Alumni
Ron Peters, Dr.PH, (Pre-doctoral Fellow, August 1993-May 1998) is an Assistant Professor of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health.
"There is nothing coincidental about quality. This program provided me with the mentorship necessary to excel academically as well as become a change agent among Pan-African people."
Dr. Peters has held faculty appointments at the University of Houston Department of Health and Human Performance, Houston Baptist University Center for Health Studies, Prairie View A&M University Department of Health and Human Performance, and Texas Southern University Department of Health Sciences. He also served as the Director of the Historically Black College Applied Research initiative with the Southwest Prevention Center and was the project director of the "Houston Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring Program" funded through the National Institute of Justice. Ron has published over 40 papers in the professional literature and has ten years of experience in intervention design and evaluation of health promotion research among incarcerated and adolescent populations. In addition, he received the year 2000 Golden Key Honor Society Distinguished Faculty Award for distinguished service at the University of Houston.
Presently Ron serves as co-investigator, under the leadership of Drs. Steve Kelder (former Director of the Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research and Associate Professor of Epidemiology) Alex Prokhorov (Associate Professor, Department of Behavioral Sciences at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center) on the A.S.P.I.R.E. project, a CD-ROM-based adolescent smoking prevention and cessation program.
Personal Notes: Ron enjoys taking his children to the zoo and museum each weekend.
Cheryl B. Anderson, Ph.D. (July 1998-March 1999)
Cheryl with her R-01 award notice!
Dr. Anderson is currently Assistant Professor at the Children's Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston.
"The Fellowship allowed me to participate in courses to increase my expertise in specific areas, such as statistics and physical activity, and allowed me to learn how to write grants, write papers, and establish professional collaborations. Even more than that, I developed friendships during those years that will last a lifetime."
Dr. Anderson completed her PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Houston in 1995, with minors in Quantitative Analysis and Health & Human Performance. She was a Cancer Prevention and Control Post-doctoral fellow two years at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (1996 - 1998), and completed her third year of the fellowship in our program. Her long-term career goals are 1) to promote regular physical activity through understanding its determinants, including self-concept as a motivational factor in health behavior and 2) to develop psychometrically valid and reliable measurement instruments of attitudes and behaviors, as well as the statistical evaluation of existing measurement instruments that are used in behavioral research. A primary focus of her work is the description and measurement of athletic identity and its relation to physical activity in children, adolescents, and parents, as well as factors that contribute to identity formation, stability, and change.
Mentored throughout her UTSPH tenure by Dr. Mullen, Cheryl added Drs. Steven Kelder (Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Health Promotion and former Director of the Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research) and Guy Parcel (former Dean, UT School of Public Health) to her mentoring team. Cheryl has a number of published papers, including first-author publications in the Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, and Health Education and Behavior. Currently, she has six papers under review. Cheryl participated in faculty grant applications during her fellowship years and submitted several applications of her own. Her proposal to the Cancer Research Foundation of America, "Self-Perceptions as Determinants of Physical Activity in Early Adolescence", was funded in the last year of her fellowship. Since her faculty appointment at Baylor, she has had three additional proposals funded, including a Faculty Seed Grant from Baylor College of Medicine/American Cancer Society; an R03 grant from NIH/NCI, "Prevention Through Physical Activity: Parental influence"; and her current R01 grant from NIH/NCI, "Transitions in Physical Activity During Adolescence". Cheryl was recommended by the NCI to serve as a reviewer for the National Registry of Effective Programs, sponsored by NCI, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's Centers for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse Treatment, and Substance Abuse Prevention, and the Centers for Disease Control and prevention. ongoing from February 2003. She has also served as a reviewer for the NCI's Small Grant Program for Behavioral Research in Cancer Control, and currently serves as a reviewer for the NIH Committee on Community-Level Health Promotion - Non-interventions (ZRG1 HOP-J 90).
Personal Notes: Besides fun times with her now "grownup" children, Cheryl enjoys cycling and running. As a member of the Houston cycling team, the CCRiders, she participates in rides throughout Texas, such as the Hotter 'n Hell Hundred and Lance Armstrong's Ride for the Roses. She is always looking for antiques, and enjoys the wonderful restaurants and grand shopping that Houston offers.
Christine McCullum, Ph.D., R.D. (July 2001-August 2004)
Dr. McCullum is currently an Assistant Professor in the Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences Division, University of Texas School of Public Health and Investigator in the Human Nutrition Center.
"The Program is an excellent opportunity to learn more about a range of academic and scholarly activities-especially grant preparation, data collection and analysis, and manuscript preparation…I see the post-doc as providing essential skills to succeed in an academic environment."
Dr. McCullum completed her PhD in Nutrition from Cornell University in 2000, with minors in Public Affairs and Program Evaluation. Her long-term career goals are: 1) to improve understanding of how individual behavior and social and physical environments serve as enablers or barriers to sustained behavior change nutrition and physical activity and 2) to work collaboratively with community-based organizations to develop programs and policies that target complex interactions between people and their environments as a way to prevent chronic diseases, including cancer, in underserved populations.
