Eliott Arroyo – Assistant Professor in the Department of Health and Exercise Science at Wake Forest University. He received his BS degree in Sport and Exercise Science and MS degree in Applied Exercise Physiology from the University of Central Florida. He then completed his PhD in Exercise Physiology at Kent State University and was an NIH T32 Postdoctoral Fellow in the Division of Nephrology & Hypertension at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Dr. Arroyo is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) and an American College of Sports Medicine Certified Exercise Physiologist (ACSM-EP). He is a clinical investigator with a special interest in physical function decline in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). His research focuses on elucidating the underlying mechanisms of cardiovascular disease and skeletal muscle dysfunction in CKD, and the development of novel exercise interventions to improve physical function and quality of life in patients with CKD.
Mohsen Bahrami – Dr. Bahrami is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He received his MS at the University of Tehran in Iran, and his PhD at The Virginia Tech-Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences (SBES). He has recently completed a TSC Pilot Study using machine learning techniques and functional brain network data to examine whether brain circuitry can be used to predict variability in older adults’ response to a dietary weight loss intervention (EMPOWER Study). The results will be used to further evaluate how functional brain circuits contribute to individual differences associated with successful long-term with loss. This will eventually provide insight into developing tailored and individualized weight loss interventions.
Stephen Baker – Dr. Baker is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics at Wake Forest University. He received his B.S. in Physics from Rochester Institute of Technology in 2008 and his Ph.D. in Physics from Wake Forest University in 2015 where he studied single fiber nanomechanical properties using atomic force microscopy. After completing his Ph.D., Dr. Baker accepted a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Leeds in Leeds, England, where he focused on better understanding the structural and mechanical properties of blood clots and how they relate to disease. He returned to Wake Forest University in January of 2020 where I joined the faculty as a Teacher-Scholar Postdoctoral Fellow. With a background in experimental biophysics, his group focuses on better understanding how the structure and mechanics of blood clots affect cardiovascular diseases. To do this they use various microscopy techniques with a large focus on atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and confocal microscopy.
Swati Basu – Research Associate Professor, Department of Physics, Wake Forest University. Dr. Basu is a full-time researcher and member of the Kim-Shapiro lab team. Her research has involved studying the mechanism of nitrite reduction by heme proteins such as hemoglobin, myoglobin, neuroglobin and cytochrome c and bioavailability of nitric oxide. She is currently involved in various projects which include studying the role of iodides in nitrosamine formation from nitrite in the stomach derived from high nitrate diet, determining factors that might influence blood storage and platelet aggregation and studying the role of nitrogen oxides in human adaptation to high altitude.
Daniel Beavers – Associate Professor, Statistical Sciences, Wake Forest University. Dr. Beavers has experience in the design, execution, and analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials. He currently serves as a biostatistician for two major NIH-funded clinical trials investigating physical function in the elderly and weight loss among diabetic populations. He has served as the primary statistician on a number of applied research projects and publications in such disciplines as obesity, physical activity and exercise, nutrition, aging, inflammation, endothelial function, epidemiology, and nephrology. His methodological research focuses on Bayesian approaches to statistical inference and modeling, including correcting systematic bias in studies containing data with missing and mismeasured random variables. Dr. Beavers earned his MS in biostatistics at UNC Chapel Hill and PhD in statistics at Baylor University.
Kristen Beavers – Dr. Beavers is a registered dietitian and Associate Professor in the Department of Health and Exercise Science at Wake Forest University. Dr. Beavers received her BS from Cornell University in Human Biology, Health and Society; MPH from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Nutrition; and PhD from Baylor University in Exercise, Nutrition, and Preventive Health. She is a Registered Dietitian and certified by the American College of Sports Medicine as a personal trainer. Dr. Beavers’ academic and professional interests lie in the study of nutrition and exercise as interdisciplinary sciences, specifically as they relate to prevention and etiology of chronic disease and disability. Her research focuses on the identification of optimal weight loss therapies for older adults living with obesity.
Megan Bennett-Jones – Dr. Bennet-Jones is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health and Exercise Science at Wake Forest University. She completed her undergraduate degree at Wake Forest University and went on to earn an MS in Exercise Physiology at UNC-G and another MS in Clinical Population and Translational Science at WFU. She obtained her PhD in Human Development and Family Studies at UNC-G and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Community Engagement back at Wake Forest. Dr. Bennet-Jones is currently undergraduate level courses in HES, and is a leading Investigator on several on-going NIH funded grants designed to address health challenges within and across many demographic groups, including work on chronic pain, substance use disorder, brain health, aging, and cancer..
