PHHP names 2017 Outstanding Alumni

The College of Public Health and Health Professions is pleased to announce the PHHP Outstanding Alumni for 2017. They will be honored at a ceremony during the college’s alumni reunion on September 30.

Ryan Balmes, D.P.T., PT, doctorate in physical therapy ’11, is a sports physiotherapist practicing in Atlanta. He recently opened his own private practice, ENDVR Health, which specializes in helping athletes recover from injury and pursue their health and performance goals. He is a board certified clinical specialist in orthopaedics and sports physical therapy with the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapists. He is an active member of the American Physical Therapy Association, serving on the Media Corps and Diversity and Inclusion Work Groups, and as President of the Georgia chapter.

Sherrilene Classen, Ph.D., M.P.H., OTR/L, FAOTA, FGSA, master’s in public health, epidemiology concentration ’04, is a professor and chair of the UF department of occupational therapy and an extraordinary professor at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. She is a prevention-oriented rehabilitation scientist who studies fitness-to-drive issues in at-risk drivers through the lifespan via clinical tests, driving simulators, on-road assessments, in-vehicle technologies and automated vehicles. She has received approximately $6 million in funding from agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Defense, the Department of Transportation and foundations, as well as agencies in Canada and abroad.

Linda K. Eargle, D.P.T., PT, MInEd, bachelor’s degree in physical therapy ’66, practiced in a variety of clinical settings prior to teaching at Greenville Technical College and the Medical University of South Carolina before retiring from Western Carolina University. She currently is an adjunct faculty member at the University of South Florida and an on-site visitor for the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education. Her contributions include professional leadership service both nationally and in the South Carolina and Florida chapters of APTA. In June, she completed an elected term on the APTA Nominating Committee and an appointed term on the Leadership Development Committee.

Donald M. Goldberg, Ph.D., CCC-SLP/A, FAAA, doctorate in speech-language pathology ’85, is a professor in the department of communication at the College of Wooster in Ohio and a consultant and professional staff for the Hearing Implant Program at the Cleveland Clinic’s Head and Neck Institute. He has also served as the co-director of one of the largest cochlear implant centers in the United States, and is the former executive director of the Helen Beebe Speech and Hearing Center. The co-author of “Educational Audiology for the Limited-Hearing Infant and Preschooler: An Auditory-Verbal Program,” he has written numerous book chapters and published a range of research-based and clinical publications.

Carlton Inniss, M.H.A., M.S., master’s in health administration ’02, is the senior director of clinical operations for Austin Regional Clinic, or ARC. His principal role is to plan and direct the business, technical, nursing, clinical and provider activities of eight multi-specialty clinics within ARC’s north region. He oversees nearly 300 employees and works with 80 physicians at 12 locations across three counties in the greater Austin, Texas, area. His prior professional experiences include administrator of hospitalists services for Austin Regional Clinic; business process engineer, financial & special projects coordinator and ambulatory manager for Texas Children’s Hospital; operations analyst for Lakeland Regional Medical Center; and practice administrator and executive fellow for Economic Opportunity Family Health Center, Inc.

Sonam Ongmu Lasopa, Ph.D., doctorate in epidemiology ’15, is a consultant clinical psychologist at the Sir Thutob Namgyal Memorial Hospital, Department of Health Care, Family Welfare and Human Service, Government of Sikkim, India. She joined the hospital as the first trained clinical psychologist in Sikkim in 2004. After receiving her UF doctoral degree as a NIH Fogarty Predoctoral Fellow, she returned to Sikkim, which has been battling one of the highest suicide rates in the country. She has been working on reducing the risk of suicide through training of mental health professionals across the state to improve mental health services delivery, early recognition of those at risk for suicide and improvement of mental health treatment facilities.

