Her fields of specialization include health economics and health econometrics. Her research and scholarship include 14 peer-reviewed journal articles that have appeared in leading journals of applied economics, health policy, and environmental policy: the American Journal of Economics & Sociology, the Journal of Economic Education, and the Southern Economic Journal, and two in Renewable Agriculture & Food Systems, Economics Letters.

The recipient of numerous awards and distinctions that include the Provost’s Award for Excellence at Western Illinois University and the WIU College of Business and Technology Award, both for excellence in campus internationalization, Walia is presently associate editor of the Academy of Economics and Finance Journal. Her professional affiliations include the Academy of Economics and Finance and the American Economic Association.

Walia holds a Ph.D. in economics with an econometrics specialization from Kansas State University, where her dissertation was entitled, “Three Essays in Health and Labor Economics.” Her master’s and bachelor’s degrees, both in economics, are from Punjab University in India.

Education:

Ph.D., Kansas State University

Specialization:

Health care markets and policy, early childhood development, environmental health, labor market policy.

Research Focus:

Dr. Walia’s research is focused in three areas:

• Early child health interventions and cognitive development
• Mortality and behavioral effects of chronic traumatic encephalopathy and related neurodegenerative diseases.
• Health industry economics; industrial organization of health care industry and subsequent health outcomes.

Dr. Walia conducts empirically-based research in each of these areas and looks forward to collaborating with students. She utilizes NLS data sets and related data in her research and analyzes data using health econometric models. She has published journal articles with students in the past and looks forward to collaborating with students in her active and future research program(s).

Statistical Expertise:

Applied statistical programming and methodology, health statistics, biostatistics, health information systems, labor statistics, analysis of National Longitudinal Surveys and other social and behavioral statistical analyses (broadly defined)

His content expertise lies broadly in global health, with specific expertise in mosquito borne illnesses (such as malaria), child survival, and sanitation. Professor Larsen is currently working with the New York State Department of Health to scale wastewater surveillance statewide for COVID-19 and other public health threats.

Larsen received his Ph.D and MPH from Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical medicine.

Professor Gump’s specialties include psychosocial factors and their overall effect on health, and more recently, the effects of socioeconomic disadvantage, race, and environmental toxicants (e.g.,lead and mercury) on children and adolescents’ health. His teaching areas include introduction to epidemiology, introduction to psychology, health psychology, research methods/experimental psychology, health promotion, introductory and advanced statistics, behavioral medicine and psychophysiology.

Recognized internationally for his research on cardiovascular disease risk in children, Gump was awarded an R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences earlier this year for the project, “Environmental Toxicants, Race and Cardiovascular Disease Risk in Children.” The study investigates the relationship between race, socioeconomic status, blood lead levels, cardiovascular responses to acute stress and cardiovascular disease risk.

In addition to his ongoing NIH-supported research with children, Gump is currently principal investigator for a grant from the National Science Foundation Research Education for Undergraduate (REU) program, entitled, “Training Veterans to Conduct Trauma Research with Fellow Veterans.”

He serves on the editorial board of two prominent journals in his field,��Psychosomatic Medicine, and Health Psychology, and serves as an ad hoc reviewer for numerous other journals, including the American Journal of Epidemiology,��Pediatrics,��Stroke, and American Journal of Psychiatry. He is currently serving a four-year term as a member of the National Institute of Child Health and Development’s (NICHD’s) Health, Behavior, and Context Subcommittee.

Monnat’s research interests broadly fall at the intersection of place, public policy, and health. A common theme binding much of her research is a concern for rural people and places. Her most recent research has focused on fatal drug overdose and other diseases and deaths of despair, particularly trying to understand why rates of substance abuse and mortality are higher in some places than others.

She has published over 70 peer-reviewed academic journal articles, book chapters, research briefs, and reports, and has presented her research to numerous public, academic, and policy audiences, including the United Nations, the National Academy of Sciences, the Aspen Institute, and at Congressional briefings. Her research has been featured in several media outlets, including CNN, NPR, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the Atlantic.