Terry D. Blumenthal – Psychology. Dr. Blumenthal has measured the startle response in dozens of studies over the past 25 years, in participants ranging in age from less than 1 day to over 80 years old. This startle response has been used to evaluate perception, cognition, emotion, drug and hormonal effects, personality characteristics, clinical conditions, and many other factors. He is currently involved in several collaborations with other researchers in which startle is being used to: 1) investigate the impact of Traumatic Brain Injury on emotional regulation, 2) evaluate exposure based treatment of Generalized Anxiety Disorder; 3) examine the impact of menstrual cycle in PTSD. Dr. Blumenthal has an ongoing collaboration with Dr. Rejeski investigating the evaluation of restricted eating instructions and food cravings on affective processing. This collaboration has resulted in a paper currently under review at Appetite, as well as an undergraduate student Summer Research Fellowship currently underway.
Tina Brinkley – Dr. Brinkley is an Associate Professor, Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine. She received her doctoral degree in Exercise Physiology at the University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Brinkley’s current research involves investigating the influence of genetic and behavioral (i.e. diet and exercise) factors on cardiovascular aging and disease, as well as the role of inflammation and oxidative stress in these processes. She is also interested in using non-invasive imaging techniques to evaluate interventions designed to alter the trajectory of age-related changes in vascular structure and function.
Amber Brooks – Dr. Brooks is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, the Justice Thread Director for the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, and the Vice Chair of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the Department of Anesthesiology at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist. She is a Board Certified Anesthesiologist and Comprehensive Pain Management Physician who specializes in treating a variety of different pain conditions using a multimodal approach that includes treatments such as medication, injection therapies, and movement therapies. Dr. Brooks’ clinical research focuses on developing non-medication treatments for older adults with chronic pain. She received her medical degree from the University of Iowa College of Medicine.
Peter Brubaker – Dr. Brubaker is a professor and chair in the Department of Health and Exercise Science at Wake Forest University. He was Director of Cardiac Rehabilitation (now Healthy Exercise and Lifestyle ProgramS) from 1991-2016. He has been an active member (Fellow) for 30+ years of both the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Association of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation. He has published more than 150 articles/chapters in exercise physiology or cardiology journals/books and authored the textbook Coronary Artery Disease: Essentials of Prevention and Rehabilitation Programs. He was the Clinical Section Editor (7th ed.) of the ACSM Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription and was an Associate Editor for Medicine Science in Sports and Exercise. He has given hundreds of national and international invited/keynote lectures on his research and clinical experiences. For 30+ years his research and clinical work have focused on prevention and management of chronic diseases, particularly heart diseases. Current NIH and industry-funded research focuses on the effect of exercise and other lifestyle interventions on patients with heart failure and cancer. He has also been serving as Wake Forest’s Faculty Athletic Representative to the NCAA and ACC since 2016.
Jonathan Burdette – Dr. Burdette is the Chair of Radiology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine where he divides his time between clinical neuroradiology and neuroscience research. His current research focuses on using advanced MR imaging techniques to study the brain as a complex network. He is a founding member of the Laboratory for Complex Brain Networks (LCBN), a laboratory that uses diffusion tensor imaging, perfusion imaging, voxel-based morphometry, and functional MRI (fMRI) to study brain networks using network theory approaches. Such approaches analyze the entire brain and view brain processing as a complex system rather than just analyzing small portions of the brain. Currently, he is collaborating with faculty on the Reynolda Campus of Wake Forest University, applying these MR imaging techniques to learn how exercise, nutritional habits, and meditation affect the functioning brain in the elderly. Dr. Burdette’s clinical interests are primarily in advanced MRI brain imaging techniques, and he has written a textbook titled Questions and Answers in Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 2nd Ed.
Cheryl Bushnell – Dr. Bushnell completed her neurology residency training, stroke research fellowship, and graduate degree in clinical research at Duke University. After 6 years on faculty in the Duke Division of Neurology, she joined the Neurology faculty at Wake Forest University Health Sciences October 2007. Her clinical practice is focused on inpatient and outpatient stroke treatment. Her research interests include primary and secondary stroke prevention, medication adherence to secondary prevention, and transitions of care for stroke patients. She is co-PI for the AVAIL registry, and is in the process of pilot testing an intervention for improving secondary prevention medication adherence in stroke patients. In addition, she is currently PI of a NIH K02 grant to examine sex differences in subclinical vascular disease in midlife, with a special emphasis on differences occurring with menopause. She has an ongoing study of cerebral and peripheral vasomotor reactivity in women with recent severe preeclampsia to better understand the future cerebrovascular implications of preeclampsia.
Kacey Chae – Dr. Chae is an Assistant Professor in the section on Bariatric and Weight Management in the Department of Surgery at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. She is a Physician-Scientist who conducts research on improving health services and outcomes in older adults with obesity. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Johns Hopkins University/Bayview Medical Center from 2019-2022. Dr. Chae completed her fellowship in Obesity Medicine, followed by postdoctoral research training at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She has participated in significant research, with her published research including topics ranging from obesity medicine curriculum to the impact of lifestyle-based weight loss on musculoskeletal health in older adults with obesity.
