Scientists at TORC

Director, Interim

do

Daniel P. O’Connor, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Health & Human Performance
(713) 743-2377
(713) 743-9860 fax
dpoconno@Central.UH.EDU
Office: 145 MEL
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Bio-statistical models
  • The effectiveness of clinical interventions
  • Evaluate subject-level changes in health measures
  • Contextual effects

Executive Committee

dh

Daphne Hernandez, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor 
Health & Human Performance
(713) 743-9058
(713) 743-9860 fax
dherna32@Central.UH.EDU
Office: 135 MEL
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Influence of family-related factors in food insecurity and program participation
  • Child and adult health outcomes based on family-related factors
  • Evaluate individual-level contextual factors to predict gender differences in obesity
tl

Tracey Ledoux Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Health & Human Performance
(713) 743-1870
(713) 743-9860 fax
taledoux@uh.edu
Office: 137 MEL
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Bio-statistical models
  • The effectiveness of clinical interventions
  • Evaluate subject-level changes in health measures
  • contextual effects
rs

Richard Simpson, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Health & Human Performance
(713) 743-9270
(713) 743-9860 fax 
rjsimpson@uh.edu
Office: 141 MEL
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Effects of exercise on immune function
  • Effects of age on immune function
  • Effects of disease on immune function

Faculty

la

Lisa Alastuey, Ph.D. 

Clinical Associate Professor
Health & Human Performance
(713) 743-0456
(713) 743-9860 fax 
lalastuey@uh.edu
Office: 139 MEL
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Obesity
  • Women's Health
  • Physical activity interventions
sb

Sharon Bode,  Ph.D.

Clinical Associate Professor
Health & Human Performance
(713) 743-4112
(713) 743-9860 fax 
sbode@uh.edu
Office: 233 CAM
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Nutritional Sciences
  • Dietetics Education
jc

Jodi Berger Cardoso, Ph.D., LCSW

Assistant Professor of Social Work
Graduate College of Social Work
jabergercardoso@uh.edu
Office: 419 Social Work Building
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Immigration, health and well-being of Latino immigrant families
  • International and circular migration
  • Deportation enforcement and family separation
mc

Mark Clarke, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Health & Human Performance
(713) 743-9854
(713) 743-9860 fax 
mclarke@uh.edu
Office: 133 MEL
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Muscle physiology
  • Muscle adaptation to mechanical loading
  • Cellular basis of muscle function in health and disease
ad

Allison Dempsey, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Educational Psychology
(713) 743-8636
(713) 743-9860 fax 
adempsey@mail.coe.uh.edu
Office: 472 FH
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Pediatric psychology
  • Peer Victimization
  • Influences of Social Experience on Adjustment and Health Behaviors
df

Donald A. Fox Ph.D.

Professor
College of Optometry Department
(713) 743-1964
dafox@uh.edu
Office: 2156 JDA
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Retinal development, aging and degeneration
  • Developmental origins of adult disease
  • Drug- and toxicant-induced obesity and metabolic syndrome
  • Nutrition, pharmacology and toxicology
rg

Romi Ghose, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutics
Department of Pharmacological and Pharmaceutical Sciences
(832) 842-8343
(832) 842-8305 fax 
rghose@uh.edu
Office: 1441 Moursund Street, Rm 517
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Drug metabolizing enzymes
  • Drug metabolism and toxicity
  • Cell-signaling and innate immunity
  • Nuclear receptors
sg

Stacey Gorniak, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Health & Human Performance
(713) 743-4802
(713) 743-9860 fax 
sgorniak@uh.edu
Office: 104U Garrison
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Understanding healthy and pathological neuromuscular control
  • Sensorimotor challenges in hand function
  • Effect of neural changes due to aging, traumatic brain injury, and neuropathy on functional hand use
ml

Mitzi Laughlin, Ph.D.

Research Assistant Professor
Health & Human Performance
(713) 743-0405
(713) 743-9860 fax 
mslaughlin@uh.edu
Office: 105R GAR
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Risk factors and rates of orthopedic injuries
  • Rate of muscle atrophy during 6-month NASA missions
cl

Charles S. Layne, Ph.D.

Professor, Department Chair
Health & Human Performance
(713) 743-9868
(713) 743-9860 fax 
clayne2@uh.edu 
Office: 129 MEL
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Human coordination
  • Neuromuscular perspective
jl

J. Leigh Leasure, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Behavioral Neuroscience Lab
(713) 743-8616
jlleasure@uh.edu 
Office: Heyne Building 231 D
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Exercise driven neuroplasticity
  • Binge alcohol damage
  • Gliovascular complex
ql

Qian Lu, M.D., Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Director of Culture and Health Research Center
(713) 743-5555
qlu3@uh.edu
Office: Heyne Building 101B
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Bio psychosocial model of pain and chronic illness
  • Psychological intervention for ethnic minorities
  • Cancer survivorship among Chinese
tl

Thomas Lowder, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Health & Human Performance
(713) 743-4187
(713) 743-9860 fax 
twlowder@uh.edu
Office: 104 W GAR
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Exercise/stress affects on the immune system in young and aged subjects
  • Role of regulatory T cells and influence of exercise on the functional ability of these cells
mm

Melissa Markofski, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Health & Human Performance
(713) 743-6658
(713) 743-9860 fax 
mmarkofs@central.uh.edu
Office: 104U GAR
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Acute and Chronic effects of exercise on muscle function
  • Impact of monocytes and inflammation on muscle and adipose tissue
wl

William Paloski, Ph.D.

