Virginia Dodd, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Health Education and Behavior

College of Health and Human Performance

2011 Awardee

Virginia Dodd’s scholarly interests lie in the areas of social marketing, high-risk drinking, injury prevention, and oral health. Dodd is also a nationally recognized expert in applying social marketing theory to the public health problem of injury prevention.

One of Dodd’s NIH grants addresses the contemporary issue of health disparities. As Co-Investigator, Dodd co-founded UF’s Southeast Center for Research in Reducing Disparities in Oral Health. With colleagues from University of Florida’s College of Dentistry and College of Medicine, University of South Florida’s College of Public Health, and the H. Le Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Dodd is actively involved in a number of NIH-funded research projects related to prevention and treatment of oral cancer in medically underserved populations.

Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Dodd has studied high-risk alcohol consumption among young adults. Findings from this research have been published in the Journal of American College Health and Journal of Community Health, and were presented at the American Public Health Association, American Academy for Health Behavior, and American College Health Association.

Dodd has served the U.S. Department of Education as a grant reviewer, site visitor, and member of the expert planning panel for their 2010 annual meeting. Dodd also serves as an ad hoc grant reviewer for several NIH study sections.

Dodd continues to work with the Florida Department of Health Office of Injury Prevention through service on the Florida Injury Prevention Advisory Council and participate annually in the Injury Prevention 101 course offered to injury prevention workers in Florida. In recognition and appreciation for Dodd’s work in the field of injury prevention the Florida Department of Health Office of Injury Prevention presented Dodd with the 2010 Florida Injury Prevention Award.

Past interviews with both local and non-local media sources, including the New York Times, Milwaukee Sentinel Journal, Chicago Tribune, Education Technology News, Men’s Health, Child Magazine, The Delaware Review, and La Tercera Newspaper (Santiago Chile), have all resulted in published stories referencing Dodd’s work.