Leadership Team
The Consortium is led by a team at the University of Florida consisting of faculty and staff across the College of Pharmacy, College of Public Health & Health Professions, and College of Medicine.
Almut G. Winterstein, RPh, PhD, FISPE
Consortium Director
Professor & Chair, Pharmaceutical Outcomes & Policy
Dr. Robert and Barbara Crisafi Chair for
Pharmaceutical Outcomes & Policy
College of Pharmacy
University of Florida
Read more about Dr. Winterstein
Almut Winterstein, RPh, PhD, FISPE received her pharmacy degree from Friedrich Wilhelm University in Bonn, Germany and her PhD in Pharmacoepidemiology from the Charité Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany.
She holds the position of Professor and Chair in the Department of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy at the College of Pharmacy, and an affiliate appointment in the Department of Epidemiology at the Colleges of Medicine and Public Health and Health Professions, both at the University of Florida.
In 2017, she was named the Dr. Robert and Barbara Crisafi Chair in recognition of her research on evaluating drug safety and effectiveness in real-world populations and on devising ways to improve medication use.
Since joining the UF College of Pharmacy in 2000, Dr. Winterstein has served as principal investigator on more than 25 extramurally funded grants and contracts and published more than 300 manuscripts and conference abstracts. Her research interests have centered on the post-marketing evaluation of drugs in pediatrics and perinatal care, infectious disease and psychiatry and the evaluation and improvement of quality surrounding medication use using real-world data.
As an internationally recognized expert in drug safety, she has chaired the Food and Drug Administration’s Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee from 2012-2018. Recognizing her contributions in pharmacoepidemiology, Dr. Winterstein was inducted as a fellow of the International Society of Pharmacoepidemiology in 2013 and started her term as president-elect of the society in 2018.
Before she became department chair in 2016, Dr. Winterstein served as graduate program director in her department, which included responsibility for a MS program for the FDA. She has chaired a total of 21 PhD committees and has served as member on several others in her department, and the Departments of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Statistics.
Robert L. Cook, MD, MPH
Consortium Associate Director
Professor, Epidemiology, Medicine
Director, Southern HIV & Alcohol
Research Consortium (SHARC)
College of Public Health & Health Professions
College of Medicine
University of Florida
Read more about Dr. Cook
Robert L. Cook, MD, MPH is a Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Florida, with a joint appointment in the Division of General Internal Medicine.
Over the past 20 years, Dr. Cook’s research has focused on strategies to improve health outcomes related to HIV and sexually transmitted diseases. He is the Director of the Southern HIV Alcohol Research Consortium (SHARC), which supports collaborative research and training related to alcohol and HIV infection across the state of Florida.
Dr. Cook’s research is translational, ranging from basic science to implementation science, and he is currently the PI or MPI of 4 major NIH grants with over $10 million in total research support.
Most recently, Dr. Cook has begun to study the effects of marijuana on HIV-related health and cognition, the systemic connections between the gut microbiome and neuro-inflammation, the use of clinical information systems to improve quality of clinical pain management, and the use of real-time monitoring to measure alcohol consumption.
Mentoring is also an important aspect of Dr. Cook’s academic career. He has served as PhD dissertation chair for 7 students, PhD committee member for over 20 students, and mentor for numerous additional trainees, post-docs and junior faculty. When not working, Dr. Cook spends time with his family, plays in a rock-and-roll band, and tries to improve his tennis skills.
When not working, Dr. Cook spends time with his family, plays in a rock-and-roll band, and tries to improve his tennis skills.
Amie J. Goodin, PhD, MPP
Faculty Lead – Evidence
Assistant Professor, Pharmaceutical Outcomes & Policy
College of Pharmacy
University of Florida
Read more about Dr. Goodin
Amie J. Goodin, PhD, MPP is an Assistant Professor within the Department of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy (POP) at the University of Florida.
Dr. Goodin received her Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Kentucky (UK) and completed her Doctor of Philosophy degree at UK’s Martin School of Public Policy, with specialization in pharmaceutical outcomes and an additional Certificate in Informatics.
She completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at University of Florida POP, specializing in pharmacoepidemiology methods while continuing her work in Health Services Research.
Dr. Goodin previously worked at the Institute for Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy as well as the Center for the Advancement of Pharmacy Practice, both of which were housed in the UK College of Pharmacy.
