Faculty Profiles
Tenured Profiles

Dr. Sudip Bajpeyi
Associate Professor of Kinesiology
Director of Metabolic, Nutrition, and Exercise Research (MiNER) Laboratory |
Research Interests: The effects of exercise training on insulin action, lipid metabolism and mitochondrial bioenergetics in obese and type 2 diabetic populations; translational approaches to inform the study of molecular mechanisms of lipid metabolism and insulin action in in vitro (cell culture) models.
sbajpeyi@utep.edu
(915) 747-5461
Publications
Faculty Profile

Dr. Jason Boyle
Assoc. Professor and Chair
Department of Kinesiology
Director, Virtual Reality and
Motor Control Laboratory
Research Interests: Motor neuroscience; limb coordination in virtual environments; aging and motor control; effective practice scheduling; human-computer interaction.
jbboyle@utep.edu
(915) 747-7239
Faculty Profile

Dr. Maria O. Duarte
Professor and Chair
Department of Public Health Sciences
Research Interests: Nutrition and chronic disease prevention in Hispanics; nutrition interventions in gestational diabetes.
moduarte@utep.edu
(915) 747-7252
Faculty Profile

Dr. Craig Field, MPH, PhD
Professor of Psychology
UTEP College of Liberal Arts
Director
Latino Alcohol and Health Disparities Research and Training Center(LAHDR)
Research Interests: Motivational interventions to promote health behavior change and improve health outcomes in underserved populations; alcohol use disorders; public health/health psychology; culture and health.
cfield@utep.edu
(915) 747-8539
Faculty Profile

Dr. Bruce Friedman
Egbert Endowed Professor of Social Work
Research Interests: Community-based participatory and action research; culture/ethnicity; health disparities; social systems; transdisciplinary practice; homelessness; substance abuse; management/administration; international issues; spirituality.
bdfriedman@utep.edu
(915) 747-8078
Faculty Profile

Dr. Alvaro Gurovich
Associate Professor and Director
Doctor of Physical Therapy Program
Research Interests: Exercise-induced blood flow patterns; cardiovascular pathophysiolgy; clinical applied physiology; cardiac rehabiliation; body composition.
agurovich@utep.edu
(915) 747-7248
Faculty Profile

Dr. Hyejin Jung
Associate Professor of Social Work
Research interests: Community-based practice; disparities in mental health care; mental health literacy and education; measurement and survey development; mental health in subsidized housing.
hjung2@utep.edu
(915) 747-5453
Faculty Profile

Dr. Julia Lechuga
Associate Professor of Public Health
Research Interests: Cultural, contextual, and familial factors that influence the risk of infectious disease and adoption of preventative sexual and reproductive health behaviors.
julialec@utep.edu
(915) 747-7221
Faculty Profile

Dr. Oralia Loza
Associate Professor of Public Health Sciences
Research Interests: Ethnic and gender health disparities; U.S.-Mexico border health; LGBT health; transgender care; HIV, Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) and sexually-transmitted infections (STIs); sexual risk behaviors; substance use.
oloza@utep.edu
(915) 747-7232
Faculty Profile

Dr. Thenral D. Mangadu
Associate Professor of Public Health Sciences
Research Interests: Global health disparities (nutrition and physical activity, HIV, HCV, substance abuse, positive youth development, access to health care); program evaluation; nutrition in special populations; family and teen violence prevention and IPV.
tdmangadu@utep.edu
(915) 747-8516
Faculty Profile

Dr. Eva Moya
Associate Professor and Interim Chair
Department of Social Work
Research Interests: U.S.-Mexico border health; homelessness; intimate partner violence; tuberculosis; Photovoice method and HPV.
emmoya@utep.edu
(915) 747-8493
Faculty Profile

Dr. Vannesa Mueller
Associate Professor and Director
Speech Language Pathology Program
Research Interests: Expressive disorders in Autism and Autism-spectrum disorders.
vtmueller@utep.edu
(915) 747-8221
Faculty Profile

Dr. Yok-Fong Paat
Associate Professor of Social Work
Faculty Fellow, Scholarship and Research
Research Interests: Family and community health; health behavior; mental health; child well-being; social integration; social justice; atruism; education; migration and immigration.
ypaat@utep.edu
(915) 747-5095
Faculty Profile

Dr. Arunkumar Pennathur
Assoc. Professor, Industrial, Manufacturing and Systems Engineering
UTEP College of Engineering
Research Interests: Work design for community health workers, smart home healthcare, healthcare professional safety and well-being, exoskeletons and sensor-based occupational work design, skills and training, gerontechnology, aging and independent living, usability and user experience, ergonomics and physical work, future of work in AI environments.
apennarthur@utep.edu
Faculty Profile

