People Group Archives: Community Health

Associate Professor Rebecca Koszalinski investigates the relationships between air, water, the environment and health outcomes, and leads the interdisciplinary Human Health Outcomes of Exposure to Environmental Toxins Lab at UCF’s College of Nursing. Her harmful algal bloom research seeks to evaluate significant health care implications of potential toxin exposures. She is currently the primary investigator […]

Assistant Professor Jennifer Crook is a nationally recognized nutritional epidemiologist and nurse scientist whose work investigates how nutritional insecurity becomes biologically embedded to drive inflammation, symptom burden and cancer disparities. Her research integrates omics‑based biomarkers, nutritional epidemiology and community‑engaged methods to develop clinically actionable tools that advance cancer outcomes. In a previous faculty role at […]

Lecturer Sandra Kirkland served for 15 years in Veterans Affairs medical centers, serving as a family nurse practitioner and chief nurse for mental health at facilities in Tennessee and Florida, and a nurse executive for the VA Medical Center in Alexandria, Louisiana. Broadly experienced in mental health, family medicine, gerontology, wound care, nurse education and […]

Heather Peralta is a lecturer for undergraduate nursing students who has been at UCF’s College of Nursing for nearly a decade. Peralta is dedicated to mentoring future nurses and serving the community. She has participated in several UCF study abroad trips with nursing students to Peru and spearheaded the creation of the interdisciplinary Apopka Farmworkers […]

Lecturer and two-time alumnus Sotos G. Djiovanis has been in continuous clinical practice in Central Florida for more than a decade. He has routinely served as a clinical preceptor, education resource nurse, and member of hospital shared governance councils. His clinical expertise spans adult and geriatric populations in both acute care and home health settings. […]

Associate Professor Jean Davis’ passion for community health promotion grew from listening to her aunt and her mother, both nurses, discuss and solve community health challenges when she was a child. Davis channels that passion into implementation science research using coaching, wearable technology and artificial intelligence (AI) for physical activity support, promotion and habit formation […]

Healthy aging; fall prevention in older adults; and aging education.

Childhood obesity prevention and intervention; School nursing; Teaching strategies in nursing education.

Instructor, Faculty Consultant for Student Nurses Association Chapter at UCF Daytona Beach

Cultural influences on health promotion and end-of-life decisions; Family practice.