麻豆传媒

Dr. Youngil Lee, associate professor, teaches exercise physiology, sports nutrition and applied physiology in muscular development.

Lee鈥檚 research focuses on exercise-induced cardiac and neuroprotection using various advanced molecular and cellular research tools to elucidate novel protective mechanisms that potentially enhance human life.  

In previous research, he showed that endurance exercise protected hearts against ischemic heart disease by improving mitochondrial function and antioxidant capacity. Currently, he is investigating whether exercise-induced autophagy, a cellular cargo system by which dysfunctional organelles and dilapidated proteins are removed contributes to conferring cardioprotection. Recent research, published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, revealed that daily physical activity regulates autophagy, which he believes is an essential process for cardioprotection. 

Lee and Yongchul Jang, a postdoctoral scholar at UWF, are also evaluating the potential protective effect of endurance exercise on neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson鈥檚 and Alzheimer鈥檚 disease. In recent collaborative work, published in Journal of Apoptosis, Lee and his colleagues reported that regular endurance exercise confers neuroprotection by generating new neurons in hippocampus, an area in charge of memory. He and Jang are currently developing a drug-induced Parkinson鈥檚 disease model and seeking a mechanism of how endurance exercise protects the brain against Parkinson鈥檚 disease. 

To further expand this line of research, he received an endowment from the Center for Research and Economic Opportunity to purchase a fluorescent microscope and an imaging system. 

He received a bachelor鈥檚 and master鈥檚 degree in exercise science from the Korean National Sport University in Seoul, Korea, and a second master鈥檚 degree in muscle physiology from the University of Texas at Austin, and doctorate in exercise biochemistry from the University of Florida. He was also a post-doctoral scholar in molecular cardiology in the University of California San Diego. 

Dr. Jeffrey Simpson is an assistant professor of biomechanics and motor control. He is currently teaching courses in motor learning and skill analysis, motor control, and biomechanics of human movement and is the director of the biomechanics and motor learning laboratory.

Before joining UWF in 2018, he was a lecturer at Mississippi State University where he taught courses in anatomical kinesiology, biomechanics and neural control of human movement, and fitness testing and programming.

His research focuses primarily on lateral ankle sprain mechanics, long-term neurological and biomechanical impairments of lateral ankle sprain injuries, and motor control strategies during dynamic tasks (i.e. jumping, landing, and rapid change of direction) in individuals that develop chronic ankle instability. He recently completed a study titled 鈥淏iomechanics of functional and dynamic tasks in individuals with chronic ankle instability鈥� where he utilized three-dimensional motion analysis, force platforms, and electromyography to identify lower extremity movement patterns that contribute to recurrent lateral ankle sprain injuries. In addition, Dr. Simpson also has an interest in sports biomechanics research. He has completed research projects that have examined the effects of wearing an external load, such as a weighted vest, during daily living activities and training for 3 weeks on balance, vertical jump, and sprint performance.

Dr. Simpson has also given several poster and oral presentations on his research at the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Society of Biomechanics annual meetings. He has also developed an experimental protocol to replicate a lateral ankle sprain in a laboratory setting to further assess the mechanics of lateral ankle sprain injuries.

He received his Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science from the University of Texas-Arlington, Master of Science in Health and Human Performance from the University of North Alabama, and Doctor of Philosophy in Biomechanics/Neuromechanics from Mississippi State University.

Dr. Daudet Ilunga Tshiswaka is an Assistant Professor of Public Health. He has a PhD. in Community Health from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests focus on health disparity, global health, and minorities鈥� health.

Much of his research has involved health promotion and studies of health issues of minorities such as Africans who immigrated to the United States. His doctoral dissertation, for example, examined perceptions of diabetes risk factors among Congolese immigrants in Illinois.

His current research examines such topics as understanding colorectal and prostate cancer screenings uptake among US and foreign-born men in the US, stress factors in transnational West African women, aspects of the Ebola outbreak, and knowledge of condom use as an HIV preventative measure in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

He has conducted studies on assistive technology use by people with disabilities, health insurance knowledge among Congolese immigrants and African-Americans, high blood pressure among African transnational migrants, and health education and health awareness. Peer-reviewed publications carrying his work include Journal of Public Health, Journal of Race and Policy, Journal of Pan African Studies, and Transnational Social Review: A Social Work Journal.

Dr. Steele is a visiting lecturer for the Department of Public Health.

