2007 – present: Professor and Chair

Department of Public Health Sciences

Clemson University

Clemson, South Carolina

2007 – present: Professor (Voluntary)

Department of Epidemiology and Public Health

University of Miami – Miller School of Medicine

Miami, Florida

I currently serve as Chair of the Department of Public Health Sciences at Clemson University. My primary research interests related to NDPC focus on the interrelationships between risks for school dropout and other behavioral risk factors (substance use, sexual risk and teen pregnancy) among adolescents and pre-adolescents. I am specifically interested in interrelationships among community, school, family, peer, and intrapersonal risk and protective domains, and how multi-faceted prevention programs can address risk factors and enhance protective factors across behavioral domains. I believe that both the field of public health and the medical profession have generally been inadequately engaged in efforts to discourage adolescents from using alcohol, tobacco and other risky substances and prevent school dropout despite the lifelong negative health impacts of these choices.