Expertise: Obesity Medicine, Lifestyle Counseling, Nutrition, Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, Hypertension, Dyslipidemia, General Internal Medicine
Research Interests: Health Outcomes in Older Adults with Obesity; Sarcopenic Obesity; Patient-Centered Obesity Care
Mark Chappell – Dr. Chappell is a professor of Hypertension and of Translational Neuroscience at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He received his BA from American University (AU), and his PhD from Cleveland State University. His research interest include Drug and Alcohol Abuse, Cardiovascular Physiology and Hypertension, Regenerative Medicine, Neuro- and Behavioral Pharmacology, Cancer Therapeutics Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism Lifespan Physiology.
Swapan K. Das – Dr. Das is an Associate Professor in Endocrinology and Metabolism, Internal Medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He received his PhD in Science, Zoology/ Molecular Human Genetics from the Calcutta University in 2000, and completed Postdoctoral training at the University of Tennessee and at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. As a human molecular geneticist Dr. Das has experience in monogenic and complex genetic disease research. His research focuses on identifying genetically and epigenetically regulated cellular and molecular mechanisms of insulin resistance, obesity and type 2 diabetes. Determining molecular mechanisms underlying ethnic disparities in these common metabolic diseases is a key area of his research projects funded by the National Institutes of Health and the American Diabetes Association. As a Principal Investigator of a multidisciplinary research team, he leads studies in human participants and cell culture models and has implemented integrative genomic and systems biology approaches to define genetic and epigenetic regulators of insulin sensitivity in African-Americans and individuals of European ancestry.
Patricia Dos Santos – Dr. Dos Santos is a Professor and Associate Chair of Chemistry at Wake Forest University. Dr. Dos Santos studies how Iron and sulfur atoms can form chemical structures of biological importance named [Fe-S] clusters. The importance of Fe-S clusters is intimately associated with the essential role of Fe-S proteins in a wide range of life sustaining processes including respiration, carbon metabolism, photosynthesis and nitrogen fixation. These chemical structures are organized in fundamental units of [2Fe-2S] and [4Fe-4S] clusters, or multimers, or fragments of these units. Although [Fe-S] clusters can be formed in vitro from their toxic individual components, almost all forms of life have developed specialized machineries dedicated to the assembly of these metal-centers. Our research group is interested in understanding the biochemical formation of [Fe-S] clusters in Gram-positive bacteria.
Debra I. Diz – Dr. Diz is a Professor and Section Head of Hypertension, Co-Director of the Cardiovascular Sciences Center, and Director of the Hypertension and Vascular Research Center at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Dr. Diz’s education and training includes a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Tennessee Center for Health Sciences in Memphis. Her research has identified the neuroanatomical and transmitter pathways subserving angiotensin II actions in brain areas involved in baroreceptor reflex control of the circulation. Experience with interactions between the renin-angiotensin and the autonomic nervous system as related to cardiometabolic disease is of particular interest in her current work, as are brain-kidney interactions that may lead to renal injury. Recent implementation of the techniques for assessment of spectral and sequence analysis of spontaneous autonomic function, development of magnetic resonance spectroscopy for non-invasive assessment of neurotransmitters and use of sheep as a model of fetal programming illustrate a wide variety of technical and animal expertise that relates to investigation of the neural control of the circulation. Application of the new technologies for spectral analysis and magnetic resonance spectroscopy to human subjects work is being developed through collaborations with clinical research faculty. Finally, she is committed to research training at the undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral level and has had a major commitment to increased diversity in research training for >20 years through direction of several diversity-focused training programs.
Jason Fanning – Dr. Fanning is an Assistant Professor of Health and Exercise Science at Wake Forest University. He completed his undergraduate degree in Kinesiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He continued to earn his PhD in Kinesiology with an emphasis on Exercise Psychology under the mentorship of Edward McAuley in 2016. He completed his post-doctoral training in the Sticht Center on Aging at the Wake Forest School of Medicine under Drs. W. Jack Rejeski and Barbara Nicklas. Dr. Fanning joined the faculty of Wake Forest University in July 2019. His research interests center on better assessing and influencing the momentary causes and consequences of health behaviors such as diet and physical activity among older adults. He specializes in the development and implementation of technology to suit these research goals.
D. Clark Files – Dr. Files is section chief and an associate professor of pulmonary, critical care, allergy and immunologic diseases; and an associate professor of gerontology and geriatric medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He is co-director of the Critical Illness, Injury and Recovery Research Center. Dr. Files is board certified in pulmonary and critical care with a focus on acute respiratory failure, sepsis and acute respiratory distress syndrome. His research focuses on translational aspects of critical care using preclinical and clinical approaches. His program focuses on the elucidation of mechanisms of muscle wasting in pneumonia, sepsis and ARDS. His team conducts clinical trials in acute and critically ill patient populations. The goal of this work is to discover new treatments that reduce organ injury, disability and death from severe critical illness. Dr. Files is a member of the American Thoracic Society. He received his medical degree at the University of Mississippi. He completed residency in internal medicine at Vanderbilt University and a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care at Johns Hopkins University.