Trish has nearly 30 years of experience in nutrition science and regulatory affairs and has worked in public health, the food industry and consulting. Trish is currently a Senior Nutrition Program Manager for the Institute for the Advancement of Food and Nutrition Science (IAFNS), a non-profit independent science organization that brings together industry, government, and academia to advance nutrition science. In this role Trish manages the USDA Global Foods Products Database Public-Private Partnership and works to advance the science on sodium in the diet, and low- and no-calorie sweeteners. In her 10 years at the Campbell Soup Company she served in a variety of roles including informing nutrition strategy, labelling and innovation for the America鈥檚 Simple Meals and Snack businesses. She and her team of experienced RDs and nutrition scientists helped bring to market nutritionally advantaged products such as Well Yes soup, V8 Hydrate, Veggie Goldfish, plant-based protein products and helped reduce the sodium in canned products while increasing vegetables and whole grains across the portfolio. Trish is the former Chairman of the Board for the Produce for Better Health Foundation and remains committed to promoting the benefits of eating more fruits and vegetables as part of a plant-centric diet while influencing sound nutrition and regulatory policies. She received her Bachelor鈥檚 and Master鈥檚 degrees in nutrition science from the Pennsylvania State University, and has been an active member of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics since 1984. 

Dr. Melanie Sutton, professor, teaches bioinformatics, health information systems, medical informatics, medical terminology, and computer and geographic information systems applications in public health.

Sutton applies her computer science training into the broader multi-disciplinary field of informatics by applying algorithms and tools from her object recognition research in new domains.

She has written and co-written many peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on various aspects of computer vision, robotics, digital mammography, and online instruction and assessment.

She was co-principal investigator of two projects funded by Florida's Great Northwest to develop a software engineering graduate program, and health sciences and technology training retreats for high school guidance counselors and academy directors. She was also principal investigator for a grant that developed and assessed protocols for the efficient utilization of large-scale digital mammography databases.

During her tenure as co-director and academic advisor of the certificate in medical informatics program at UWF, she chaired a self-study committee that led to the accreditation of UWF's online master of public health program, just one three accredited online programs in the U.S.

Before coming to UWF in 1996, she was a software engineer for Harris Corporation in the space systems division.

She received a bachelor's degree in computer engineering, master's in computer science, and doctorate in computer science and engineering with a focus on computer vision and robotics, all from the University of South Florida.

Dr. Lisa Blalock, associate professor, teaches research methods in psychology, professional development in psychology, and sensation and perception.

 Blalock conducts basic and applied research in visual and spatial working memory, which is a short-term mental storage that helps people remember and process visual and spatial information. 

Specifically, her research explores the processes involved in encoding, maintaining and retrieving visual information, and how those processes interact with visual selective attention, controlled attention and long-term memory. 

She is also interested in applying the basic principles of visual working memory to real-world situations, such as training and driving. Dr. Blalock was involved in a study, published in the "Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition," showing driving under a cognitive load, such as talking on a cell phone, led to diminished knowledge of moving, but not stationary objects in the scene.

She has written and co-written articles in peer-reviewed journals on various aspects of visual working memory. She recently published a study in the journal Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, examining how training on specific shapes facilitated the consolidation of visual representations in working memory.

In addition to her research, she mentors undergraduate students in the Visual Cognition Lab by involving them in various types of projects that provide valuable research experience.

She received a bachelor鈥檚 degree in psychology from the University of Central Florida, and master鈥檚 and doctorate in cognitive psychology from Colorado State University. 

Dr. Andrea Mraz Nelson, Clinical Assistant Professor and Dean's Fellow for High Impact Practices, teaches online courses in the Health Sciences and Administration department including Medical Terminology, Gerontology, Health Ethics and Professionalism, and Current Issues in the Health Sciences.

Dr. Nelson has been teaching at UWF since 2013, first as an adjunct instructor then, as of 2015, a full-time faculty member.  She has worked as a physical therapist for 21 years and taps into her clinical background to share real-world learning experiences with her students. She received the Geriatric Certified Specialist designation from the American Physical Therapy Association and is also a Certified Lymphedema Therapist.

Dr. Nelson received her B.S. degree in psychology from Florida State University, M.S. degree in physical therapy from University of Alabama at Birmingham and her Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from University of South Alabama. She also completed a year-long faculty scholar program in geriatrics at the UAB Geriatric Education Center in 2016. She is a Quality Matters certified online instructor.

