Florida State / Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy / Directory / Faculty

Faculty

John R. Reynolds, Ph.D
		Director of the Pepper Institute Professor of Sociology Email- john.reynolds@fsu.edu Website- John R. Reynolds Phone- (850) 644-8825
Bio: John Reynolds' recent awards include the Sociology Department's Award in 2000, the University Teaching Award at Florida State University in 2001, and 2008, and the SGSU 2001 and 2007 awards for contributions to graduate education in the sociology department. Reynolds' current research examines various educational trends--including women's recent gains in higher education relative to men and the dramatic rise in teenagers' plans to get a four-year or graduate degree--and their implications for educational inequality.

Anne Barrett, Ph.D.
		Associate Professor of Sociology Email- abarrett@garnet.acns.fsu.edu Website- Anne Barrett Phone- (850) 644-2833
Bio:Anne Barrett received her Ph.D. from Duke University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research at Rutgers University. Her research uses a social psychological perspective to examine the relationships among family roles, health, gender, and aging. Her recent projects include an examination of women's aging anxieties and their links with current psychological distress and an analysis of undergraduate students' perceptions of elders and the aging process.

Charles Barrilleaux, Ph.D.
		Professor of Political Science Email- cbarrile@garnet.acns.fsu.edu Website- Charles Barrilleaux Phone- (850) 644-7643
Bio: Ph.D., SUNY-Binghamton, 1985. Major research interests are in state politics, policy and administration.

Jason Barabas, Ph.D.
		Associate Professor of Political Science Email- jason.barabas@fsu.edu Website- Jason Barabas Phone- (850) 644-7595
Bio: Dr. Barabas studies how citizens learn about policy issues from the mass media and interpersonal deliberation as well as public attitudes toward privatization in America. Ongoing research projects include the relationship between public opinion and public policy, the effects of the information environment on public knowledge and attitudes, and the politics of stock market investing with an emphasis on private investment accounts. He teaches several courses in the Master's in Public Health program in the College of Social Science, and several of his recent papers are on preferences toward or knowledge of the Medicare and Social Security programs in the United States.

Kenneth Brummel-Smith, M.D.
		Professor & Chair, Department of Geriatrics, College of Medicine Email- ken.brummel-smith@med.fsu.edu Website- Kenneth Brummel-Smith Phone (850) 644-2291
Bio: Dr. Brummel-Smith is the Charlotte Edwards Maguire Professor of Geriatrics and the chair of the Department of Geriatrics at the FSU College of Medicine. He is editor of five textbooks, Geriatric Rehabilitation, Practical Ambulatory Geriatrics, Interviewing and Patient Care, Geriatric Assessment, and Reichel’s Care of the Elderly. His research has addressed the effect of a support group on caregivers of patients with Alzheimer’s disease, methods of assessing pain in persons with Alzheimer’s disease, and advance care planning. He serves on the National Advisory Council on Aging for the National Institute on Aging.

Neil H. Charness, Ph.D.
		Professor of Psychology Email- charness@psy.fsu.edu Website- Neil H. Charness Phone- (850) 644-6686
Bio: Neil H. Charness joined the Florida State University as a Professor of Psychology in 1994. His research focuses on: 1) age and human factors-trying to understand how best to design technology for effective use by older adults; 2) age and sign perception - using human factors techniques to understand how best to design and deploy pedestrian and driver traffic signs and signals; and 3) age and expertise-trying to understand how acquired skill may compensate for age-related declines in cognitive efficiency.

Gary M. Fournier, Ph.D.
		Professor of Economics Email- gfournie@coss.fsu.edu Website- Gary M. Fournier Phone (850) 644-5001
Bio: Gary M. Fournier is a health economist and Professor of Economics at Florida State University. Dr. Fournier's degrees are from the University of Florida and the University of Virginia. His expertise includes empirical research in health economics, applied microeconomics and industrial organization. His recent interests include the airline industry, information diffusion in medical treatment decisions, risk and quality issues in hospitals and health maintenance organizations, medical malpractice, and the problems of access to health care and insurance.

Jill B. Quadagno, Ph.D.
		Mildred and Claude Pepper Eminent Scholar and Professor of Sociology Email- jquadagn@coss.fsu.edu Phone- (850) 644-8827
Bio: Jill B. Quadagno is Professor of Sociology at Florida State University where she holds the Mildred and Claude Pepper Eminent Scholar Chair in Social Gerontology. She has been a recipient of a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the National Science Foundation, a National Science Foundation Visiting Professorship for Women, the Distinguished Scholar Award of the ASA Section on Aging, a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, and an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship. In 1994 she served as Senior Policy Advisor on the President's Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform. Her most recent book is One Nation, Uninsured: Why the U.S. Has No National Health Insurance (Oxford 2005).

Deana Rohlinger, Ph.D.
		Associate Professor of Sociology Email- drohling@fsu.edu Website- Deana Rohlinger Phone- (850) 644-2493
Bio: Deana Rohlinger received her doctorate at the University of California, Irvine. Her research examines links between gender, social movements, and political change. Her current projects include an analysis of civic and political engagement over the life course. Her research also examines how movement-countermovement dynamics affect media strategies and outcomes.

Miles Taylor, Ph.D.
		Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology Email- mtaylor3@fsu.edu Website- Miles Taylor Phone- (850) 644-5418
Bio:Dr. Taylor is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology. She received her Ph. D. at Duke University in 2005 and her postdoctoral fellowship at the Carolina Population Center, UNC-Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on physical and mental health among older adults, including functional impairment, chronic disease, and mortality. Her most recent project deals with racial disparities in disability trajectories across later life and the intersection of demographic, contextual, psychological, and interpersonal factors in the disablement process that fuel race differences. She is also interested in marital and family relationships across the life course, including the enduring relationship of marital quality and health and the effects of grandparents in the lives of adolescents.

William G. Weissert, Ph.D.
		Professor of Political Science Email- wweisser@fsu.edu Website- William G. Weissert Phone- (850) 644-5727
Bio: The Claremont Graduate School, 1972. Principal research and teaching interests are health policy and home care, especially its cost-effectiveness and the potential of using incentive payment methods to improve it.