Sarah Battersby, PhD

(PhD and MA, Geography, University of California at Santa Barbara) Sarah Battersby, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Geography Department of USC's College of Arts and Sciences and is an affiliate faculty member of the Institute for Families in Society. Her primary research interests are geographic information science, cognitive and behavioral geography, analytical cartography, and geography education. Specifically, Dr. Battersby focuses on identifying ways in which to make the process of communicating visual spatial information clearer and more efficient. Her recent research covers a variety of topics, including perception in dynamic map displays, the development of spatial thinking skills, the role of GIS in education, and distortion in cognitive maps. Dr. Battersby's teaching assignments currently include cartography, advanced cartography, and cognitive and behavioral geography.

Dr. Battersby is a member of the International Cartographic Association Commission on Map Projections, is cartographic editor for the Journal of Geography, serves on the editorial board for Cartographic Perspectives, and is an Academic Director for the AAG Cartography Specialty Group.

Her research has been published in journals that include Cartographic Perspectives, Cartographica, and Annals of the Association of American Geographers.

Teri Browne, PhD

(PhD, University of Chicago; MSW, The State University of New York at Buffalo) Teri Browne, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the College of Social Work and an affiliate faculty member of the Institute for Families and Society. Her major area of interest is related to patients and families of patients with chronic illness and the related psychosocial barriers to outcomes, particularly disparities. Specifically her work has focused on nephrology social work.

Her recent research has been with social networks and pathways to transplant parity for black hemodialysis patients. Her recent teaching assignments include masters work in foundations of social work practice with individuals and families, social work practice with organizations, communities, and health practices, and doctoral work in the intellectual and historical foundations of social welfare and social work. In 2010, she received the College of Social Work Faculty Spirit Award.

Dr. Browne is a member of the Society for Social Work and Research, the National Association of Social Workers, the Council on Social Work Education, the Council of Nephrology Social Workers and the American Society of Nephrology. She has numerous research publications and book chapters and disseminates her work through both professional conferences and community service.

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Shauna Cooper, PhD

(PhD and MA, Developmental Psychology, University of Michigan)
Shauna Cooper, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and is an Affiliate Faculty Member of the Institute for Families in Society, the Department of Women and Gender Studies, and the Research Consortium on Children and Families. She is also the 2010 recipient of the Andrew Billingsley African American Families Pilot Research Award. Her broad research interests encapsulate understanding the development of African American children and adolescents, with specific emphasis on socio-contextual factors influencing both their educational outcomes and health-related outcomes. Her current research interests include:

• African American family processes (e.g., parenting behaviors, practices);
• fathering in African American families;
• positive development among African American youth
• race-related experiences (e.g., racial socialization; racial discrimination) and well-being
• developmental transitions (e.g., transition to middle school) and school adjustment; and
• gender development among African American youth.

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James Hardin, PhD

(PhD, Statistics, Texas A&M University; MS, Statistics, Texas A&M University) James Hardin, PhD, is a Research Professor and Division Director of Biostatistics in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and he is an affiliate faculty member of the Institute for Families in Society. Dr. Hardin devotes time to theoretical research, software design/construction, and methodological pursuits. His books include Generalized Linear Models and Extensions (2001, 2007, 2012), Generalized Estimating Equations (2002, 2013), and Common Errors in Statistics and How to Avoid Them (2003, 2006, 2009, 2012). His current research focuses on correlated data analysis and the application of correlated data models to data from health outcomes (mainly cancer, HIV, and orthopedics). 

He is currently engaged in carrying out statistical analyses for research on multiple myeloma, orthopedics, HIV interventions, smoking cessation (warning labels), cancer screening, and health care (and other) policy issues. In addition, he is currently engaged in basic research of biostatistical methods for analysis of count data, diagnostics for correlated data models, and code development to support fitting measurement error models. With IFS researchers, he assisted in the development of a small area deprivation index, and applies statistical methods and models to examine the social and physical determinants of health as they pertain to the evaluation of health outcomes and health system performance.

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 Barbara Hirshorn, PhD

(PhD, Urban and Regional Planning, University of Michigan; MA, Syracuse University) Barbara Hirshorn, PhD, a former faculty member, has rejoined the Institute for Families in Society as an affiliate faculty member. A social gerontologist, her current activities include:

• with colleagues at IFS as well as state and local organizations, developing an initiative to establish the “Village” model of aging in place in South Carolina communities;
  
  
• with colleagues nationwide, two projects -- one related to a personal developmental approach to civic activity and the other to the enhancement of community capacity through inter-organizational, collaborative alliances responding to older residents’ needs; and

• narrative essays across historical time and the life course: introducing aging theory into personal experience of spatial and social boundaries.