Dr. Steven Kass, professor, teaches industrial and organizational psychology, human factors, training and development in the workplace, and psychology of learning.

Kass is a researcher in the psychology department who studies human factors (interaction between people and systems), primarily issues of attention including boredom, distracted driving, and situation awareness.

His interest in situation awareness derived from the research he conducted as a graduate student at the Institute for Simulation and Training at the University of Central Florida in the early 90鈥檚. Over the years, Kass has expanded this line of research by conducting numerous studies investigating the impact distractions, such talking on a mobile phone, on a person鈥檚 ability to drive. He was first author on the study 鈥淭he Effects of Distraction and Experience on Situation Awareness and Simulated Driving,鈥� published in the Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behavior.

In 2013, the Transportation and Highway Safety Subcommittee of the Florida House of Representatives invited Kass to present information on distracted driving before drafting a bill to ban texting while driving. In the future, he hopes to explore the impact of situation awareness on performance in health care professions.

He was a keynote speaker at the 60th annual meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association in Hilton Head, South Carolina in 2015. Before coming to UWF in 1998, he was a research psychologist for the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division and an adjunct instructor at the University of Central Florida and Valencia Community College in Orlando.

He received a bachelor鈥檚 degree in psychology from the University of Florida, master鈥檚 in industrial and organizational psychology from UWF, and doctorate in human factors psychology from the University of Central Florida.

Dr. Kimberly Day, assistant professor, teaches research methods in psychology, child development, psychology of adolescence, and developmental psychology.

Her research focuses on individual and contextual factors that influence young children's development. Her interests include prenatal and postnatal stressors, children鈥檚 self-regulation, children鈥檚 private speech, and other areas related to parenting and child development. Her research at UWF continues to focus on parenting and preschoolers鈥� regulatory abilities.

Day has published her research in Pediatrics, Journal of the American Medical Association: Pediatrics, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, Child Abuse & Neglect, and other peer-reviewed publications.

She received a Bachelor of Science with honors in Psychology magnum cum laude from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA and a master's and doctoral degree in Human Development with a concentration in Child and Adolescent Development from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA. She also completed a two-year Lawson Postdoctoral Fellowship with the Offord Centre for Child Studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

April Schantz, assistant professor, teaches group/team dynamics, industrial psychology, and research methods.

April D. Schantz, Ph. D., completed her studies in Industrial-Organizational Psychology with a minor in Quantitative Methods from Florida International University. Her research focuses on action- or performance-based teams (i.e., crisis response, elite sports, musicians) and health and well-being outcomes for those employed in high stress industries. 

Published work has appeared in the Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health, Work & Stress, and The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist, as well as a book chapter, 鈥淐ollective Fit for Emergency Response Teams鈥�. In progress research usually includes interdisciplinary projects and project collaborations with local organizations.  Students with an interest in Occupational Health Psychology (OHP) or high-reliability teams should consider applying for consideration as a research member in Dr. Schantz鈥� lab.

Previous courses lead by Dr. Schantz have included Organizational Psychology, Senior Seminar (Psychology), and Research Methods. She is also involved in student groups (e.g., mini-lectures, brown-bag workshops) to encourage students in developing their core research methodology and to explore alternative methods and designs, as well as practical application of work-related skills (e.g., resume building workshops). 

She is an active member of Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP), Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), Interdisciplinary Network for Group Research (INGRoup), Academy of Management - Research Methods Division (AOM-RM), and Faculty Advisor for the UWF SHRM Student Group.

After eight years as head athletic trainer at UWF, Tony Nguyen was promoted to assistant athletic director for operations in September 2008. In September of 2011, he was again promoted to associate athletic director.  Nguyen oversees the daily operations of the Athletics Department and has oversight of softball and women's swimming and diving.

In his role as head athletic trainer from 2000-2008, Nguyen oversaw the medical coverage and safety of student-athletes from 13 different sports, managing a staff that included a full-time assistant, two graduate assistants and 30 student athletic trainers. In addition, he has served as an instructor for the division of Health, Leisure and Exercise Science in the College of Professional Studies at West Florida.

In July of 2002, Nguyen added the job of clinical coordinator for the athletic training education program to his duties at UWF. He was the liaison between clinical instructors and the Athletic Training Education Program (ATEP) director. As a member of the ATEP Advisory Committee, Nguyen worked hand in hand with the ATEP Program Director to attain CAAHEP accreditation.

