People

Faculty

Balsa, Ana
Belgrave, Linda
Braddock, Jomills
Chitwood, Dale
Dawkins, Marvin
Dunham, Roger

Fang, Hai
French, Michael
Hill, Terrence
Johnson, Robert
Mossakowski, Krysia
Murphy, John

Nielsen, Amie
Primov, George
Sokol-Katz, Jan
Wilson, George

Ana I. Balsa, Ph.D. (Boston University, 2003)
Research Assistant Professor
Health Economics, Economics of Racial & Ethnic Disparities, Economics of Addiction
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Dr. Ana I. Balsa received her Ph.D. in Economics from Boston University in 2003. Her primary area of research is health economics, with interests in the economics of substance use and the economics of health and healthcare disparities. In the area of disparities, she has studied the impact of statistical discrimination on physicians' allocation of medical resources and has worked on the distribution of health care resources across socioeconomic groups. Her research on substance use and abuse includes studies of the consequences of parental alcohol misuse on children's use of health care services, children’s health and labor outcomes at adulthood; evaluations of substance abuse treatments; and studies of the consequences of alcohol use and misuse on health and health care. Dr. Balsa is currently the principal investigator in a NIH grant studying the associations between popularity and alcohol use among adolescents. Dr. Balsa's recent publications include articles in the Journal of Health Economics, Journal of Human Resources, and Health Services Research.
Linda L. Belgrave, Ph.D. (Case Western Reserve University, 1985)
Associate Professor
Social Gerontology, Medical Sociology, Social Psychology, Quantitative & Qualitative Research Methods
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Linda Liska Belgrave earned her Ph.D. in sociology at Case Western Reserve University in 1985. She specializes in the sociology of health and illness, social gerontology, research methods, and social psychology. Her primary research interests are in the experience of chronic illness and illness behavior, particularly as these intersect with aging, though she sometimes tackles other topics. She has published articles in journals such as Symbolic Interaction, Research on Aging, The Gerontologist, and Qualitative Health Research.

Dr. Belgrave's current research involves a study of the subjective meaning of well-being among elders. Linda Belgrave teaches a number of courses, including SOC 210 Introduction to Social Research and SOC 384 Medical Sociology at the undergraduate level and SOC 613 Advanced Sociological Statistics and Methods: Qualitative Research and SOC 691 Special Topics in Medical Sociology: Social Construction and Experience of Illness and Disease for the graduate program.
Jomills H. Braddock II, Ph.D. (Florida State, 1973)
Professor
Race & Ethnic Relations, Sociology of Education, Sociology of Sport, Social Psychology
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Dr. Braddock received his Ph.D. from Florida State University (1973). He has previously held faculty/research appointments in the Department of Sociology, University of Maryland Park and The Johns Hopkins University, Center for Social Organization of Schools/Department of Sociology. His broad research interests in issues of inequality and social justice have been supported by public and private grants and contracts addressing equality of opportunities in education, employment, and sports. His work on these topics typically involves secondary analyses of large-scale national longitudinal data and address public policy issues.

Dr. Braddock previously served two terms on the National Educational Research Policy and Priorities Board which was established by Congress to develop a long-term research agenda and set priorities to guide the work of the Education Department's Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI). He is also the Director of the Center for Research on Sport in Society. This Center, working with individuals in South Florida and elsewhere, focuses on community-based projects emphasizing athletic activity and providing formative and summative evaluation expertise.
Dale D. Chitwood, Ph.D. (University of Kentucky, 1980)
Professor
Medical Sociology, Epidemiology, Drug Abuse, HIV/AIDS
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Dr. Chitwood is professor of medical sociology with secondary appointments at the School of Medicine within the Departments of Epidemiology & Public Health and Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences.

Professor Chitwood has conducted research for the past 25 years on drug and alcohol misuse, and since 1986 has been studying the relationship between HIV/AIDS and illicit drug use. He has been principal investigator of numerous research grants from NIH, CDC, and NIJ. Currently Dr. Chitwood is the principal investigator of a multi-year investigation of the efficacy of two behavioral interventions to reduce HIV-related risk behaviors among persons who sniff heroin. He also is a program leader in the NIDA-funded Drug Abuse and AIDS Research Center at the School of Medicine .

Dr. Chitwood has published extensively in the areas of drug misuse, HIV/AIDS, and health services research in a variety of peer-reviewed journals such as AIDS, AIDS Care, American Behavioral Scientist, American Journal of Public Health , Criminology, Drugs and Society, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, Environmental Health Perspectives, Human Organization, Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes and Human Retrovirology, Journal of Behavioral Health Services and Research, Journal of Behavioral Medicine, Journal of Drug Issues, Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Journal of Urban Health, Lancet, Medical Anthropology Quarterly, Population Research and Policy Review, Psychological Bulletin, Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, and Social Science and Medicine.
Marvin Dawkins, Ph.D. (Florida State, 1975)
Professor
Race & Ethnic Relations, Urban Sociology,
African American Studies
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Dr. Dawkins received his Ph.D. from Florida State University in 1975 and completed postdoctoral research at the Joint Center for Political Studies (Ford Foundation Public Policy Fellowship, 1975-76) and The Johns Hopkins University (NIE Fellowship-Center for Social Organization of Schools, 1979-80). He has held faculty appointments at the University of Maryland-College Park, Old Dominion University, and the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. His research has examined issues of race and social equity, focusing on such topics as alcohol and other substance abuse prevention, the long-term effects of school desegregation, behavior problems and minority youth, and sports and race relations in America.

