Public Health Network
The Center for Public Health Practice and Research collaborates with and serves a diverse interdisciplinary group of faculty and staff at Virginia Tech who comprise the Public Health Network of Virginia Tech. Participation in the Public Health Network is open and the extent and scope to which faculty and staff participate depend upon their interest in public health. Members of the Public Health Network represent all colleges of Virginia Tech and include faculty and staff with administrative, instructional, and research responsibilities.
The Public Health Network of Virginia Tech was formed to promote interdisciplinary collaboration. Faculty and staff in the Network meet as needed throughout the semester to discuss public health topics, needed expertise, and opportunities to collaborate to approach issues in a comprehensive way. They also communicate by listserv - please contact us if you are not listed and would like to be.
Current Public Health Network members include (not all-inclusive):
| Name | Department | Interest |
Kevin D Pelzer DVM, MPVM |
LACS | Zoonotic diseases, foodborne disease related to animal products |
| Human Nutrition, Foods, & Exercise | Public health nutrition, community-based obesity prevention programs | |
| Psychology | Health behavior interventions, comparative effectiveness especially lifestyle changes versus drugs, healthy aging, resistance training, interval training and health, nutrition, physical activity | |
| Sociology and the Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention | Violence prevention | |
| Statistics and LISA (Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Statistical Analysis) | Designing public health studies, statistical analysis of public health data, how regional statistical collaboration laboratories can engage in research to improve public health | |
| Biological Systems Engineering (BSE) | Environmental health, domestic water and sanitation | |
| Industrial and Systems Engineering | Healthcare payment innovations, accountable care organizations, medical technologies, hospital management | |
| Geography | Medical geography, spatial patterns of disease emergence, climate and health, health impacts of environmental variability | |
| English | Vaccination, breastfeeding, medicalization, biopolitics | |
| Geography and the Virginia Water Resources Research Center | Water, sanitation & hygiene; household water treatment; hazard vulnerability | |
| Biological Sciences | Implementation of strategies to reduce breast cancer, public policies | |
| Center for Gerontology | Aging and chronic disease, family caregiving, elder abuse, IPV experienced in late life | |
| Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics | Development of medical devices for low resource settings | |
| Human Nutrition, Foods and Exercise | Community program development, implementation, and impact evaluation for chronic disease prevention and control; diet, physical activity, and sleep quality and quality of life of cancer survivors; models of community engagement in research | |
| Hokie Wellness | Interested in all wellness and health education/promotion strategies and programs that work for university settings | |
| Women's and Gender Studies/Sociology | Women's health, medical anthropology, feminist science studies, sexual medicine |