Dr. Hirshorn has an extensive and accomplished background in the areas of aging and social policy, the demography of aging, the sociology of aging and the life course, applied gerontological research methods, and environmental aging. She has served as Principal Investigator for numerous funded projects related to community-based aging and her work has been extensively published in journals, book chapters, and technical reports. Additionally, she is co-author of the book, Ties that Bind: The Interdependence of Generations. She has been featured at numerous professional conferences as keynote speaker, expert respondent, chairperson, presenter, and moderator. She is a fellow in the Gerontological Society of America and a member of the American Sociological Association.

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 Rhonda White-Johnson, PhD

(PhD and MA, Psychology, University of Michigan)
Rhonda White-Johnson, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and an affiliate faculty member of the Institute for Families in Society. Dr. White-Johnson is also the 2012 recipient of the Andrew Billingsley African American Families Pilot Research Award. Her program of research focuses on the well-being of African American women. She places particular importance on understanding how community-level factors, social identity (race and gender), and aspects of social oppression are related to well-being and mental health processes among this population.

She is currently engaged in an intervention project that utilizes a community-based approach aimed at increasing mental health literacy and reducing mental health stigma among African American women facing community and economic challenges. In addition to her primary research interests, Dr. White-Johnson also has expertise focusing on racial socialization processes and identity development among African American families and youth.

In addition to teaching several undergraduate courses at the university, Dr. White-Johnson has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. She also presents her work at professional conferences in the field. She is a member of the American Psychological Association (APA), the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI), and the Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA).

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 Kathryn J. Luchok, PhD

(PhD, Health Behavior and Health Education, Gillings School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, MA, Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). Kathryn J. Luchok, PhD is an Assistant Research Professor in the Institute for Families in Society, Division of Policy and Research on Medicaid and Medicare and a faculty affiliate of the USC Women's and Gender Studies Program. Her primary research interests are women's health and maternal/child health; she has conducted projects in the U.S. as well as in several developing countries.

Dr. Luchok has previously held faculty positions at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina, and has been Director of the Policy and Research Center at the Southern Institute on Children and Families, and Director of the South Carolina Access Initiative. She has a long history of applied research to promote access to health services, reduce health disparities, and promote the well-being of women, children and families.

Through her various positions, Dr. Luchok has engaged in collaborative research with the communities in which she has lived and worked, relationship-building and garnering extensive community contacts. She has a track record of funding from federal, state, local, and private foundations, and has been known as an effective mentor, being nominated by her graduate students four times for teaching awards. Her community work with migrant farmworkers in Kentucky was honored with an appointment as a Kentucky Colonel, the state's highest citizen honor.

She is on the Policy Taskforce of the American Public Health Association Women's Caucus, reviews regularly for several journals, has presented her research routinely at national meetings, and has published in journals such as Maternal and Child Health Journal,Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, Journal of Women's Health, and Public Health Reports. At IFS, she is providing maternal health, community engagement, research and evaluation expertise to the SC Department of Health and Human Services on the Birth Outcomes Initiative (BOI) and the Health Access at the Right Time (HeART) Initiatives.

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 Francis Rushton, MD

(MD, University of Miami) Francis Rushton, MD, is a clinical professor of Pediatrics at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Columbia (USC) and is an affiliate faculty member of the Institute for Families in Society. Dr. Rushton has been a practicing pediatrician for 28 years. He founded the Well Baby Plus program to provide intensive support for families with infants to help them address the stresses of parenting.

Dr. Rushton is the author of Family Support in Community Pediatrics: Confronting the Challenge as well as several articles on child abuse prevention and the effect of Medicaid on primary care. As the Medical Director for the CHIPRA Demonstration Project at the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, he will develop a learning collaborative focusing on quality improvement and will provide selected primary care practices with technical assistance to help them achieve NCQA PCMH accreditation. Dr. Rushton is past-president of the South Carolina Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and currently is on the Board of the AAP. In 2001, South Carolina Governor Jim Hodges awarded Dr. Rushton with the Order of the Palmetto, the state's highest citizen honor, in recognition of his child advocacy efforts.

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Bradley Smith, PhD

Dr. Bradley H. Smith earned his Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in 1996 and joined the faculty at the University of South Carolina in 1998. He is currently an associate professor in the Department of Psychology and served as Director of the Clinical Community Psychology Graduate Training Program from 2009 to 2012.

His current research and teaching are focused primarily on the Challenging Horizons After-School Program (CHP), which serves over 400 students in grades 2 to 8 at six schools in South Carolina through mentoring, after-school, and summer programs. The CHP intervention objectives are to improve academic performance, school attendance, family involvement in learning and health promotion, personal health and wellness, and community engagement. The CHP is made possible to students in low income schools through 21st Century Community Learning Center Grants and dozens of USC service-learning students. The intervention objectives of the CHP and the effects of the CHP on USC student learning outcomes are Dr. Smith’s primary research interests. His primary teaching interest is helping graduate and undergraduate students conduct their own research. Each semester, Dr. Smith mentors 10 to 20 student research projects, including graduate theses and dissertations, Magellan Scholar Projects, and South Carolina Honors College Theses. These independent studies usually complement the mission of the CHP and always represent original, student-initiated community-based research.

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