He is co-author (with Graham C. Kinloch) of African American Golfers During the Jim Crow Era (Praeger, 2000) and has published articles in peer-reviewed journals, such as Journal of Drug Issues, International Journal of the Addictions, British Journal of Addiction, Journal of Alcohol and Drug Education, American Journal of Public Health, Journal of Black Studies, Black Scholar, Western Journal of Black Studies, Journal of Negro Education, Negro Educational Review, Urban Education, Sociological Spectrum, International Journal of Contemporary Sociology, Journal of Community Psychology, Journal of Social and Behavioral Sciences, among others.
Roger G. Dunham, Ph.D. (Washington State, 1977)
Professor
Policing, Juvenile Delinquency, Criminology
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Professor Roger Dunham earned his Ph.D. in sociology at Washington State University in 1977. His areas of interest are Policing, Juvenile Delinquency, Theories of Crime and Deviance, and Policing. His main criminology courses are SOC470 Theories of Deviant Behavior and SOC372 Police and Community.

His current research includes a research project on racial profiling (with Geoffrey Alpert) that analyzes police decision-making regarding the stopping, ticketing, and searching of citizens of different races. Another project involves drawing upon years of research on police-citizen interactions to construct a theory of police-citizen interactions called the Authority Maintenance Theory.

Professor Dunham's recent publications include Policing: Continuity and Change (Waveland Press, 2006), Critical Issues in Policing (Waveland Press, 2005), and Understanding Police Use of Force: Officers, Suspects, and Reciprocity ( Cambridge University Press, 2004)
Hai Fang, Ph.D. (SUNY-Stony Brook, 2006)
Research Assistant Professor
Health Economics
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- Flipse Building, Room 120
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Dr. Hai Fang earned his Ph.D. in Economics and his M.P.H at the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 2006. His primary area of research is health economics, with interests in physician behaviors, health insurance, managed care, health care disparities, and health outcomes research. Dr. Fang is currently studying the effects of patient consumerism on health care quality from the physician’s viewpoint, and health care disparities among Latinos. Dr. Fang’s recent publications include articles in the Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics and Archives of Internal Medicine.
Michael T. French, Ph.D. (Boston College, 1986)
Professor
Health Economics
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Dr. French is a professor of health economics in the Department of Sociology at the University of Miami, with secondary appointments in the Department of Economics and Department of Epidemiology and Public Health. He is also director of the Health Economics Research Group (www.miami.edu/herg) in the Department of Sociology and director of the Health Administration and Policy Program in the School of Business Administration. His experience includes policy and program evaluation, substance abuse research, health economics, cost and benefit analysis, human resource economics, and the economics of crime. He has been principal investigator or project leader on numerous research grants with the National Institutes of Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and several state agencies.

Dr. French is currently leading studies to estimate the economic costs and benefits of drug abuse services for adolescents (R01 DA018645), develop economic analysis methods for alcohol services and interventions (R01 AA13167), estimate the economic consequences of alcohol use disorders (R01 AA015695), and conduct economic evaluations of prison-based interventions for substance abusers in the criminal justice system (R01 DA14370). Recently, he was principal investigator for a multisite evaluation of enhanced workplace services for women and ethnic minority employees with substance abuse problems (R01 AA10318). He also directed a project on the impact of managed care and health care reforms on the drug abuse treatment system (P50 DA06990).

Dr. French served on the Health Services Research Initial Review Groups (IRG) for NIDA (1995-2004) and NIAAA (1998-2001), as well as various Extramural Contract Review Committees for the Public Health Service. He was a technical consultant for the National Science Foundation and a technical advisor on evaluation studies of health care programs for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In addition, he has provided expert testimony on the labor market effects of drug use and is a frequent referee for numerous peer-reviewed professional journals.