R. Michael Furr – Dr. Furr is a Professor of Psychology and Director of Graduate Studies at Wake Forest University. He received his BA from William and Mary, his MS from Villanova University, and his PhD from the University of California, Riverside. Dr. Furr is generally interested in personality, psychological assessment, and moral psychology. Within those general themes, he has been focusing recently on two main topics in his work with students – Honesty (collaborating with Dr. Eranda Jayawickreme and Dr. Will Fleeson – both WFU Psychology), and Patience (collaborating with Dr. Christian Miller (WFU Philosophy) and Dr. Christian Waugh (WFU Psychology) ).
Sergi Garcia-Retortillo – Dr. Garcia-Retortillo is Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Health and Exercise Science at Wake Forest University). Dr. Garcia-Retortillo received his BS from University of Barcelona (Spain) in Exercise Science; BS from University Ramon Llull (Spain) in Physical Therapy; MSc Physical Activity and Health; and PhD from University of Barcelona in Exercise Science. In addition, he serves as Visiting Researcher at the Keck Laboratory for Network Physiology (Department of Physics, Boston University, MA). His research focuses on the field of Network Physiology, which aims to understand the basic laws of interactions and principles of coordination and integration among diverse physiological systems during exercise. He is developing novel fitness assessment systems using network-based measures. The most relevant network-based markers of his research agenda are: (i) cardio-muscular coordination; (ii) inter-muscular coordination; and (iii) cardio-respiratory coordination.
S. Mason Garrison – Dr. Garrison is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Wake Forest University). Dr. Garrison received her A.B in Economics & Psychology from Washington University in St. Louis, and MS and PhD from Vanderbilt University.
Martin Guthold – Professor, Department of Physics, Wake Forest University. Dr. Guthold is using advanced atomic force and fluorescence microscopy techniques to determine the mechanical properties of fibrin and other nanoscopic fibers. Fibrin fibers are the major structural component of a blood clot, and their mechanical properties play a critical role in wound healing and disease states such as heart attack, stroke, embolisms and other thrombotic events. Dr. Guthold is using his data to construct a realistic model of a blood clot which may then be used to design novel devices to mechanically destroy them in the event of an acute heart attack or stroke. Dr. Guthold will also test the properties of fibrin clots coming from patients before and after surgery. His work has been funded by the NIH, NSF, Research Corporation and American Cancer Society.
Amret Hawfield – Dr. Hawfield is an Associate Professor of Nephrology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Dr. Hawfield’s research is focused on clinical management of hypertension. She is a co-investigator with the NIH/NHLBI multi-center randomized controlled trial SPRINT (Systolic blood Pressure Intervention Trial) funded by the NIH/NHLBI/NIDDK. The trial plans to randomize nearly 10,000 participants to standard versus intensive blood pressure control in an attempt to further reduce cardiovascular events with intensive blood pressure control. The trial will focus on elderly patients and those with chronic kidney disease. As an extension of this work she will be collaborating in the future with Dr. Daniel Kim-Shapiro and Dr. Gary Miller on the effects of dietary nitrates and hypertension. Dr. Hawfield also has in interest in preeclampsia and hypertension and during her training worked on several projects including angiogenic factors in superimposed preeclampsia, long term renal outcomes of hypertensive pregnancies, and intensive blood pressure control during pregnancy. She is also the medical director of the Lexington Dialysis Unit and plans to collaborate with Dr. Debra Diz of the Hypertension and Vascular Research Center to characterize autonomic function in hypertensive hemodialysis patients.
Nina Heilmann- Dr. Heilmann is a T32 Postdoctoral Fellow in Internal Medicine, Section of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine at at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. She received her MPH in Epidemiology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She received her PhD in Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health with the dissertation, “Associations of Muscle Function and Size with Falls, Fall Injuries, and Bone Density, Microarchitecture, and Strength in Older Adults.” Her current research interests include a study to provide training in advanced musculoskeletal imaging, clinical trial methodology, and the study of obesity and weight loss in older adults. The goal is to leverage high-resolution imaging to characterize muscle and bone adaptations and improve understanding of muscle-bone interactions during incretin- and lifestyle-based weight loss.
Denise Houston- Dr. Houston is a Professor of Gerontology & Geriatric Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Dr. Houston’s received her BS and MS from the University of Georgia, and her PhD from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Her research interests include Aging, Body Composition, Mobility Limitation, Nutrition, Obesity, Vitamin D, and Sarcopenia and Physical Function. Dr. Houston also serves on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Nutrition in Gerontology and Geriatrics.