Before coming to West Florida, Nguyen spent a year as an assistant athletic trainer at NCAA Division I Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green. He was responsible for daily coverage of the men's basketball team, supervised intern athletic trainers for baseball and men's soccer, and assisted with the football team. He was also the Inventory Control Coordinator for the athletic training department.

Nguyen spent two years at NCAA Division I University of Southern Mississippi (USM) as a graduate assistant, where he was the primary athletic trainer for football, women's basketball and baseball. He was the co-coordinator of athletic insurance and assisted with all intercollegiate programs while attaining his masters degree in sports administration. While Nguyen was a football athletic trainer at Southern Miss, the Eagles competed in the 1998 Humanitarian Bowl.

During his stint at USM, Nguyen was the interim assistant athletic trainer from November of 1997 to July of 1998. He was the athletic trainer for the baseball team that made it to the 1998 NCAA Tournament. Again, he coordinated athletic insurance claims, inventory and staff scheduling.

Before heading to graduate school, Nguyen was the head athletic trainer at Vanguard High School in Ocala, Florida for 33 athletic teams in the state 5A classification. In addition to his responsibilities with the student-athletes, he provided clinical supervision of undergraduate students from the University of Florida Athletic Training Program and assisted with data collection for a large scale epidemiological injury study of high school athletes participating in football, men's and women's basketball, baseball and softball. During that time, he was an instructor for the Department of Exercise and Sports Sciences in the College of Human Performance at University of Florida in Gainesville.

In the school year of 1995-96, Nguyen was an intern athletic trainer at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida. He assisted the head athletic trainer in all aspects of the training room including prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of athletic injuries, record keeping, and he traveled with intercollegiate teams on the NCAA Division II level. During that time, he gained valuable experience as an athletic trainer for the Miami Heat post-season basketball camp and Major League Soccer training camps in Boca Raton.

Nguyen earned a bachelor's degree with honors in Exercise and Sport Sciences with a specialization in Athletic Training from the University of Florida in 1995. He added a master's in Sports Administration from the University of Southern Mississippi to his education in 1999.  He is a member of several professional organizations, including the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), the College Event and Facility Management Association (CEFMA), the International Collegiate Licensing Association (ICLA) and the National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA).

He is married to the former Christal Henderson of Waynesboro, Miss., and they have two children, Sydney and Noah.

Lauren Loeffler currently serves as the Assistant Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Divisional Assessment. Her role includes oversight of Divisional operations, annual planning and reporting, staff development initiatives, the offices of Career Development and Community Engagement, Design and Communication, and Technology Support Services. She is also the liaison to UWF鈥檚 office of Institutional Effectiveness. Previous to this role, Lauren served as the executive director of Career Development and Community Engagement where she oversaw functions related to community and employer engagement, career education, high-impact practices and experiential learning.

Lauren has been active in regional and statewide workforce initiatives since she began working at UWF in 2004, previously serving as director and assistant Director of Career Services. At UWF, Lauren has also worked as a community engagement fellow with the Office of Community Engagement, co-chairing the effort to attain the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification, as a co-chair of the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) implementation team and liaison to co-curricular programs for the QEP, and an assessment fellow for the Accreditation, Strategic Planning and Institutional Research office.

Lauren is also a member and current chair of the State University System Florida Career Consortium Board of Directors and has served as a mentor and in other leadership roles within the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). Prior to coming to UWF, Lauren worked in Career Services at Old Dominion University and as a recruiting executive for a large national staffing firm. Lauren earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia in psychology, a master's degree in counseling from Old Dominion University, and a specialist in education degree from the University of West Florida.

 

Dr. Karen Sinclair Molek, Department Chair and Professor of Chemistry, is the recipient of mentoring awards and more than $3 million in outside funding.

Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring, nominee 2022
Inspiring Program in STEM Award from INSIGHT into Diversity Magazine
National American Chemical Society Zaida C. Morales-Martinez Prize for Mentoring ACS Scholars  
UWF Excellence in Teaching and Advising Award
UWF Undergraduate Research Mentoring Award
UWF Distinguished Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activities Award 
UWF President's Award for Leadership in Diversity

Molek, who began teaching at UWF in 2008, has helped raise more than $3 million in outside funding. This includes $2.7 million in grant awards from the National Institutes for Health to increase the number of students from disadvantaged backgrounds pursuing biomedical-relevant research careers through PhD or MD/PhD degrees. The funding established and continues to support the NIH-funded UWF MARC Scholars Program. The National Science Foundation awarded $649,888 to increase retention, academic performance, degree attainment, employment, and graduate school matriculation rates among financially disadvantaged, academically talented students in STEM majors. This funding established the NSF S-STEM Scholars Program (2016-2021) and the STEM Living Learning Community (2016 - present).  