Dr. Priyadarshini Pennathur
Assoc. Professor, Industrial, Manufacturing and Systems Engineering
UTEP College of Engineering
Research Interests: Healthcare information systems, community and global health, vulnerable population, patient and provider health, safety and well-being, usability and user experience, cognitive work, human factors engineering, future of work and work design in the context of AI, Smart Work and Smart Health.
prpennathur2@utep.edu
Faculty Profile

Dr. Stacy Wagovich
Associate Professor of Speech-Language Pathology
Associate Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs
Research Interests: Fluency; stuttering; vocabulary; lexical development; language sample analysis; vocabulary measurement.
sawagovich@utep.edu
(915) 747-8226
Faculty Profile
Tenure-Track Faculty

Dr. Taslim Al-Hilal
Assistant Professor of Pharmacy
UTEP School of Pharmacy
Research Interests: Microfluidic devices; disease-on-a-chip models; biomarker detection; cardiopulmonary diseases; cancer angiogenesis; tumor endothelial markers; drug delivery; oral anticoagulation.
taalhilal@utep.edu
(915) 747-8390
Faculty Profile

Dr. Kosaku Aoyagi
Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy
Director of Pain Research in Mechanism-Based Physical Therapy (PRIME PT) Laboratory |
Research Interests: Central pain mechanisms in chronic pain conditions such as knee osteoarthritis and chronic low back pain, including risk factors and consequences; targeted clinical assessments based on underlying pain mechanisms; physical therapy pain management targeting central pain mechanisms; clinical epidemiology.
kaoyagi@utep.edu
(915) 747-8215
Faculty Profile

Dr. Jeannie Concha
Assistant Professor of Public Health Sciences
Research Interests: Hispanic disparities in diabetes; mental health and coping; cultural health beliefs; community health.
jeannie@utep.edu
(915) 747-8214
Faculty Profile

Dr. Jeffrey Eggleston
Assistant Professor of Kinesiology
Director, Stanley E. Fulton Gait Research & Movement Analysis Lab
Research Interests: Biomechanics; clinical gait analyses; lower extremity coordination during walking with a focus on individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder; lower extremity mechanics during jumping and landing activities.
jdeggleston@utep.edu
(915) 747-7208
Faculty Profile

Dr. Gabriel Frietze
Assistant Professor of Pharmacy
UTEP School of Pharmacy
Research Interests: Health communication; risk perception; cancer disparities among Hispanics; vaccine acceptance
gafrietze@utep.edu
(915) 747-8344
Dr. Gabriel Ibarra-Mejia
Assistant Professor of Public Health Sciences
Research Interests: Environmental and occupational health; ergonomics; industrial hygiene and safety; prevention of work-related musculoskeletal disorders; community health mapping using GIS; workplace wellness.
gabmejia@utep.edu
(915) 747-7270
Faculty Profile

Dr. Jason Mallonee
Assistant Professor of Social Work
Research interests: Recovery-oriented practice; serious mental health conditions; client engagement; the therapeutic relationship; community behavioral health; clinical social work.
jrmallonee@utep.edu
(915) 747-8588
Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Ian Mendez
Assistant Professor of Pharmacy
UTEP School of Pharmacy
Research Interests: Addiction; feeding behavior; decision making; motivation; neuropharmacology.
iamendez2@utep.edu
(915) 747-8216
Faculty Profile

Dr. Brandon Merritt
Assistant Professor of Speech-Language Pathology
Research Interests: Projection and perception of speaker gender through speech; psycholinguistics; phonetics.
bmmerritt@utep.edu
(915) 747-7278
Faculty Profile

Dr. Kisuk Min
Assistant Professor of Kinesiology
Director, Muscle Molecular Physiology Laboratory
Research Interests: Effects of exercise training on chemotherapy-induced muscle dysfunction; identifying the signaling pathways responsible for myopathy in cardiac and skeletal muscle.
kmin@utep.edu
(915) 747-8228
Faculty Profile

Dr. Md Nurunnabi
Assistant Professor of Pharmacy
UTEP School of Pharmacy
Research Interests: Biomaterials; drug delivery; bio-nanomaterials and targeting drug delivery.
mnurunnabi@utep.edu
(915) 747-8335
Faculty Profile

Dr. Gregory Schober
Assistant Professor of Rehabilitation Sciences
Research Interests: The consequences of health policy for behavior and health; governance and health in developing countries; health disparities among patients with diabetes in the U.S.-Mexico border region; poverty, food assistance, and health.
gschober@utep.edu
(915) 747-8506
Faculty Profile

Dr. Camila Torriani-Pasin
Associate Professor of Physical Therapy
Research Interests: Physical and psychosocial factors related to physical activity level and sedentary behavior; implementation of physical exercise programs for individuals with stroke.
ctorrianip@utep.edu
(915) 747-8629
Curriculum Vitae