Mentored throughout her tenure by Dr. Deanna Hoelscher (Associate Professor of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences and Director, Human Nutrition Center), Chris added Drs. Steven Kelder (Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Health Promotion and former Director of the Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research) and Maureen Sanderson (Associate Professor of Epidemiology--Brownsville Regional Campus) to her mentoring team for her 3rd year. Chris has written an impressive number of published/in press papers in journals such as Health Education and Behavior, Journal of the American Dietetic Association, and Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. Three more papers are under review.
Chris also contributed to multiple grant applications, including "The Impact of Senate Bill 19 on Elementary School Children's Level of Physical Activity," which was funded September 2004 by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (PI = Kelder; McCullum = Co-I). Two more proposals are currently under review; and two others have been resubmitted. Last October, Dr. McCullum submitted a Cancer Prevention, Control, Behavioral, and Population Sciences Career Development Award (K07) application, "Determinants of Breast Cancer Risk in Latina Girls," to NCI with Drs. Hoelscher and Sanderson as co-mentors; she plans to resubmit on November 1st, 2004. During her fellowship, Chris also held leadership roles in the Society for Nutrition Education.
Personal Notes: Chris has enjoyed the great restaurants in Houston and independent films in the Angelika Theatre. She enjoys decorating and remodeling the house she moved into last fall with her fiancé. She was an avid gardener when she lived in Pennsylvania and upstate New York, and she hopes to master gardening in Texas soon!
Alexandra Evans, R.D., M.P.H., Ph.D. (October 1998- May 2000), is currently Assistant professor (tenure track) in the Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior at the Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina.
"Although there were many benefits from being in the Program, the most important benefit for me was the opportunity to network with more senior researchers in my field."
Dr. Evans received her Ph.D. in Health Education and Promotion from the University of Texas in Austin. She received her MPH in Community Health from the University of Texas School of Public Health and her BS in Scientific Nutrition from Texas A&M University. Her research interests are the development and evaluation of behavioral risk prevention or reduction programs targeting children and adolescents (with an emphasis on dietary behaviors). She is also very interested in health communications, especially tailored communication. The focus of her research has been on behavioral nutrition programs, which grew out of a strong background in both clinical and public health nutrition as an undergraduate and master's student, and extensive experience in the design and evaluation of behavioral interventions during her doctoral studies in health promotion. In future research endeavors, Sandra plans to combine her experience and interest with health communications and risk behavior reduction to develop culturally-specific interventions based on ecological models. Specifically, she is interested in exploring psychosocial and environmental factors related to dietary behavior change among children and adolescents and developing tailored and multi-component interventions for multi-ethnic populations.
While part of the Fellowship Program, Sandra was mentored by Drs. Deanna Hoelscher (Associate Professor of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences and Director, Human Nutrition Center) and Nell Gottleib (University of Texas at Austin, Department of Health Education and Promotion). Sandra has published 26 papers, including first authored publications in the Journal of Adolescent Health, Journal of Health Promotion Practice, and Journal of American Dietetic Association. Her article in Journal of Health Promotion Practice, "A cervical cancer CD-ROM intervention: Lessons learned from development and formative education," was chosen as a feature article for continuing education hours for Certified Health Education Specialists. She has also authored chapters in the Handbook for Pediatric Psychology. Sandra also has several funded projects on nutrition and physical activity through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Prevention Research Center at her school of public health.
Personal notes: Her three children are Sandra's greatest hobby - most of her "free" time is spent with them. When she does have any other free time, she enjoys running, biking, camping, and any other activity that can be done outside.
Eileen Shinn, Ph.D. (1998-1999)
Eileen Shinn, Ph.D. (July 2000-April 2004), is currently Instructor of Behavioral Sciences, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
"At the Center, I met top-level researchers and gained valuable experience on intervention research projects."
Dr. Shinn completed her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Ohio University in 1998, with an internship at Baylor College of Medicine. Her long-term career goals are to work with depression in cancer patients.
Eileen started her post-doctoral fellowship in the Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research, with Drs. Guy Parcel (Professor of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences and John P. McGovern Professor of Health Promotion) and Susan Tortolero (Assistant Professor of Epidemiology) as her mentors. She completed her fellowship in the MD Anderson Center, mentored by Dr. Karen Basen-Engquist (Associate Professor of Behavioral Sciences). Eileen's publications have appeared in journals such as American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Preventive Medicine, and JAMA. Currently, she has three funded grants. The projects include a K07 Cancer prevention and Control Mentored Career Award from NCI, "Depression Screening and Treatment in Ovarian Cancer"; an R03 from NCI, "Depression and Adherence in head and Neck Cancer;" and a pilot intervention study from the Lance Armstrong Foundation.