Christina Hugenschmidt – Dr. Hugenschmidt is an Associate Professor of Gerontology & Geriatric Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine. One of Dr. Hugenschmidt’s research interests is am interested in the relationships between the brain and aging-related changes in metabolism and movement. The natural course of aging can change the way the body uses fats and sugars and increase the risk for obesity and type 2 diabetes. Aging also increases the risk for slower gait and increased fall risk. Healthy exercise and eating can help preserve and recover both cognitive and physical function in aging. My lab is interested in studying the effects of different lifestyle interventions on both the body and brain in aging to help people live fulfilling lives. Her lab uses functional and structural MRI and PET neuroimaging to study the brain in humans. I am co-director of the Bioimaing Resource Core of the Wake Forest Claude D. Pepper Older Adults Independence Center and am a member of the Wake Forest Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and Center for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism. Her lab collaborates closely with the Laboratory for Complex Brain Networks.
Timothy Hughes – Dr. Hughes is an Associate Professor of Gerontology & Geriatric Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Dr. Hughes research focuses on the on vascular and metabolic contributions to brain abnormalities commonly seen in aging, Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. He holds leadership roles in several large NIH-funded cohort studies and in the Wake Forest Alzheimer’s Disease Center. As a team scientist, Dr. Hughes work closely with neuropsychologists, MR physicists, neuroradiologists and a diverse group of investigators on these projects. His overarching research goal is to identify modifiable risk factors and treatment strategies for the prevention of age-related dementia and cognitive dysfunction in ethnically diverse populations.
Janine S. Jennings – Psychology. Dr. Jennings has studied age-related changes in cognition focusing on consciously-controlled memory processes and executive functioning for the last 15 years. Her most recent work has been designed to improve these aspects of cognitive performance in older adults by implementing a process- oriented memory training technique. Through collaborative projects funded by the Alzheimer Society of Canada, Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the National Institutes of Health, this line of research includes an examination of neural changes associated with cognitive training, as well as the effects of combining cognitive training with physical activity.
Erik C. Johnson – Dr. Johnson is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Biology at Wake Forest University. Dr. Johnson is broadly interested in the mechanisms of neuronal cell signaling and how these processes manifest in specific behaviors and regulate discrete aspects of physiology. In pursuit of that goal, his lab focuses on neurotransmitters and their receptors and use the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, because of the unique genetic and molecular tools available in this organism. They use a number of different cellular and molecular techniques to partner specific neuropeptides and neurotransmitters to specific “orphan” receptors. Dr. Johnosn is interested in the anatomical distribution of these receptors as they represent postsynaptic targets for specific transmitter signaling systems. He is ultimately interested in how specific receptor properties, (i.e., desensitization and signaling) contribute to neuronal physiology and on a larger scale how these properties shape a given behavior or physiology.
Marina Krcmar – Marina Krcmar is a Professor of Communications at Wake Forest University. She received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on the how children and adolescents use and are affected by media. Recent work has focused on social media and on the relationship between media and moral reasoning, especially in children. She has published 2 books, as well as many chapters and journal articles on these topics.
Stephen “Bruce” King – Dr. King is a Thurman D. Kitchin Professor and Chair of Chemistry at Wake Forest University. Dr. King’s research program is based on a combination of organic chemistry, biochemistry, and biophysics directed towards understanding the various roles small molecules play in redox biochemistry. His lab is especially interested in how nitric oxide (NO), hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and nitroxyl (HNO) affect bacteria that produce structurally unique low molecular weight (LMW) thiols. Nitroxyl and hydrogen sulfide regulate sulfur metabolism in bacteria and our current interests focus on the investigation of reactivity of nitroxyl with the unique low molecular weight thiols found in some bacteria. Dr. King currently studies the in vitro reactions of nitroxyl with bacillithiol and mycothiol to determine the reaction kinetics and products. The effect of nitroxyl on the bacteria producing these thiols will be related to the in vitro chemistry and the observed phenotype. They are also improving the total syntheses of bacillithiol and mycothiol to produce more compounds for study and generating analogs of these compounds that could find use as antibiotics. The lab also works to further refine our methods of HNO detection. Many of these projects are completed in collaboration with other groups in chemistry, physics and the medical school. Students in our group are exposed to organic synthesis, biochemistry, molecular biology, biophysics (especially spectroscopy) and bio-analytical chemistry.
Dalane Kitzman – Internal Medicine, Cardiology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Dr. Kitzman is a cardiologist whose research focuses on heart failure, especially in the elderly, Kitzman’s work has been funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the American Heart Association. He was among the first to identify diastolic heart failure as a distinct type of disease. Another research focus is improving echocardiography as a diagnostic tool. Kitzman has served on the editorial board of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, chaired an NIA study section of clinical aging, and is a past president of the Society for Geriatric Cardiology.
Stephen B. Kritchevsky – Geriatric Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Dr. Kritchevsky is an epidemiologist (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1989) who studies the determinants of functional decline in older population. His research interests are broad and include the role of inflammatory processes as predictors of functional decline and the role of nutrition and body composition in the development of age-related chronic disease and functional decline. Dr. Kritchevsky is the Director of the Sticht Center on Aging at the Wake Forest School of Medicine and the Deputy Director of Wake Forest’s the Translational Science Institute. He is also the Director Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center which is supported by the National Institute on Aging.
