exterior shot of west entrance to Huff Hall

New Faculty

AHS E-News September 2021

The College of Applied Health Sciences welcomed two new assistant professors to its faculty ranks.

head shot of Dr. Rachel HoopsickDr. Rachel Hoopsick joined the Department of Kinesiology and Community Health in August. She completed master’s degrees in epidemiology and public health, with a focus on health services administration, and a PhD in community health and health behavior at the University at Buffalo. Prior to joining AHS, she was an NIH National Research Service Award (NRSA) postdoctoral fellow in the University at Buffalo’s Department of Family Medicine Addiction Management Track, where she assisted with research on the opioid intervention court strategy and social and environmental influences on substance abuse among reservists. She also worked during this time as a clinical epidemiologist with the Horizon Corporations.

Dr. Hoopsick said that at this time of reckoning with the legacy of systemic inequality and racial injustice in the United States, and in the midst of a global pandemic, it was important that she join an institution that shares her values. “In my interactions with faculty, staff, and students in the College of Applied Health Sciences, it became apparent that I would be stepping into a role where kindness and compassion are key and public health is paramount,” she said.

Her research applied epidemiological methods and a socioecological perspective to understanding the risk and resilience factors associated with substance abuse and mental health. Dr. Hoopsick is a Master Certified Health Education Specialist through the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing. In 2019, she received the Outstanding Doctoral Achievement Award from the Department of Community Health and Health Behavior at the University at Buffalo.

head shot of Dr. Soyoung ChoiDr. Soyoung Choi will join the Department of Kinesiology and Community Health in October. She currently is a research assistant professor in the College of Nursing at Yonsei University in South Korea, where she teaches classes in nursing research, pathophysiology, and management of adult health problems. She completed baccalaureate and master’s degrees in nursing at Yonsei University, and a PhD in nursing at The Pennsylvania State University in 2020. She also holds several certifications in information technology and data science, including from IBM, the University of Michigan, and Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Choi’s recent work focuses on the development and dissemination of personalized health care programs for people who are blind to support their independent living and healthy aging. The bottom line of her research is that changes in health behaviors should be recommended to health consumers who are blind after an analysis of digital biomarkers collected from wearable devices, traditional biomarkers, and lifestyle patterns.

With her background in nursing science, Dr. Choi decided to join AHS because of the many opportunities it offers for intellectual exploration and cross-disciplinary study. “By collaborating with diverse experts in health-related domains, informatics, and engineering, and with promising students in the College of Applied Health Sciences, I want to contribute to reducing disparities in health care,” she said. In 2019, she was a finalist for the Nursing Investigator Award given by the Heart Failure Society of America.

head shot of Dr. Katherine ChestnutDr. Katherine “Kat” Chestnut, Au.D. , CCC-A /L joined the Department of Speech and Hearing Science as a clinical assistant professor. She received both her BS in Speech and Hearing Science and her AuD from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. As a doctoral student, Dr. Chestnut served as a teaching assistant for two courses, Communication Partners and Health and Hearing Processes and Disorders. She was also received the Frances L. Johnson Award in 2017. Since completing her AuD, Dr. Chestnut has worked as a clinical audiologist for Carle Audiology & Hearing Services, conducting comprehensive audiometry, selecting and programming hearing aids, conducting ABR assessments, counseling patients, and evaluating, selecting, and programming BAHA devices for adults.

 

Back to the September 2021 AHS E-News