, Aachen University in Germany and the Brain Mapping Research Center in Juelich, Germany. Over the last several years he has worked with colleagues in the Netherlands and has directed and been a member of dissertations at both the University of Groningen and Utrecht University in The Netherlands. In addition, he has published articles with colleagues at the University of Tel Aviv in Israel and at the University of Warsaw in Poland.
Peter Torre III, Ph.D., M.A., focuses on epidemiology of age-related hearing loss, auditory evoked potentials, and research methods. Specific research includes: 1) risk factors associated with age-related hearing loss, 2) the relation between cardiovascular disease and otoacoustic emissions, and 3) age-related hearing loss in Latino Americans. As the undergraduate advisor in the SDSU School of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, he is currently in the process of developing an exchange program with Strathclyde University in Glasgow, Scotland for SLHS students.
Gerontology
Mario Garrett, Ph.D., has worked with all three longitudinal from-birth databases sponsored by the British government. As the team leader of a United Nations Population Fund, and as the Program Manager/ Director of Programs with the United Nations International Institute on Aging, Dr. Garrett coordinated a five-year project looking at support for the elderly in the People’s Republic of China. Since 1995, Dr. Garrett has been working exclusively with national American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations.
Nursing
Diane Hatton, D.N.Sc., has a special interest in the health and human rights of vulnerable women and their families. She is the co-editor of a book entitled Unfair Differences in the Health Status of Incarcerated Women: Justice for an Internationally Excluded Population, which was the result of an international, interdisciplinary meeting held in Bellagio, Italy. Dr. Hatton is the 2008 Chair of the Committee on Women’s Rights of the American Public Health Association. She is currently involved in the exchange program in Switzerland for SDSU Nursing Students.