Sarah Lotspeich – Geriatric Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Dr. Lotspeich is an Assistant Professor in Statistical Sciences at Wake Forest University with a secondary appointment in the Department of Biostatistics and Data Science at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. She received her PhD in Biostatistics at Vanderbilt University, and competed a Postdoctoral Fellowship and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. She is currently Co-lead in the Spatial and Environmental Statistics in Health (SESH) Lab at WFU, and in the Methods for INcomplete Data (MIND) Lab at the UNC. She is also the co-organizer of the Florence Nightengale Day at WFU which welcomes local middle and high school students to explore statistics and data science at Wake Forest. Dr. Lotspeich current research interests include biostatistics, electronic health records (EHR), epidemiology, health disparities, measurement error, missing data, social determinants of health (SDOH), and two-phase experimental designs. She is originally from Florida, having grown up in a family of rocket scientists minutes from Kennedy Space Center.
Anthony Marsh – Dr. Marsh is a Professor of Health and Exercise Science, and Senior Associate Dean of the Gradate School of Arts and Sciences. He received his undergraduate and MS degrees from the University of Western Australia and his Ph.D. from Arizona State University. Dr. Marsh is a biomechanist with a strong background in exercise physiology. He has adjunct appointments in the VT-WFU School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences and the Department of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine. Dr. Marsh’s research interests include the role of balance and muscle strength and power in gait, physical function, and disability in older adults, the assessment methods used to quantify these factors, and the use of novel intervention strategies to improve physical function and reduce disability in older adults.
Sara Migliarese – Physical Therapy, Winston-Salem State University. Dr. Migliarese received her MSPT degree from Texas Woman’s University in 1985 and worked at The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research (TIRR) in Houston before moving to North Carolina. Sara practiced physical therapy at Forsyth Memorial Hospital and Gentiva Home Health Services, along with adjunct teaching at WSSU BSPT program from 1993-1995 and full-time teaching and ACCE duties in the MPT programs from 1996 – 2004. Sara received her certification in neurology from the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) in 1995, recertification in neurology in 2005 from the APTA, and Herdman certification in vestibular rehabilitation in 2008. She completed her doctorate in Exercise and Sport Science at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2009 and is currently an assistant professor in the Doctorate in Physical Therapy program at Winston-Salem State University. Her research interests include vestibular function in older adults, balance, and complications of Type II diabetes mellitus and impact of dance on movement in adults with Parkinson’s disease. Her long-term aspiration is to establish a collaborative center with interested partners in Winston-Salem that could grow into a regional center of excellence in assessment, treatment, and research for older adults with vestibular dysfunction and its’ impact on function, falls, and health regardless of the etiology.
Barbara Nicklas – Dr. Nicklas is Professor of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, Co-Director of the Sticht Center for Healthy Aging and Alzheimer’s Prevention, and the Team Science Program Leader for Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) and Wake Forest University School of Medicine, with a cross-appointment in the Department of Health and Exercise Science at Wake Forest University. She is also a member of the WFUHS Primate Center and the Center for Human Genomics. Dr. Nicklas is an experienced clinical investigator with research and scientific expertise in the fields of aging, obesity, and physical activity. She has prior experience in conducting both diet and exercise clinical trials in the elderly and her broad research focus is on studying the metabolic and cellular mechanisms responsible for the adverse health effects of weight gain, inactivity, and accumulation of abdominal adipose tissue. In addition, her laboratory is proficient in the acquisition and processing of several types of human and primate tissue samples, including adipose tissue and skeletal muscle.
Victor “Paul” Pauca – Dr. Pauca is a Professor of Computer Science at Wake Forest University. He says that he is very fortunate that his academic journey also got started at Wake Forest in 1990, as a freshly arrived international student from Peru. After earning his BS and MS degrees at Wake, he continued on to Duke University for his PhD. Dr. Pauca’s most recent research is on Intelligent Remote Sensing, where his lab seeks to construct an accurate, scalable methodology capable of identifying gradients of intensive land-use change from deforestation and mining through information fusion and deep learning of moderate and VHR optical, C-band radar backscatter, and UAV RGB data products. His lab has also worked on Analytics of Acoustic Emission Data for the Boeing Company, Statistical Image Analysis for 3D Imaging or the US Air Force, Fusion, and Compression of LiDAR and Hyperspectral Data with Boeing and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency.
Wayne E. Pratt – Dr. Pratt is a Professor of Psychology at Wake Forest University. His research interests are focused on understanding the neurobiological substrates that underlie the brain’s encoding of natural rewards. In particular, he is interested in how rewards are signaled and communicated between brain regions, and how neural circuits select adaptive behaviors based on motivation and reinforcement history. As such, the research done in his laboratory examines brain function and behavior related to motivation, learning, and memory. Since 2009, he and his students have published on the roles of nucleus accumbens acetylcholine, opioid, cannabinoid, dopamine, and serotonin receptors on various aspects of feeding and food-directed motivation. Currently, they are systematically examining the roles of individual serotonin receptor subtypes within the nucleus accumbens and ventral tegmentum on food-directed behaviors.
