Meet our team!

The BRIDGE CRC team is made up of researchers, staff and students !

Investigators:

Dr. Marian Fitzgibbon and Dr. Lisa Tussing-Humphreys from UIC are the Primary Investigators of this study. Dr. Marian Fitzgibbon is a professor in the Department of Pediatrics in the UIC College of Medicine and the Division of Health Policy and Administration in the UIC School of Public Health. Her research focuses primarily on health risk reduction in minority and underserved populations. She has conducted obesity prevention trials with preschool children and their parents as well as obesity treatment interventions with women. Dr. Lisa Tussing-Humphreys is an Associate Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition at UIC College of Applied Health Sciences. Her research applies epidemiological, clinical, social, behavioral, and molecular tools and assessments to understand complex diet-disease relationships.

 

They are conducting the study in collaboration with:

Dr. Lauren Williams, Clinical Physician and Site Medical Director at Miles Square Health Center

Dr. H. Rex Gaskins, Professor in the Department of Pathobiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Dr. Jason Ridlon, Assistant Professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Dr. Michael Berbaum, Senior Biostatistician and Director of the Methodology Research Core at UIC's Institute for Health Research and Policy.

Dr. Beatrice Penalver Bernabe, Assistant Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at UIC's College of Medicine.

Dr. Robert Chapkin, Distinguished Professor and University Faculty Fellow at Texas A&M University.

Dr. Ivan Ivanov, Clinical Associate Professor of Bioinformatics at Texas A & M University.

 

Project Coordinator

Lara Blumstein

Research Coordinator

Alyshia Hamm

Data Manager

Mirjana Antonic

Interventionists

Kate Cares

Christina Watts

Antonia Mercer

Team Members

Mandy Alstead

Andrew McLeod

Manoela Olivera

Briana Keller

and many more who help make this project possible!