Dr. French has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles in a variety of multidisciplinary professional journals including Journal of Health Economics, American Journal of Public Health, Medical Care, Medical Care Research and Review, American Journal of Health Promotion, Health Services Research, Labour Economics, Social Science and Medicine, Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, Evaluation and Program Planning, Health Economics, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Law and Policy, Journal of Public Health Policy, Social Science Research, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, Applied Economics, Justice Quarterly, Public Health Reports, Evaluation and the Health Professions, Economics of Education Review, Journal of Internal Medicine, Social Science Quarterly, and Southern Economic Journal.
Terrence D. Hill, Ph.D. (University of Texas at Austin, 2006)
Assistant Professor
Medical Sociology, Social Epidemiology, Social Psychology, Research Methods
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Dr. Hill's research focuses on the social distribution of health and health-relevant behaviors. He is especially interested in the effects of religious involvement, neighborhood conditions, socioeconomic status, and social relationships.
Robert Johnson, Ph.D. (University of Utah, 1983)
Chairman and Professor
Medical Sociology, Life Course and Aging, Longitudinal Methods, Social Psychology, Deviance
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Professor Johnson specializes in medical sociology, life course and aging studies, and the social psychology of the self. His research interests involve the social and psychological correlates of physical health, and the social and physical correlates of mental health. Professor Johnson's recent publications have appeared in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, The Gerontologist, and the Journal of Aging and Health, Research on Aging and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Currently, he is investigating the impact of receiving help on perceived health status among older adults, the later stages in the life span and how they moderate the relationships among various dimensions of physical and mental health status, and the relationship between and common antecedents of depression and PTSD.
Krysia Mossakowski, Ph.D. (Indiana University, 2005)
Assistant Professor
Medical Sociology, Stress and Mental Health, Life Course, Race/Ethnicity, Social Psychology
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Dr. Krysia Mossakowski's research investigates the social and cultural determinants of health. Her recent articles in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior examine how the stress of discrimination impacts the mental health and physical health of different racial/ethnic groups. From a life course perspective, she is also interested in health disparities during specific life stages and whether the past can leave an imprint on psychological well-being. Using national longitudinal data, Dr. Mossakowski is currently studying how factors during the transition to adulthood predict depressive symptoms and heavy drinking many years later.
John Murphy, Ph.D. (Ohio State, 1981)
Professor
Sociological Theory, Social Philosophy, Culture/Globalization Studies
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Dr. Murphy received his Ph.D. degree in 1981 from Ohio State University. His interests are sociological theory, social philosophy, and globalization. He has published books related to the community mental health movement, the computerization of social service agencies, and contemporary social theory. His most recent books are Uriel Molina and the Sandinista Popular Movement (with Manuel J. Caro), La filosofía en la era de la globalización (with Alejandro Serrano Caldera), Globalization with a Human Face (with Jung Min Choi, and Manuel J. Caro), and The Body in Human Inquiry (with Vincent Berdayes and Luigi Esposito). His most recent articles include “Globalization and Medicine in Trinidad,” “Transracialism, multiculturalism, and community,” “El papel de la diversificacion critica en la sociedad contemporánea,” and “Ladiverdidad y el Nuevo contracto social.”
Amie L. Nielsen, Ph.D. (Delaware, 1997)
Associate Professor
Criminology, Deviance, and Quantitative Methods
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Amie L. Nielsen, Ph.D., is an associate professor of sociology. Dr. Nielsen's research interests are in the general areas of race/ethnicity, deviance and crime. Her research has focused on issues related to racial/ethnic differences in heavy alcohol use and drunkenness in adulthood and race differences in criminal behavior. Her current research centers on race/ethnicity, immigration and violence at the community level. Specifically, Dr. Nielsen is examining issues related to racial/ethnic composition, immigrant concentration and neighborhood effects for violent crime. She is also studying the neighborhood characteristics of high concentrations of alcohol outlets. Her recent publications have appeared or will appear in Criminology , Justice Quarterly , The Sociological Quarterly , Journal of Studies on Alcohol , Deviant Behavior , and elsewhere.
George P. Primov, Ph.D. (University of Washington, 1975)
Lecturer and Coordinator of Introductory Courses
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Prof. Primov's substantive interests are in the area of socioeconomic development, especially in Latin America. Dr. Primov previously served as Assistant Professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Subsequently, he worked two years as a technical advisor in rural sociology for a development project in Northeastern Brazil and for three and a half years for a similar project in Morocco; he has also worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development as a short-term consultant in various African and Latin American countries. For eight years he served as the Chief Technical Officer of a private sector consulting company in Miami.

He currently teaches various undergraduate courses and is responsible for coordinating the department's introductory courses SOC 101 Introduction to Sociology and SOC103 Social Problems
Jan Sokol-Katz, Ph.D. (University of Miami, 1993)
Lecturer
Juvenile Delinquency, Social Problems
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Dr. Jan Sokol-Katz received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Miami in 1993. Formerly with the Center for Research on Sport in Society at the University of Miami, she held the positions of Research Assistant Professor of Sociology and Principle Investigator of TEAMS: Teaching Excellence, Achievement, and Motivation through Sport, a grant housed in the Center. Dr. Sokol-Katz has written and published on issues related to delinquency and substance abuse and on adolescent athletic participation as it relates to gender, delinquency, and psycho-social development. Her articles have appeared in the Encyclopedia of Criminology and Deviant Behavior and the Encyclopedia of Violence in the U.S.; and in academic journals including Adolescence, International Journal of the Addictions, Sociological Spectrum, and Sociological Focus.
George Wilson, Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins University, 1995)
Associate Professor
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Professor Wilson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Miami. He earned his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1995 and his teaching and research interests focus on the institutional production of racial and ethnic inequality in the workplace and the social structural determinants of beliefs about the causes of racial and ethnic inequality as well as how minority groups perceive themselves and other groups in the American stratification system. He currently serves as a Deputy Editor of the American Sociological Review.