Dr. Christine McGuire-Wolfe is a certified paramedic and firefighter II in the state of Florida with a unique connection to the emergency responder community. In 2020, she retired after 18 years in the fire service with eleven years of experience as an Infection Control Officer (ICO). She currently serves as an Assistant Professor at USF’s College of Public Health where she teaches and supervises students within the Infection Control program.

Her research focuses on infection control/prevention and occupational issues as they relate to health and safety of emergency responders. Dr. McGuire-Wolfe continues her involvement as a volunteer with a small city (non-transport) fire department. She remains committed to including EMS/Fire Service personnel and stakeholder guidance in all her research and program planning for emergency responders.

With her experience and fire service in mind, she assumes full responsibility for the research study, along with the project’s planning, recruitment, analysis, and dissemination of the results to come.

Anna Torrens-Armstrong, PhD, MPH, CPH, MCHES has extensive experience in formative research methods, including focus group development and facilitation, interviews, and observations. She will provide support in the review of curriculum, message, and curriculum development, pretesting, and the use of the intervention mapping process. She will guide the use of learning theories in addition to relevant behavior change theories as they apply to this project.

Kelli Barr, PhD, has initiated and coordinated several multi-institution human subject research studies to identify pathogens and conduct seroprevalence and risk factors analysis for vector-borne infections. She also has extensive experience in performing microbial diagnostics with environmental specimens collected from fire stations and engines. This experience has prepared her well to provide microbial diagnostics, explore microbial contamination in fire departments and identify best practices for infection control for this project. She will provide education, research, and training to the program.

Candace Burns, PhD, has extensive experience in occupational safety and health leadership for the project. She will provide expertise in curriculum evaluation, innovative instructional methodologies, interdisciplinary education and training, and program administration.

Ann Joyce, PhD, has extensive experience conducting needs assessments, curriculum design, and formative and summative assessments. In her role on this project, Dr. Joyce will help develop a robust formative information-gathering plan, that may include focus groups, observations, assessments, and hands-on activities, and she will oversee the Lifelong Learning Academy.

Marisa Varela, EMT-B, MPH, CPH, has worked as an EMT in several private ambulance transport services in the Tampa Bay area and is currently employed with Citrus County Fire Rescue. In 2021, she earned a BS in Health Sciences from USF and went on to complete her MPH-IC program at USF in 2022.  In the Fall of 2022, Marisa completed an Applied Practice Experience (APE) at the Citrus County Health Department, focusing on sexually transmitted infections in pregnant women. Her Integrated Learning Experience (ILE) was titled Illicit Drug Abuse and Its Impact on Rates of Infection. In January 2024 Marisa will begin a Master of Physician Assistant Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. As a research specialist/program manager on this project, Marisa provides project coordination and contributes to research findings for publications, papers, and presentations. 

Dr. Jill Ireland is a resident at the University of South Florida Occupational Medicine Residency Training Program and a USF COPH student, Masters of Science in Public Health – Occupational and Environmental Concentration. She obtained her medical degree from the University of Central Florida and served in the Navy as a physician for nearly six years. In the summer of 2022, Dr. Ireland completed a four-year tour as a Naval Flight surgeon and Occupational Medicine provider for Naval Air Station Key West where she served as a primary care provider for the active duty population as well as conducted annual comprehensive examinations, surveillance evaluations and injury prevention for civilian employees including firefighters from NAS Key West Fire Department. She will provide education, research, and training to the program.

Jessica Monaghan, BS, USF COPH student, Master of Public Health – Epidemiology and Global Communicable Diseases, has worked as a research assistant for Dr. Milton’s StopCOVID study, where she performed PCR on collected samples. She earned her BS in Public Health Science from UMD in 2022, and is set to earn her MPH-EGD in Fall 2024. She is also working towards a graduate certificate in Infection Control. As a research assistant, she will coordinate sampling of station, apparatus, and equipment for pathogens, perform PCR testing on samples, and contribute towards publications.

Shane Skibba, BS, is employed at a private ambulance transport company, where he works on both BLS and ALS crews. Shane graduated from USF in the Spring of 2023 with a bachelor of science in Biomedical Sciences and a minor in Public Health and Biomedical Physics. His undergraduate thesis through USF's Honors College, conducted with the cooperation of Tampa General Hospital, was titled "How COVID-19 Has Changed Emergency Medical Services Perspectives of Personal Protective Equipment: A Qualitative Study". Shane is currently enrolled in medical school in south Florida.