By Erin Jester
From spinal cord injury to substance abuse, collaborative teaching methods to cancer, dyslexia to diabetes and much more, students and faculty in the University of Florida’s College of Public Health and Health Professions gathered to share research and ideas during PHHP Days 2025 held April 14 and 15.
The event featured 127 oral presentations by graduate students and 127 poster presentations from undergraduate and Master of Public Health capstone students covering more than 20 major topic areas.
This year, the college introduced pillar talks — short presentations by faculty from each of PHHP’s eight departments highlighting the college’s four missions: teaching, service, research and clinical work.
“This is a celebration of who we are as a college,” said David Fuller, Ph.D., the associate dean for research and a professor in the Department of Physical Therapy.
Mark Bishop, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Physical Therapy and director of the Doctor of Physical Therapy program, kicked off the first day’s pillar talks with a short history of the Physical Therapy Equal Access Clinic, which was spearheaded in large part by students.
“One of the things I learned in this experience is that the students in our college are imaginative and capable, and as soon as I stepped out of the way, magic happened,” he said of the students’ dedication to getting the pro-bono clinic up and running more than 20 years ago.
Other faculty speakers touched on the importance of cross-department collaboration, innovative training techniques and persevering with research questions to solve complex problems.
“People are complex, systems are complex, and so outcomes become quite variable,” said Charles Ellis Jr., Ph.D., professor and chair in the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, remarking on the evolving nature of both disease and culture. “Scientists are always going to have questions, and they’re always going to seek to answer those questions regardless of what is going on around them.”
Faculty pillar talks were as follows:
- Mark Bishop, Ph.D. (Physical Therapy) – PT Equal Access Clinic: An Origin Story
- Catalina Lopez-Quintero, M.D., Ph.D. (Epidemiology) – Informing Drug Use Prevention Through Population Neuroscience: The Brain in Context
- Charles Ellis Jr., Ph.D. (Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences) – Variable Pathways to Health-Related and Rehab Outcomes
- Steven Foti, Ph.D. (Biostatistics) – The Bridge Between Data and Decisions
- Sarah McKune, Ph.D. (Environmental and Global Health) – Why Global Health Research Matters: Science and Social Justice
- Ashby Walker, Ph.D. (Health Services Research, Management and Policy) – Community Impact of Public Health Research in Diabetes: Using Project ECHO to Improve Health Outcomes
- Anna Galloway, O.T.D. (Occupational Therapy) – The Ripple Effect of Clinical Experiences on the Classroom
- Michael Marsiske, Ph.D. (Clinical and Health Psychology) – How My Research and Teaching Enriched Each Other: The PHHP Teaching Collaborative
Students filled the atrium of the Health Professions, Nursing and Pharmacy Complex on Monday and Tuesday mornings, eager for faculty, staff and other students to ask questions and give feedback on their research poster presentations.
Isabella Colosimo, a bachelor’s student in communication sciences and disorders and member of UF’s University Scholars Program, conducted research under Ellis’ mentorship.
Colosimo said Ellis gave her the freedom to explore her interests, and she landed on a topic that had personal meaning. A family friend was injured in a jet ski accident and paralyzed from the neck down. Unfortunately, his health insurance did not cover continued speech and swallowing therapy. Colosimo’s project examined swallowing impairments in people with spinal cord injury.
“I think one of the biggest lessons I learned in this process is don’t be afraid to ask the question,” Colosimo said. “Just because you’re wondering about something doesn’t mean everybody else is.”
Dominic Lucas, a fourth-year health science undergraduate, worked with mentor Serendipity Zapanta Rinonos, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor of neurological surgery in the College of Medicine, to study a potential therapeutic strategy for glioblastoma, the most common type of malignant brain tumor in adults.
“This experience has opened a lot of doors for me personally to do research I was interested in and has given me the experience to know what path I want to take in my future career,” said Lucas, who plans to apply to medical school. “I think that research is going to help me be a better clinician by helping me pay more attention to every single detail and every aspect of every case that I’m going to encounter.”
Students whose research presentations received the highest marks from a panel of PHHP judges were presented with awards during the event’s closing reception Tuesday evening.
Graduate awardees
- Ian Murphy, Ph.D. in Biostatistics
- Armaan Shetty, Ph.D. in Clinical and Health Psychology
- Angela Scotti, Master’s in Communication Sciences and Disorders
- Xue Wu, Ph.D. in Environmental Health
- Megan Still, Ph.D. in Epidemiology
- Rachel Liu-Galvin, Ph.D. in Health Services Research
- Samantha Andritsch, Master’s in One Health
- Alyssa Terry, Ph.D. in Rehabilitation Science
- Shahzadhi Nyakhar, Ph.D. in Social and Behavioral Sciences
M.P.H. capstone presentation awardees
- Hilary Garcia
- Christoper Georgas
- Valentina Gomez
Undergraduate awardees
- Olivia March, Bachelor’s in Communication Sciences and Disorders
- Marina Waisenberg, Bachelor’s in Health Science
- Coleen Peggs, Bachelor’s in Public Health