Dean’s Faculty Mentorship Award

Research Initiative Supporting Excellence in early careeR development (RISER)

Asma Ali PhD, PharmD

Project Title: Empowering Muslim Communities: Building Capacity through Educational Webinars and RAMADAN Instrument Pre-Testing via Cognitive Interviews.
Objective: This project aims to improve diabetes management during Ramadan through community engagement and pre-testing a culturally tailored RAMADAN instrument for healthcare providers.

William C. Bigler, PhD

Project Title: Student and Career Advancement Through Targeted AUD Research: Identification of Disease, Barriers to Effective Care, and Emerging Solutions
Objective: This project aims to conduct an exploratory and descriptive analysis of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) in the United States, focusing on disease identification, barriers to care, and emerging solutions for effective treatment. The research will leverage existing data and literature to produce actionable analytical briefs, develop testable hypotheses, and draft proposals for federal funding opportunities. It also seeks to foster mentorship and skill-building for graduate students while enhancing the University of Memphis's research capacity.

Fanta Desissa Gutema, DVM, MSc, BSc, MPH, PhD, CPH

Project Title: Partnership Development for Antimicrobial Research in Ethiopia
Objective: The aim of this project is to Establish a partnership between the University of Memphis and Addis Ababa University to address antimicrobial resistance (AMR) through a feasibility study and stakeholder engagement.

Alex Parkhouse, PhD, MA

Project Title: Social Stress and Community Health Lab
Objective: This project aims to establish a first-of-its-kind lab to study Memphis's stress and mental health disparities, targeting actionable interventions and graduate training.

Wei Lyu, PhD

Project Title: Effects of Community-based Dental Clinics Expansion on Access to Dental Care and Emergency Department Visits for Dental Conditions among Low-income Individuals
Objective: We examined the effects of the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansions on dental visits among low-income adults focusing on the generosity of dental coverage and heterogeneity in effects by dentist supply.

Xichen Mou, PhD

Project Title: Advancing Pooled Data Analysis for Public Health Screening and Biomonitoring
Objective: Human biomonitoring involves monitoring human health by measuring the accumulation of harmful chemicals, typically in specimens like blood samples. The high cost of chemical analysis has led researchers to adopt a cost-effective approach. This approach physically combines specimens and subsequently analyzes the concentration of toxic substances within the merged pools. Consequently, there arises a need for innovative regression techniques to effectively interpret these aggregated measurements. To address this need, a new regression framework is proposed by extending the additive partially linear model (APLM) to accommodate the pooling context. The APLM is well-known for its versatility in capturing the complex association between outcomes and covariates, which is particularly valuable in assessing the complex interplay between chemical bioaccumulation and potential risk factors. Consistent estimators of the APLM are obtained through an iterative process that disaggregates information from the pooled observations. The performance is evaluated through simulations and an environmental health study focused on brominated flame retardants using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Abu Mohammed Naser Titu, PhD, MBBS

Project Title: Climate Change and Violence: Exploring the Relationship of Ambient Temperature with Mass Shootings, Fatal Police Encounters, and Childhood Firearm Injuries.