Professor
Health & Human Performance
(713) 743-9272
(713) 743-9860 fax 
whpaloski@uh.edu
Office: 104 R GAR
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Understanding normal and abnormal sensory-motor control of balance and locomotion
  • Manifestations of altered sensory-motor control
  • Understanding multi-system physiological adaptations to acute and/or chronic changes in gravito-inertial loading
mp

Monical Perales, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Department of History
(713) 743-3103
mperales3@uh.edu
Office: 564 Agnes Arnold Hall
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Chicana/o labor and social history
  • Immigration
  • American West, Borderlands, and oral history
lr

Lorraine Reitzel, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Department of Educational Psychology
(713) 743-6679
lrreitzel@uh.edu
Office: 318 D Farish Hall
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Social determinants of health and health risk behaviors among minority groups
  • Health disparities related to tobacco use, alone or comorbid with other substance dependence and health risk behaviors.
lz

Ling Zhu, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Political Science
(713) 743-3890
izhu@uh.edu
Office: PGH436
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Public management
  • Social equity in healthcare access
  • Implementation of public health policies at the state and local level

Affiliates

ab

Alok Bhargava, Ph.D.

Professor
University of Maryland School of Public Policy
(301) 405-4764
(713) 403-4675 fax 
Bhargava@umd.edu
Office: 141 MEL
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Econometric and statistical methods
  • Nutrition, food policy, population health, child development, demography, epidemiology, AIDS, and finance in developing and developed countries
Coleen Carlson

Coleen D. Carlson, Ph.D.

Research Assistant Professor
Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics
(832) 842-7037
coleen.carlson@times.uh.edu
Office: 100 TIMES
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Research design and Statistics
  • Early identification of reading disabilities
  • Modeling individual growth and structural equation modeling
  • Home and community influences on literacy and language development
  • Early English and Spanish literacy and language development and second language acquisition
rh

Rosemary B. Hughes, Ph.D.

Research Professor
Department of Psychology, The University of Montana
rosemary.hughes@mso.umt.edu
(406) 243-2898
Office: 52 Corbin Hall
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Disability, health and mental health
dk

Dennis Kao, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
California State University Fullerton, Department of Social Work
(657)-278-2403
dtkao@fullerton.edu
Office: 141 MEL
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Health and health care disparities
  • Immigration
  • Health and social policy
  • Geographic information systems, mapping, and special analysis
rl

Rebecca Lee, Ph.D.

Professor
College of Nursing and Health Innovation
(602) 496-0910
(602) 496-0886 fax 
releephd@uahoo.com
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Ecologic Model of Physical Activity that incorporates environmental and policy determinants of physical activity, dietary habits and obesity in communities of color and underserved populations.
mn

Margaret A. Nosek, Ph.D.

Executive Director, Center for Research on Women with Disabilities
(713) 523-0909
mnosek@bcm.edu
Office: BCM Suite 165
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Aging with Disabilities
  • Health Promotion for Women with Disabilities
  • Psychological health
rs

Richard Simpson, Ph.D.

Professor
Ohio State University, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Case Western University School of Medicine
(216) 256-3726
(216) 368-5586 fax 
thomas.nosek@case.edu
Office: E517 School of Medicine
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Cellular basis of muscle fatigue
to

Teresia M. O'Connor, MD, MPH

Assistant Professor
Baylor College of Medicine, Children's Nutrition Research Center
(832) 822-3436
teresiao@bcm.edu
Office: 2034 CNRC
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Identifying strategies to best prevent and treat childhood obesity
  • Understanding how parents influence their children's obesity-related behaviors through the framework of parenting styles and parenting practices.
dt

Deborah Thompson, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Baylor College of Medicine, Children's Nutrition Research Center
(713) 798-7076
dit@bcm.edu
Office: CNRC
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Design, development, and evaluation of digital media
  • Health message design
  • Theory and measurement of youth diet and physical activity behavior
sw

Susan Robinson-Whelen, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Baylor College of Medicine
(281) 679-6171
susanrw@bcm.edu
Office: 141 MEL
Home Page

Area of Interest:

  • Health Promotion for women with disabilities
Contact Us

Texas Obesity Research Center
University of Houston
3855 Holman Street, Rm 105H
Houston, TX 77204-6015
Phone (713) 743-1183
Fax (713) 743-9860
email torc@uh.edu

Subscribe to the monthly TORC Digest by e-mail.