From improving water quality to advancing mental health care to pursuing new treatments for Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular disease, 22 USF faculty members are being recognized next month with Faculty Outstanding Research Achievement Awards. The recipients’ research accomplishments span a variety of fields across biology, business, communication, education, engineering, medicine, psychology and public health.

“The faculty being recognized with these awards have demonstrated extraordinary success in their research and scholarly endeavors,” said USF Research & Innovation Interim Vice President Sylvia Thomas. “We honor them for creating and deploying transformative knowledge, solutions and innovations that address important challenges locally, nationally and globally.”

The largest internal recognition of its kind at USF, the annual nominations are submitted by deans, department chairs, center and institute directors and associate deans for research. The nominations are reviewed by members of the USF Research Council. Each faculty member receives $2,000 and recognition for their accomplishments at an awards ceremony on September 12.

This year’s USF College of Public Health awardees are:

Dr. Russell Kirby, distinguished university professor and Marrell Endowed Chair
Community and Family Health

For outstanding contributions to the field of perinatal and pediatric epidemiology, particularly in birth defects surveillance, genetics and developmental disabilities, and related health policies

During 2022, Russell Kirby had 19 peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals. Kirby served as senior author on 12 papers, collaborating on 13 papers first authored by current students or former students publishing their dissertation work.  In the College of Public Health, student-first authored publications are accorded the same stature as faculty-first authored papers. Most of these publications have already been cited, and one co-authored senior author paper is a finalist for the prestigious Centers for Disease Control and Prevention internal Charles Shephard Award for best paper published by CDC staff in 2022.  Kirby also served as editor of the most recent edition of the most widely used textbook on maternal and child health in the U.S. and contributed to three of the book’s chapters. He collaborated on several research projects, including a National Science Foundation grant funded in 2022, and three ongoing National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Department of Defense collaborations.

Jennifer Marshall, associate professor, director of Planning & Evaluation for Sunshine Education and Research Center, Chiles Center senior fellow
Interdisciplinary Science and Practice

Jennifer Marshall’s most recent grant, Continuous and Data Driven Care (CADENCE), integrates and streamlines prenatal, obstetric, pediatric and addiction medicine care for patients with opioid use disorder. CADENCE, co-led with OBGYN Dr. Kimberly Fryer, is one of six projects in the U.S. funded by the HEAL Initiative NIH R61/R33 grant.

In 2022, Marshall published results from an ambitious secret shopper study on Access to Care in Florida for Pregnant Women With Opioid Use Disorder that uncovered monumental challenges in accessing medication for opioid use disorder (particularly when pregnant) and prenatal care when undergoing methadone treatment.

Also in 2022, Marshall was funded by the Kresge Foundation and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to re-design the Emerging Leaders in Public Health program, along with Co-PIs Dr. Marissa Levine (COPH) and Triparna de Vreede (Muma College of Business). Their team now serves as the new National Program Office at USF (PHEARLESS), which is a regenerative leadership training program for public health and community leaders across the country. These two grants alone have awarded Marshall $8,178,481.

You can read about the other awardees here.

Story reposted from USFRI Newsoom