Biography

Dr. Ellen Daley, the Associate Dean for Research and Practice, is a Professor at the College of Public Health. Dr. Daley is a behavioral researcher with interests in women's health, health literacy, reproductive health, Human Papillomavirus (HPV) prevention, adolescent health and health risk-taking behaviors. 

These related interests began when Dr. Daley became involved with the Women's Health Movement (WHM) in the 1970's, and continued through the organization of several women's health centers in New York, Michigan and Florida. A long-time activist and advocate of women's reproductive health rights and equality in research, Dr. Daley is the Associate Director for Women’s Health at the Chiles Center, a nationally recognized and innovative center that was created to address health issues of women, children and families.

Dr. Daley’s role as Associate Dean is to create and sustain a cohort-based doctoral training program at the USF College of Public Health that bridges the two major activities of Public Health: research addressed at improving the nations’ health at a population level, and practice, which is “public health on the ground.” Groups of PhD and DrPH students will be encouraged to work together to improve both the training, the practice and the future of Public Health. In addition, these students will be given opportunities to work with our community partners to collaborate on practical, real-world interventions and solutions.

Prior to becoming an Associate Dean, Dr. Daley served as the Chair of the College of Public Health’s Research Committee, the Co-Director of the Center for Transdisciplinary Research in Women’s Health (CTR-WH), and as a Core Faculty Member of CRUSH, the Collaborative for Research in Understanding Sexual Health, along with Drs. Stephanie Marhefka and Cheryl Vamos.

Dr. Daley serves as the Certificate Program Director for the Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate in Women's Health, a program that she developed in conjunction with faculty across the USF campus, encompassing four colleges and 9 departments. Also in conjunction with the colleges of Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy in USF Health, Dr. Daley created and supervised a research and training program called The Women's Health Collaborative. This long-standing program brought together teams of graduate students from across disciplines to address health care issues among marginalized and uninsured women.  Dr. Daley has directed several large research projects related to improving women's health issues. From 2002-2005, she directed a study for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that assessed the impact of an HPV-related diagnosis in women who are at increased risk of cervical cancer. She has also directed a large study for the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that assessed the cognitive and emotional responses to an HPV diagnosis in men (R01 CA123346-01). She is currently directing an NIH-funded research project on HPV-related oropharyngeal cancers, and the role of health literacy in the prevention of those cancers. She has planned and implemented innovative research studies that approaches women’s health through the oral/systemic connection of health – a truly transdisciplinary approach that involves collaborators from across USF and other state universities in Florida.

Dr. Daley sits on national advisory boards for the HPV vaccine and for women’s health curriculum, and on state advisory boards for cancer research and control. She also is the past-President of the Association of Teachers of Maternal and Child Health (ATMCH) – a national organization that serves as the academic arm of MCH programs across the U.S. ATMCH is dedicated to promoting excellence and innovation in teaching among faculty and graduate students.