Alyssa Powell, PhD, MPH

Alyssa B. Powell, PhD, MPH

Assistant Professor, Public Health

Room 235
One Sand Shark Drive
Hilton Head Island, SC 29928

Office: 843-208-8111

abpowell@uscb.edu

CV_Powell.pdf

I, Dr. Alyssa Powell (previously Mayer), earned my doctorate (PhD) in Public Health and my MPH in Health Education from the Department of Community and Family Health at the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa, Florida in 2015 and 2011, respectively. I obtained my Certification in Public Health (CPH) from the National Board of Public Health Examiners (NBPHE) in 2011.

From 2009 until 2015, I worked as a research scientist for the Florida Prevention Research Center (FPRC) and Social Marketing Group (SMG), one of 26 academic-community partnerships funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO). As a member of the Evaluation and Dissemination team at the FPRC / SMG , I was responsible for conducting research for the core center activities, including both formative and summative evaluations of clinical interventions, as well as disseminating this research through numerous first-authored journal articles, book chapters, and oral presentations both in the United States and abroad. In addition, I served as the editorial assistant for the Journal of School Health, a major peer-reviewed publication, from 2011 to 2015.

I completed a postdoctoral research fellowship with the Center for Health Equity Research at Northern Arizona University (NAU), where I collaborated on several large grants addressing health disparities in the American Southwest. At NAU, the transdisciplinary team used implementation science to address health disparities among Native American populations. I was involved in writing two major National Institute of Health (NIH) grants (U54 and R01) to establish a Transdisciplinary Collaborative Center (TCC) to develop and disseminate effective interventions implemented in real-world settings to address health disparities among regional Native American populations.

Since accepting my current position as Assistant Professor of Public Health at USCB, I have taught courses in epidemiology, research methods, behavioral theory, scholarly writing, health disparities, and program development and evaluation. I recently completed a qualitative research study exploring social isolation and mental distress among military veterans in the Lowcountry. My current research continues examining mental health, with a focus on serving local populations.