Molek's goal is to empower students to achieve successful STEM careers beyond UWF. She said research shows that economically disadvantaged and ethnically underrepresented students are less likely to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math careers. She empowers students through teaching and providing support through Scholars Programs and undergraduate research. Molek is the director of UWF鈥檚 Chemistry Scholars Program, which was established in 2011 as the first Scholars Program at UWF. Chemistry Scholars won the 2021 Inspiring Program in STEM Award from INSIGHT into Diversity Magazine. The success of Chem, MARC, and S-STEM Scholars led UWF to support Molek and a faculty/staff team to establish UWF STEM Scholars in 2021. STEM Scholars is designed to support students persisting and successfully completing STEM degrees in 4-years.  

Molek has a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Georgia and a B.S. in Chemistry from Mercer University. Her research covers several areas: development of a safety relay for high vacuum systems; rebuilding reflectron time-of-flight mass spectrometers surface-assisted laser desorption/ionization of materials using RTOF-MS; synthesis and characterization of transition metal oxide nanopowders; synthesis and characterization of zinc oxide quantum dots; and development of a physical chemistry laboratory experiment measuring the speed of sound using nitrocellulose.

She has personally mentored 71 undergraduate research students, 166 Chemistry Scholars, 34 NIH MARC Scholars, and 25 NSF S-STEM Scholars, with more than 70% from financially or ethnically disadvantaged backgrounds. She and the STEM Scholars faculty/staff team have mentored 155 STEM Scholars and more than 575 STEM Living Learning Community residents.  

 

Degrees & Institutions:
Ph.D. Physical Chemistry, University of Georgia
B.S. Chemistry, Mercer University

Research:
Her research covers several areas: development of a safety relay for high vacuum systems; rebuilding reflectron time-of-flight mass spectrometers surface-assisted laser desorption/ionization of materials using RTOF-MS; synthesis and characterization of transition metal oxide nanopowders; synthesis and characterization of zinc oxide quantum dots; and development of a physical chemistry laboratory experiment measuring the speed of sound using nitrocellulose.

Dr. Vanessa Rainey, associate professor, teaches developmental psychology, human development across the lifespan, and research methods.

Rainey is a developmental psychologist who is interested in understanding how cognitive control impacts development across a person's lifespan.

Specifically, she is examining the impact executive function (brain basis of self-control) has on various populations and neuroplasticity (ability of the brain to rewire itself) throughout the lifespan. She has written several journal articles on the connection between executive functions and aspects of language development. 

Her current work expands on previous research she conducted with researchers at Loyola University Chicago. They evaluated the differential development of bilingual children who serve as the primary language translator for their family, also known as a language broker. Rainey is the lead author of a chapter that addresses cognitive, socioemotional, and developmental neuroscience perspectives on language brokering, which will be published in the book "Language Brokering in Immigrant Families: Theories and Contexts."

Before coming to UWF in 2014, she taught several psychology courses at Loyola University Chicago.

She received a bachelor鈥檚 in psychology, and a master鈥檚 and doctorate in developmental psychology and statistics from Loyola University Chicago. She also conducted post-doctoral research on executive function development using neuroscience methodologies at Loyola University Chicago鈥檚 Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Lab.

Howard J. Reddy is the vice president for the Division of University Advancement and serves as a member of the President鈥檚 Cabinet. In this role, Reddy provides executive leadership to the division, overseeing Development, Alumni Relations, UWF Foundation, UWF Historic Trust, Institutional Communications and WUWF Public Media.

As president of UWF Foundation, Reddy oversees the Foundation鈥檚 endowment investment pool, which exceeds $120 million, and serves as the institution鈥檚 chief philanthropic officer.

He also leads the efforts of UWF Historic Trust, which is dedicated to collecting, preserving and interpreting the history of Northwest Florida and includes management of properties in the Pensacola Historic District, the Pensacola Museum of Art and Arcadia Mill in Milton.

Additionally, Reddy oversees WUWF Public Media, which creates, acquires and distributes audio and video content through broadcast, web and community outreach.