Currently, Dr. Goodin’s research projects incorporate mixed-method approaches to assess the impact of policy changes related to treatment access and utilization for Substance Use Disorders, particularly among persons enrolled in Medicaid and pregnant women.
Yan Wang, PhD
Faculty Lead – Clinical Core
Assistant Professor, Epidemiology
College of Public Health & Health Professions
University of Florida
Read more about Dr. Wang
Yan Wang, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Florida.
Dr. Wang has training and expertise in both psychology and epidemiology. She received her MS and PhD in Child and Family Studies from Syracuse University in 2013.
She joined the Department of Epidemiology as a postdoctoral research associate in 2014, working on NIH funded projects on risk behaviors among rural-to-urban migrants in China. In 2016, she was promoted to Research Assistant Scientist.
With an interdisciplinary perspective, her research focuses on leveraging advanced methodology and new technology (e.g., wearable sensor) to improve health behavior monitoring and intervention. One of her current research projects focuses on improving alcohol use monitoring using a wearable alcohol biosensor and ecological momentary assessment.
Dr. Wang has also worked on a number of NIH funded projects including those on mental health and risk behaviors among rural-to-urban migrants in China, alcohol use and marijuana use among persons living with HIV/AIDS in Florida, and advanced quantum modeling on sexual risk behaviors.
One of her research papers, “Stress and Alcohol Use in Rural Chinese Residents: A Moderated Mediation Model Examining the Roles of Resilience and Negative Emotions” published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence has been recognized by the Matilda White Riley Early Stage Investigator Honor Program, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (NIH/OBSSR).
Josh Brown, PharmD, PhD, MS
Faculty Lead – MEMORY
Assistant Professor, Pharmaceutical Outcomes & Policy
College of Pharmacy
University of Florida
Read more about Dr. Brown
Joshua Brown joined the Department of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy as an assistant professor in 2016.
He has experience in clinical pharmacy, health economics and outcomes research, and pharmacoepidemiology across academic, pharmaceutical industry, and managed care. His past and ongoing clinical interests have been in the cardiovascular and hematology/oncology therapeutic areas including comparative effectiveness and safety research with a focus on anticoagulation and quality of care in thrombotic conditions such as atrial fibrillation, venous thromboembolism, and cancer.
His current research program and collaborations focus on research methods for pharmacoepidemiologic and pharmacoeconomic generic and biosimilar evaluations, developing real-world evidence for drug-drug interactions, and drug repurposing studies (e.g. aging and Parkinson’s Disease).
In 2017, Dr. Brown was named a Claude D. Pepper Junior Scholar to conduct translational research in geriatric pharmacoepidemiology and healthy aging. His academic work has been funded by the NIH, FDA, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the PhRMA Foundation in addition to contracts with pharmaceutical industry.
Dr. Brown has published over 80 research articles and holds several editorial positions with high impact specialty journals in pharmacy and cardiovascular diseases and is actively involved in AMCP, ISPE, and ISPOR scientific societies. He was awarded as the AMCP Foundation’s “New Practitioner” for his early career contributions to managed care pharmacy.
Jeevan Jyot, PhD, PMP
Program Coordinator
College of Pharmacy
University of Florida
Read more about Dr. Jyot
Jeevan Jyot, PhD, PMP received her PhD in Microbiology and Molecular Biology from the Institute of Microbial Technology (India) and completed her postdoctoral fellowship and was an Assistant Scientist at Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Florida. In addition she has Project Management Professional credentials.
Dr. Jyot has previously served as Research Program Coordinator at Division of Research Program Development (DRPD) at Office of Research at University of Florida. Currently, Dr. Jyot is part of the Department of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy (POP) at the University of Florida and serves the Medical Marijuana Clinical Outcomes Research Consortium.
Anna Shavers, MPA
Communications Specialist
College of Public Health & Health Professions
University of Florida
Read more about Anna
Anna Shavers, MPA is the Communications Specialist of the Consortium for Medical
Marijuana Clinical Outcomes Research.
Anna received her Master of Public Administration with a focus in Public Health Administration at Troy University. Her background includes various roles in marketing, communications, and health outreach initiatives.
Before joining the Consortium for Medical Marijuana Clinical Outcomes Research, Anna served with the Peace Corps as a Community HIV/AIDS Outreach Coordinator in South Africa.
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The Consortium aims to connect individuals interested in research, providers and physicians, investigators and researchers, and industry collaborators together.
Through research and networking opportunities to product and priority recommendations, we will advance our understanding of medical marijuana use.
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