Faculty
All graduate program courses are taught by UConn faculty members recognized for their cutting-edge research in public health. The UConn Program in Applied Public Health Sciences includes 36 faculty, several of whom have direct teaching involvement in this certificate.
Thomas Babor, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Dr. Thomas Babor is a Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences. Dr. Babor holds academic degrees in social psychology (PhD) and psychiatric epidemiology (MPH). He served as head of social science research at McLean Hospital's Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research Center in Belmont, MA and was the Scientific Director of the University of Connecticut Alcohol Research Center and the interim Chair of the Psychiatry Department. Dr. Babor was the head of the Department of Public Health Sciences and held the Health Net, Inc. Endowed Chair in Community Medicine until 2019. He is still actively involved in the study of alcohol marketing and alcohol public policy.
Dr. Babor is also Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, the oldest substance-related journal published in the United States.
Email: babor@uchc.edu
Helen Wu, Ph.D.
Dr. Helen Zhao Wu is a social epidemiologist. For more than 2 decades, she has been conducting mental health related research with a particular focus on substance abuse. Her research interests include health disparities, geriatrics, epidemiology, and public health. She has extensive experience in teaching and mentoring as course director for multiple MPH courses and for a course in the Master’s Program in Clinical and Translational Research (MCTR), a preceptor for the clinical medical course in The UConn School of Medicine, a research facilitator for all the residents in the Dept of Psychiatry, and a graduate advisor for the Master’s Program in Clinical and Translational Research.
Email: zwu@uchc.edu
Jonathan Noel, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Dr. Jonathan Noel is a public health researcher with experience in addiction, legal, and social epidemiology. He has been involved in numerous evaluations of alcohol advertising and has advocated for stronger marketing restrictions on alcohol and tobacco products. Jonathan’s current research interests include the role of social media on the impact of marketing communications, the effect of policy on health outcomes, and the role of policy in creating or eliminating health disparities. Additionally, he has experience teaching in online and traditional classroom settings. Jonathan is a recent graduate of UConn’s doctoral program in public health and earned his MPH from UConn in 2009.
Email: jnoel@uchc.edu
Distinguished Guest Lecturers
- Maristela Monteiro, M.D., Ph.D, Senior Advisor on Alcohol and Substance Abuse at the PanAmerican Health Organization
- Kathleen Carroll, Ph.D, Director of Psychosocial Research, Division of Addictions; Principal Investigator, Psychotherapy Development Center for Drug Abuse
- Michal Miovsky, Ph.D, Center for Addictology, Czech Republic
- Victor Hesselbrock, Ph.D, Principal Investigator and Scientific Director of UConn’s NIAAA funded Alcohol Research Center
- Lance Bauer, Ph.D, Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and an Associate Scientific Director of the Alcohol Research Center.