Reddy was appointed as interim vice president for the Division of University Advancement in August 2017. During this time, he led the advancement team in closing the University鈥檚 historic 50th Anniversary Capital Campaign, which raised more than $64.7 million and included a number of historic gifts.

Reddy previously served as assistant vice president for University Advancement and as the director of UWF鈥檚 Office of Community Engagement. He also served as a faculty member in both the music and theatre departments at UWF from 2012 to 2015. A former Fulbright Scholar, he is a graduate of the Sutherland School of Law at University College Dublin in Ireland and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

Dr. Rob J. Rotunda, professor, teaches a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses focused on clinical/applied areas of psychology. As a licensed clinical psychologist he is also involved in training master鈥檚 level counselors. He is also a member of the Center for Applied Psychology, a research and consulting arm of the department.

Rotunda鈥檚 research and clinical interests are in the areas of addictive disorders, trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder, crisis intervention and response to disaster, couple and family therapy, and sport and exercise psychology.

Among his publications in various areas, he has authored several articles, conference presentations and book chapters related to the description and treatment of addictive behaviors, including alcohol abuse, gambling, internet usage, shopping and work. He was awarded a grant as principal investigator to conduct a statewide epidemiological study of gambling and gambling problems by the Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling, which was completed in 2012. He is an associate editor of the Journal of Sport Behavior, and has been an ad hoc reviewer for 10 other psychology journals and book publishers.

Before coming to UWF in 1996, he was a lecturer and research associate at the Harvard Families and Addiction Program at Harvard University Medical School.

Rotunda earned his bachelor鈥檚 degree from the State University of New York at Albany, majoring in both psychology and social welfare. He received a doctorate in clinical/community psychology from the University of South Carolina in 1993 after completing a clinical internship at the Brockton and West Roxbury Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, and then completed postdoctoral clinical and research training at the Harvard Families and Addiction Program.

Patricia Barrington, teaches health promotion and planning, changing health behaviors, stress management, theory and foundation of health promotion, and worksite wellness. 

Barrington has been developing, implementing, and managing health promotion programs and disease prevention initiatives for the past 30 years at military bases, non-profit organizations, and community collaborations. 

She leverages her experience in tobacco and alcohol prevention education with her desire to improve the quality of life of UWF employees, faculty and students, and residents of surrounding communities. In 2014, she led the task force to develop a tobacco policy for the UWF campus. The result of the task force鈥檚 effort was a tobacco-free campus policy which went into effect in 2016.  

Barrington holds several leadership positions, influencing public policy and programs in health promotion. She was appointed by the Governor of Florida as a state representative for the Florida Tobacco Advisory Council in 2015; president of the Florida Society of Public Health Education; chair of Healthy Environments Are Tobacco-free Partnership in Escambia County; and first vice president for Community Drug and Alcohol Council.    

At UWF since 2005, she is committed to supporting the next generation of community educators by providing undergraduate students with the opportunity to gain valuable experience through internships in the community. Many of her former students who are working in the field of health promotion return to UWF to mentor undergraduate students, sharing their experience and providing advice on the current job market. 

She received a bachelor鈥檚 degree in psychology from Bradley University, and a master's and doctorate in community health education from the University of West Florida.

Mr. Overton has a bachelor's degree from the University of West Alabama and a master's degree from the University of South Alabama, both in history. He has over 20 years of public history experience, specializing in historic sites and museum management. He has worked for the University of West Florida Historic Trust since 2002 and has served as the Executive Director for the organization since 2015. In his position, Mr. Overton oversees all aspects of the organization's operation of thirty historic properties, including a multicultural center and eleven museum facilities in downtown Pensacola and a 40-acre archaeological site with a visitor's center in Milton. Both sites feature indoor and outdoor exhibits focusing on the history of Northwest Florida. Mr. Overton is a member of the American Alliance of Museums, the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation, the Southeastern Museums Conference, the American Association of State and Local History, and he serves on the Board of Trustees for the Florida Association of Museums.

 

Massey comes to the FSBDC at UWF from the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center at Henderson State University (HSU), where he served as the Center Director. At the SBTDC, he was responsible for overall center operations, including client services and analysis, strategy development, goal setting, budgeting, staff management and community collaboration. Massey also served as an adjunct faculty member for the HSU School of Business, instructing on strategic management, business planning and analysis, financial analysis, accounting, marketing and human resources management.