Bio

On October 1, 2004, Dr. O'Rourke began employment at the University of South Florida as an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and the Research Director at the Lawton and Rhea Chiles Center for Healthy Mothers and Babies. She has served as the location lead investigator for two sites of the National Children's Study: Hillsborough County and Orange County, Florida. Her research focus at USF continues and expands upon her interests in developing and evaluating programs that can address health disparities among minority MCH populations within community-based settings. Her interest in community-based research began with her dissertation, an evaluation of a traditional Birth attendant training program in Guatemala City, Guatemala. She has conducted a number of MCH research projects on the US/Mexico border, and is currently evaluating the relationship of PTSD and reproductive outcomes among women in the military.

In terms of teaching, Dr. O'Rourke currently co-teaches in Epidemiology Methods 2 and 3, as well as an advanced infectious disease class and a collaborative class on Child Health. She has also developed and taught a comprehensive undergraduate online class in introductory Epidemiology which is an integral part of our upcoming undergraduate Public Health major and minor. She is committed to developing her expertise in online teaching methodologies.