College Leadership

Beth A. Virnig, Ph.D., M.P.H., is the dean and Robert G. Frank Endowed Professor at the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions. She joined the university in July 2022 as the sixth dean of the college in its 64-year history.

She served as a professor in the division of health policy and management at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health and as director and lead of the school’s Strategic Global Public Health Programming, where she guided efforts with partner universities in Thailand, India, Mexico and Ghana. Prior to that, she served as the school’s senior associate dean for academic affairs and research.

Dr. Virnig’s research examines how patient factors and system factors combine to influence care and outcomes. Her research focuses on cancer care, women’s health, end-of-life care, and the measurement of racial and ethnic disparities in care and health outcomes among Medicare beneficiaries. Her work has been funded by the National Cancer Institute, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. She serves on the American Cancer Society’s Council for Extramural Research. She is the author or co-author of more than 200 peer-reviewed articles, including an article on breast cancer surgery that was named one of the 10 best papers of the decade (1999-2009) by the American Society of Breast Surgeons.

She directed the Research Data Assistance Center, or ResDAC, a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services-funded program providing free assistance to academic, government and nonprofit researchers interested in using Medicare and Medicaid data in their work.

She earned both her Ph.D. and M.P.H. in epidemiology from the University of Minnesota. Prior to joining the University of Minnesota, Dr. Virnig held positions at the University of Miami and Dartmouth Medical School’s Center for Evaluative Clinical Sciences.

Zachary (Zac) Bielling, MHA, is the Executive Director (Associate Dean) for Administrative Operations for the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions . Mr. Bielling completed his Bachelor of Health Science (BHS) and Master of Health Administration (MHA) at the University of Florida and has professional leadership experience in public-higher education and private-hospital administration.

While completing his graduate training, Mr. Bielling, completed an Administrative Internship at Peace River Regional Medical Center (now Bayfront Health Port Charlotte) with Health Management Associates, Inc (now Community Health Systems). After this, he began working as the Assistant Administrator at Peace River Regional Medical Center. Following this appointment, Health Management Associates transferred and promoted Mr. Bielling to complete the acquisition, transitional leadership and management of Shands Lake Shore Regional Medical Center as the Associate Administrator (Chief Operating Officer). In both positions, Mr. Bielling was responsible for the operational and financial performance of multiple clinical and non-clinical ancillary departments, in addition to contract administration.

Following his tenure in acute-care hospital administration, Mr. Bielling began his career in public-higher education with the University of Florida in the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering as an Associate Director of Administrative Services. Over his nearly nine-years of service to Engineering, he served four academic departments: Computer and Information Science and Engineering, Industrial and Systems Engineering, Chemical Engineering and the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering. His service to each department required strong business acumen and leadership to oversee the daily and long-range administrative operations (assets, compliance, cost analysis, financial, human resources, and sponsored awards), in addition to, a variety other operational processes and projects.

In his role as Executive Director, Mr. Bielling, serves as the Chief Administrative and Financial Officer for the college reporting directly to the Dean.

George Hack, PhD, MEd, is the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions’ Associate Dean for Educational Affairs and a Clinical Associate Professor in the department of Occupational Therapy. Dr. Hack received his PhD in Educational Technology from the University of Florida and has designed online and face-to-face instruction in a variety of environments, including secondary, undergraduate, graduate, professional, adult vocational training, and military schools.

At the University of Florida, Dr. Hack has served in various roles, working in the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences as a coordinator of extension nutrition education programs, teaching graduate and undergraduate technology courses in the College of Education, and as assistant director for instruction and information systems in the Health Science Center Libraries. He has also collaborated on the Compendium for Children’s Health with a team of international physicians, setting up an online environment for pediatricians to receive instruction in Community Pediatrics.

Dr. Hack’s research interests include human-computer interactions in learning as well as pedagogy influenced by situated and grounded learning theories. In addition, he has served ten years in the military, with four years of active duty in the Marine Corps.