Brown is the Principal Investigator of Early Identification of Cognitive Impairment among Vulnerable Adults Living at Home, a community collaboration with SUNY Upstate Medical University’s Department of Geriatrics and Southwest Community Connections, which is funded by the Health Foundation of Western and Central New York. She is co-Investigator of the Genesis Health Project’s African American Dementia Caregiver Support Program (Principal Investigator: Luvenia W. Cowart), funded by a 2016-2021 grant from the New York State Department of Health. She has published her research in Supportive Care in Cancer, Women & Health, the Health Education Journal, Gerontology, Research on Aging, Children & Youth Services Review, the Journal of Family Issues, the Journal of Gerontological Social Work, The Gerontologist, and the Journal of Sexuality Research and Social Policy. Dr. Brown is the author of a chapter on LGBT Lives and Military Service, in Life Course Perspectives on Military Service, and co-author of chapters on Chronic Illnesses and Conditions in Gender and Sexual Minorities (with Jane. A McElroy) in LGBT Health: Meeting the Health Needs of Gender and Sexual Minorities, Addressing Behavioral Cancer Risks from a LGBT Health Equity Perspective (with Karen Fredriksen-Goldsen and Charles P. Hoy-Ellis) in Cancer and the LGBT Community: Unique Perspectives from Risk to Survivorship, and Gerontological Social Work (with Deborah J. Monahan), in Gerontology: Perspectives and Issues.

A social gerontologist who uses the life course perspective to research the later-life experiences of socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals, women, and racial, ethnic, and sexual minorities, Dr. Brown is also interested in dementia caregiving, the long-term care experiences of cognitively disabled older adults and their caregivers, and the treatment and survivorship experiences of breast cancer patients.

To date, Dr. Hruska’s work has followed two main lines of interest: (1) traumatic event exposure and the identification of psychosocial and biological risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and its co-occurring physical and mental health challenges; and (2) recovery experiences (e.g., vacationing) and their impact on the relationship between occupational stress and cardiovascular health.

Research conducted by Profs Bryce Hruska and Brooks Gump, Falk Family Endowed Professor of Public Health, was featured in several media outlets, including the New York Post story “”

In addition to a series of graduate research assistantships at Johns Hopkins, she was a student investigator at the Centre for Child and Adolescent Health, Dhaka, Bangladesh and the National Institute for Diagnosis and Vaccine Development in Infectious Diseases, School of Public Health, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China where she Implemented a study examining the persistence of antibodies after hepatitis E virus infection.

Her professional portfolio includes participation on numerous research grants, including an award from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation where she was a student investigator on the project, “Determinants of Immunological Persistence of Hepatitis E Virus Antibodies.” The purpose of the study was to determine antibody persistence after Hepatitis e virus and vaccination in South Asia.

Dr. Voss has published several papers that clarify how changes in photoperiod may accelerate embryonic metabolism and interact with clock gene control of ovulation. She has recently submitted a proposal to the National Science Foundation (NSF) to further examine how photoperiod, genetics, and diet interact to influence metabolic health. The project makes use of a free living avian system to model “shift work” under artificially extended photoperiods and to track associated changes in the circadian regulation of glucose and lipid homeostasis and steroid biosynthesis.

Dr. Voss is an associate editor for the Journal of Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems. She has served as book review editor and as an officer in her professional society, and is an elective member of the American Ornithological Union. Dr. Voss is an ad-hoc reviewer for several journals, including Behavioral Ecology, Proceedings of The Royal Society, Journal of Applied Ecology, Behavior, The Journal Ethology, The Journal of Thermal Ecology, Ibis, Functional Ecology, and Behavioral Ecology & Sociobiology.

Dr. Voss’ teaching expertise is in physiology-related courses for pre-health professions students, including classes in exercise physiology, nutritional biochemistry, micronutrient and macronutrient metabolism, and medical terminology.