Avani Modi, Ph.D., doctorate in clinical psychology ’04, is an associate professor in behavioral medicine and clinical psychology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. She is the director of the Center for Treatment Adherence and Self-Management, as well as the co-director of the New-Onset Seizure Clinic at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Her research focuses on adherence to pediatric medical regimens. She has several National Institutes of Health grants, including a past Career Developmental Award, a clinical trial on adherence in young children with epilepsy and their families, and an intervention focused on improving executive functioning and adherence in adolescents with epilepsy.

Diane Parham, Ph.D., OTR/L, FAOTA, bachelor’s in occupational therapy ’74, is a professor in the occupational therapy graduate program at the University of New Mexico, where she has received two health professions teaching awards. She was on the faculty of the occupational therapy and occupational science programs at the University of Southern California for 22 years prior to moving to New Mexico. She is known for her research and scholarship in the fields of sensory integration, play and occupational science. Among her publications are a textbook, “Play in Occupational Therapy for Children,” and the “Sensory Processing Measures,” a series of several nationally normed diagnostic questionnaires for clinical evaluation of preschool and school-aged children.

Roger Shaul, M.B.A., master’s in business administration (hospital administration) ’74, is the founder and chief executive officer of Preferred Medical Marketing Corporation, a provider of financial software solutions and consulting services for hospitals, physicians and integrated delivery systems that has been in business for 30 years. PMMC serves over 450 hospitals and academic medical practices in 38 states with software and consulting services associated with hospital pricing, managed care and value-based purchasing. PMMC has been listed among the top revenue cycle firms five years in a row by Modern Healthcare Magazine, ranking number 5 in 2016, and has been included in the Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies listing in each of the last six years.

Lindsey Telg, M.O.T., master’s in occupational therapy ’12, is a therapist at UF Health Shands Rehab Hospital. In 2013 she created the Equal Access Occupational Therapy Clinic, the first student-run free occupational therapy clinic in the state of Florida. For her efforts in establishing the clinic, she received the Florida Occupational Therapy Association’s Award of Appreciation in 2013. In 2014, she was selected to participate in the American Occupational Therapy Association’s Emerging Leaders program. She also had the opportunity to present on the clinic’s work at the 2014 Florida Occupational Therapy Association’s annual conference. She co-authored an article for the journal OT Practice in 2015 titled “Student Run Free Clinics: Integrating Service-Learning and Care for the Underserved.”

Michelle S. Troche, Ph.D., doctorate in speech-language pathology ’09, is an assistant professor in the communication sciences and disorders program of the department of biobehavioral sciences at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is also the director of the Laboratory for the Study of Upper Airway Dysfunction. Her research is aimed at improving health outcomes and quality of life for people with disorders of airway protection, such as swallowing and cough. Research participants include healthy volunteers and people with Parkinson’s disease, progressive supranuclear palsy, motor neuron disease and other neurogenic disorders. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and CurePSP Foundation.

Michael von Fricken, Ph.D., M.P.H., doctorate in environmental and global health ’14, is an assistant professor in the department of global and community health at George Mason University’s College of Health and Human Services where he teaches graduate classes on infectious diseases and epidemiology, while conducting vector-borne disease research in both Haiti and Mongolia. He is also a research associate with the Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoological Park, assisting with ongoing projects in Kenya and Myanmar.

Laura Zahodne, Ph.D., doctorate in clinical psychology ’12, is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Michigan where she directs an active research lab dedicated to demonstrating how psychosocial and cultural variation influence risk and expression of Alzheimer’s disease. In addition to building a cohort of older adult participants in Detroit, she continues to collaborate on existing epidemiologic studies in the U.S. and abroad. She recently obtained a grant to investigate psychosocial mechanisms underlying racial/ethnic disparities in Alzheimer’s disease in New York City.

Jingnan Zhang, Ph.D., doctorate in biostatistics ’16, is a biostatistician at Pfizer. She resolves statistical challenges in supporting large molecule drug development, ensuring the quality of biotechnology medicinal products, which leads to high quality medications for patients. She provides expertise on how to use statistics for a variety of activities required during biotechnology product development, such as equivalence tests for biosimilar products, stability analysis for laboratory test shelf life and critical process parameters for product development.