Stephanie Hanson, Ph.D., ABPP (Rp) is the executive associate dean in the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions. In her current position, Dr. Hanson oversees significant components of PHHP academic program development and review and is also integrally involved in implementation of the college’s strategic plans. She led the design and development of both the master of public health program and the PhD program in rehabilitation science; she also transformed the bachelor of health science program to a broad-based pre-professional degree and served as the initial director of the MPH and the BHS. Dr. Hanson also led the college’s initial 5-year strategic initiative around blended learning. This involved spearheading the implementation of the college’s vision for a pedagogical educational model in which the use of technology and a blending of on line and interactive live class sessions facilitate student learning. A member of the college since 1996, Dr. Hanson received her Ph.D.’s in developmental psychology and clinical psychology from Vanderbilt University. She was one of the first women board certified in rehabilitation psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology. She subsequently served on the Board of Directors for the American Board of Rehabilitation Psychology as well as on the Executive and Ethics and Social Responsibility Committees of the Division of Rehabilitation Psychology of the American Psychological Association (APA). She is an APA fellow and a rehabilitation psychology (APA Division 22) lifetime achievement award recipient based on her significant contributions to the field of rehabilitation psychology, particularly in the area of ethics. She most recently co-chaired the revision of APA’s Guidelines for Assessment and Intervention with Persons with Disabilities.

Dr. Woods is Associate Dean for Research in the College of Public Health and Health Professions at the University of Florida. He is also Associate Director of the Center for Cognitive Aging and Memory (CAM) in the McKnight Brain Institute and an Associate Professor in the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology. Dr. Woods completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania after completing his PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience at George Washington University. His undergraduate training in Psychology was completed at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He has expertise in non-invasive brain stimulation, neuroimaging, and cognitive training for working memory and speed of processing/attention. He is a national leader in the field of neuromodulation, leading the largest transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) and near infrared photobiomodulation trials to date, multiple cognitive training trials, publishing the first comprehensive textbook in the field of tES, and multiple field standards papers. Dr. Woods’ research specifically focuses on discovery and application of novel non-invasive interventions for enhancing cognitive function in adults with and without neurodegenerative disease. Dr. Woods has expertise in multi-disciplinary cognitive neuroscience methodologies (MRI/fMRI, electrophysiology, non-invasive brain stimulation), extensive experience with aging-related cognitive disorders, cognitive training applications, and past research with neurological diseases. Over the past five years, Dr. Woods has established one of the largest and most well-funded neuromodulation laboratories in the United States. His lab is currently funded by five NIH/NIA R01s. He is PI of the first and largest phase III RCT for tES using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and cognitive training, the ACT study (R01AG054077, n=360), the largest phase II near infrared photobiomodulation trial (R01AG064587, n=168), and an artificial intelligence and precision dosing computational project that seeks to develop a novel brain-specific precision medicine approach to transcranial electrical stimulation treatment approaches (RF1AG071469). He also serves as site PI on two large clinical trials testing efficacy of cognitive training approaches in adults with and without mild cognitive impairment: the PACT and ACTIVE MIND Trials (R01AG070349, R01AG075014). In addition, Dr. Woods serves as an MPI for an NIH/NIA pre-doctoral T32 training grant focused on providing research training in non-pharmacological interventions for cognition in aging, MCI, and Alzheimer’s disease (T32AG020499).

Zulma teaches American Sign Language and Deaf Culture and is the faculty advisor for the UF Signing Gator. She also serves as the DEI Coordinator for the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions. She currently holds a Master’s degree in Deaf Studies with an emphasis on Cultural studies from Gallaudet University. Before joining UF in August 2019, for over six years she taught ASL 1, 2, 3, Structure of ASL and Deaf Culture at St. Petersburg College, ASL 1 and 2 at Hillsborough Community College, and ASL 1 and 2 at the University of South Florida. She is a member of the American Sign Language Teachers Association, Florida American Sign Language Teacher Association, and Florida Deaf Art Show Board. Zulma is an active volunteer at the Deaf Literacy Center where she assists in developing and presenting programs and events to create awareness and educate the community. Zulma is multilingual (fluent in English, Spanish, and American Sign Language) and loves history and cultures. As a multilingual person, she understands the importance of second or third-language acquisition.