Cohort Scholars

2024

Caroline Cummings, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Psychological Sciences Texas Tech University

Research Area:

Transactional relations between biopsychosocial mechanisms underlying risk and prevalence of overweight and obesity in adolescents and emerging adults with a clinical translational perspective.

Jerraco Johnson, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Kinesiology, Health Promotion & Recreation, The University of North Texas

Research Area:

Factors related to the development of obesogenic behaviors in preschool-age Black children and strategies to increase physical activity engagement and reduce sedentary behavior through family-based health movement interventions.

Mehrnaz Abbasi, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Nutritional Sciences, College of Human Sciences, Auburn University

Research Area:

The use of nutrition, genetics, and nanomedicine to reveal novel preventive and/or therapeutic approaches to combat chronic metabolic diseases, mainly obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases.

Gertrude Arthur, PhD

Post-doctoral fellow, Department of Physiology & Biophysics, University of Mississippi Medical Center

Research Area:

The role of intrarenal bilirubin in hypertension, renal dyslipidemia, and kidney injury as well as the role of metabolic syndrome in the progression of chronic kidney disease.

Eduardo Freitas, PhD

Assistant Professor, University of North Texas

Research Area:

Effects of obesity on skeletal muscle health and function in adult humans and the role of insulin-like growth factor 1 on muscle protein synthesis in individuals with obesity.

Fabiola Diniz, PhD

Post-doctoral fellow, Department of Pediatrics Section of Pediatrics Nephrology, Tulane University School of Medicine

Research Area:

The transgenerational impact of ancestral, such as diet, on offspring development, particularly on kidneys. The effects of parental diet and prematurity on kidney development and the onset of hypertension and kidney disease later in life.

2023

Christian Vasquez, PhD, MSW

Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Arlington (UT-Arlington)

Research Area:

Obesity and diabetes, including socioeconomic gradients, breastfeeding, neighborhood factors, food security, physical activity, medical expenses, sleep, adverse childhood experiences, and parental feeding practices.

Fatima Rivas, PhD

Assistant Professor at Louisiana State University

Research Area:

Natural product synthesis, chemical probe development, glucocorticoid signaling and autophagy modulation.

Jennifer Caldwell, PhD

Assistant Professor, Director of Public Health Genomics Laboratory at Pennington Biomedical Research Center

Research Area:

Genomics, health disparities, specifically cardiometabolics, obesity in women, and diet-mediated chronic diseases in African Americans.

Sarah Deemer, PhD

Assistant Professor at the University of North Texas in the Department of Kinesiology, Health Promotion and Recreation

Research Area:

The role of the health of adipose tissue in metabolic disease, and possible interventions that may be able to improve adipocyte health and decrease disease risk.

Marian Okon, PhD, MPH

Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences at Xavier University of Louisiana

Research Area:

Examining the influence of the environment, socioeconomic determinants, and other underlying mechanisms leading to differences in health outcomes, thereby reducing the unequal burdens of morbidity and mortality among minority populations in the United States, especially in the realm of cardiometabolic and neurodegenerative diseases.

Ifechukwude Joachim Biose, PhD

Assistant Professor at LSUHSC-New Orleans

Research Area:

Cerebrovascular and neurodegenerative studies with an interest in understanding how comorbidities of stroke (i.e., the components of metabolic syndrome) and aging influence outcomes for ischemic stroke, vascular dementia and heart failure -with the ultimate aim to translate potential therapeutic agents as well as improve clinical knowledge and treatments for these conditions.

Rodrigo Fernandez, PhD

Visiting Assistant Professor at Pennington Biomedical Research Center

Research Area:

The effects of physical activity on obesity and its related comorbidities. This includes the influence of physical activity on energy expenditure and energy intake to regulate energy balance and body weight.