David H. Holben
David H. Holben, Ph.D., RDN, LD, FAND, is a registered dietitian nutritionist and former commissioned officer in the United States Army Reserves Medical Specialist Corps. Holben completed his doctoral studies at The Ohio State University in Columbus. Building upon a clinical nutrition and basic science background, his research focuses on food insecurity and health outcomes of individuals in North America. Of particular interests are exploring the relationship of diabetes, obesity, and other conditions to food access across the lifespan, and optimizing solutions for food access and security to promote health and wellness.
John Green
John J. Green, Ph.D., is director of the Center for Population Studies and professor of sociology at the University of Mississippi, where he also serves as director of the minor in society and health and affiliated faculty with the School of Law. He served in several capacities at Delta State University prior to joining the UM faculty. Green’s research and teaching interests include population studies to inform community development and population health. His bachelor’s degree in political science and master’s degree in sociology are from Mississippi State University, and he obtained a Ph.D. in rural sociology from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Green has authored or co-authored published articles for peer-reviewed journals along with book chapters in several edited volumes. His professional achievements have been recognized through the Rural Sociological Society’s Award for Excellence in Extension and Public Outreach and the Community Development Society’s Ted K. Bradshaw Outstanding Research Award. He served as editor-in-chief of Community Development, a peer-reviewed journal of the Community Development Society, for five years, and he is currently president-elect of the Southern Rural Sociological Association.
Dawn Wilkins
Dawn Wilkins, Ph.D., is professor and chair of the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Mississippi. She joined the university in 1995 after completing her Ph.D. in computer science at Vanderbilt University. Her research is primarily in machine learning, bioinformatics, artificial intelligence, and database and natural language processing. She is a longtime supporter of cross- and multidisciplinary collaboration, having worked with faculty and researchers in a number of different fields. Wilkins is serving as interim co-lead of the Big Data Flagship Constellation.
Richard L. Summers
Richard L. Summers, M.D., is a native of Gulfport, Mississippi, and graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi in mathematics in 1977. He received his medical degree from the University of Mississippi Medical Center in 1981 after which he entered its residency program in internal medicine. Summers then began graduate studies and completed a research fellowship under Drs. Arthur C. Guyton and Thomas G. Coleman in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics. Since 1988, Summers has been a faculty member in various roles, including chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine. He currently serves as the associate vice chancellor for research and holds joint appointments in the departments of Emergency Medicine and Physiology and Biophysics and is a fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians.
Summers’ career interests include both basic science and clinical investigations in cardiovascular disease and in the study of physiologic adaptations of humans to microgravity during spaceflight. His research focus has been on the use of computer models for hypothesis formulation and systems analysis to answer biomedical questions. He has co-authored over 300 publications and has received research awards from the American Heart Association and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine. Summers was previously the lead scientist for the NASA Digital Astronaut Project.