Tennille Presley – Assistant Professor of Physics in the Department of Chemistry, Winston-Salem State University. Her research focus is to provide a better understanding of contributing factors to vascular dysfunction and blood disorders (such as nitric oxide and heat shock proteins) as they relate to overall functional health in diabetic individuals in the African American population. Currently, she is studying the influence of heat treatment on hyperglycemia and how this effect contributes to changes in the availability of nitric oxide and the fragility of hyperglycemic red blood cells. Furthermore, she intends to explore mechanisms to enhance the interaction of heat shock proteins and nitric oxide in diabetic individuals through diet manipulation and exercise. Dr. Presley is also interested in examining biomarkers of diabetes to augment earlier detection of the disease and investigate how various biomarkers may differ in African Americans in comparison to other populations where diabetes is not as prevalent. She earned both her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Biophysics from The Ohio State University.
Steve Rapp – Dr. Rapp is Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, Division of Public Health Sciences at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Dr. Rapp is a clinical psychologist with primary research interests in geriatrics, cognitive aging and cognitive impairments resulting from cancer. His work has included collaborating on and leading many observational and interventional studies and has been funded by several institutes at the NIH. As Co-PI and now PI of the Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study, he and his colleagues have studied the short- and long-term impact of post-menopausal hormone therapy on the incidence of dementia and cognitive functioning in older women over the past 20 years. Dr. Rapp’s expertise in dementia has lead to collaborations on numerous large-scaled, multi-site studies in which cognition and dementia are outcomes. Dr. Rapp has pioneered the development and validation of telephone-based assessment of cognitive function and dementia ascertainment. With funding from the Alzheimer’s Association Dr. Rapp and his colleagues developed and validated an innovative, computer tablet-based assessment of cognitively intensive behavior using simulations of instrumental activities of daily living for use in clinical and research settings. In addition to his work in cognitive aging, Dr. Rapp has conducted randomized clinical trials evaluating the efficacy of drug treatments for cognitive impairment in cancer patients. For example, he and his colleagues have studied the value of donepezil for brain tumor survivors after brain irradiation and they are currently examining its utility with breast cancer survivors following chemotherapy.
Paige Rice –Dr. Rice is a Teacher-Scholar Postdoc in the Dept. of Health and Exercise Science at Wake Forest University. She received her Bachelor of Science from the University of Wisconsin- La Crosse in Exercise and Sports Science, and Spanish. Dr. Rice went on to obtain a Master of Science in Exercise Science with an emphasis in Research at Appalachian State University. Dr. Rice then pursued a Doctorate of Philosophy in Exercise Science from Edith Cowan University in Joondalup, Western Australia with some of her research taking place at Northern Arizona University. Her Postdoctoral work is currently with Drs. Stephen Messier and Jason Fanning in the HES Department at Wake Forest University. Dr. Rice’s research focuses on muscle power development for dancers through strength and conditioning techniques to enhance performance as well as muscle power development for older individuals through dance for healthy ageing.
Anthony Sali –Dr. Sali is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Wake Forest University. He received his BA from Hamilton College, and his MA and PhD from The Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Sali uses a combination of studies of human behavior, eye tracking, human functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate the behavioral consequences and neural mechanisms associated with attentional and cognitive control. One of his primary research questions asks if individuals harness previous learning to adapt the flexibility of goal-directed attention. A critical component of human cognition is the ability to flexibly shift the focus of attention, switch tasks (e.g. multitasking), and update the contents of working memory. Dr. Sali wants to learn if an individual’s readiness to shift, known as cognitive flexibility, varies according to their previous experiences, and to what degree does this flexibility extend across areas of cognitive control (e.g. visual attention, task-switching, and working memory updating).
Hossam Shaltout –Dr. Shaltout is an Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He received his PhD from East Carolina University. Dr. Shaltout’s research interest includes Adolescents Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, Alzheimer’s Disease, Blood Pressure Control Mechanisms, Baroreflex Sensitivity (BRS), Cardiovascular Pharmacology, Gastroparesis, Heart Rate Variability, HIRREM ((high-resolution, relational, resonance-based electroencephalic mirroring), Pre-Eclampsia, and Premature Delivery.
Heather Shappell – Dr. Shappell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Data Science at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. She is also a faculty member in the Laboratory for Complex Brain Networks. Dr. Shappell received her MA and PhD in Biostatistics from Boston University and completed a 3-year postdoctoral fellowship in Biostatistics at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research focuses on the development of new statistical tools for the analysis of brain networks, as well as applications of these methods to studies of obesity, aging, and alcohol use disorder.
Shay Soker – Dr. Soker is a Professor at the Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Dr. Soker has a particular interest in molecular and cellular biology and applies his skill to integrate principles of vascular biology in regenerative medicine applications, to study the biology of stem and progenitors cells that are needed for tissue damage repair and regeneration, and to understand the biochemical nature of natural materials that can be used for tissue engineering. Because of his knowledge and interest in angiogenesis Dr. Soker developed programs in neovascularization of bioengineered tissues, including angiogenic gene transfer to enhance tissue function and cell therapy using vascular cells. His stem cell research focuses on the identification and isolation of stem cells from different sources, including adult and fetal stem cells from amniotic fluid and placenta, and their directed differentiation to generate tissues in vitro and in vivo. In parallel, Dr. Soker’s group is exploring tissue-derived extracellular matrices as scaffolds for whole organ bioengineering. He had published several manuscripts describing this technology for the engineering of organs and tissues including liver, kidney, pancreas, intestine, cornea and more. Dr. Soker is among the few researchers who are implementing advanced tissue and cell imaging technologies in regenerative medicine application. Some of his projects are now being discussed with industry collaborators in order to create new regenerative medicine product. An example is a cornea scaffold that is used to deliver corneal endothelial cells to patients with inheritable eye disease or older individuals who are in danger of losing vision.
Christina Soriano – Christina Soriano is a Professor of Dance, and the Vice Provost for the Arts and Interdisciplinary Initiatives at Wake Forest University. Her research includes dance composition pedagogy, gender and performance and ways that dance can benefit differently-abled communities. Since 2012, Christina has regularly taught a community dance class in Winston-Salem, NC to people living with Parkinson’s Disease and their care-partners, and has been involved in three scientific studies that look at the ways improvisational dance can help the mobility and balance of people living with neurodegenerative disease. She has received funding from the National Parkinson Foundation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of NC, and most recently the NIH to conduct a randomized clinical trial, testing her improvisational dance method in a community of adults living with Mild Cognitive Impairment and their care-partners. She is also very involved in an annual, interdisciplinary symposium: Wake Forest’s Aging Re-Imagined, which brings together the work of artists and scientists around the topic of Healthy Aging.
Atalie Thompson – Dr. Thompson is an Assistant Professor in Ophthalmology, Head and Neck Surgery at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. She received her medical degree with a clinical research scholarly concentration from Stanford School of Medicine, and MPH from the University of California Berkley, School of Public Health. As a board-certified and fellowship-trained glaucoma specialist with training in the medical and surgical treatment of glaucoma, cataracts, and comprehensive ophthalmology, she enjoys the longitudinal care she provides her patients. Dr. Thompson is a clinician-scientist with active research interests studying imaging and visual function in age-related diseases such as glaucoma, and Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease, and investigating the development and implementation of artificial intelligence for detection of neurodegenerative diseases of the eye and brain. In addition, she has a long-standing commitment to improving healthcare disparities, and an interest in the deployment of novel technologies through teleophthalmology to improve access to care. Dr. Thompson is currently Vice Chair of Learning Health Systems for the Department of Ophthalmology as well as a Pepper Scholar, with a co-appointment in Gerontology and Geriatrics and membership in the J. Paul Sticht Center on Aging and Rehabilitation.
Nadeem Wajih – Dr. Wajih is an Assistant Professor in Physics at Wake Forest University. His research interests are in experimental biophysics. Dr. Wajih has worked on multiple projects involving patient derived organoids development, Lung on a chip countermeasure for chlorine gas exposure, developing patient derived organoids for precision medicine-based cancer therapies, and lung organoids for understanding the mechanism of SARS-CoV2 infection and drug development.
Ashley Weaver – Dr. Weaver is an Associate Professor in Biomedical Engineering at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Her research focuses on computational injury biomechanics using medical image analysis, finite element (FE) modeling and field data analysis to study automotive, military, aerospace and aging-related injury, with a particular focus on musculoskeletal health and fracture. Dr. Weaver’s group aims to advance the injury biomechanics field by applying sophisticated imaging and modeling approaches to predict, mitigate and prevent musculoskeletal injury in both high-energy trauma (e.g. automotive, military, aerospace) and low-energy trauma (e.g. older adult falls). Dr. Weaver also direct recruiting for the graduate program and undergraduate summer research program.
Saami Yazdani – Dr. Yazdani is an Associate Professor of Engineering at Wake Forest University. He received his BS and MS from Virginia Tech and his PHD from Wake Forest University. Dr. Yazdani’s research interest is to prevent and treat cardiovascular disease. His lab employs a combination of traditional engineering approaches (solid mechanics and fluid mechanics) and biological techniques (tissue engineering and physiology) to develop models to better understand the pathology of cardiovascular disease and characterize the failure of cardiovascular devices.
Tan Zhang – Dr. Zhang is an Assistant Professor of Gerontology & Geriatric Medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He received his MD at the Quingdao Medical College (China) and PhD at Peking University. Dr. Zhang’s research interests include Aging, Exercise Intervention, Neuromuscular Junction Structure and Function, and Skeletal Muscle Denervation.