Faculty

Archana J. McEligot, Ph.D.

Project Director
Professor, Department of Health Science
E-mail: amceligot@fullerton.edu

Archana J. McEligot, Ph.D., Professor of Health Science, is the project director.  She is the recipient of an NIH career development award and awardee of several intramural grants addressing dietary intakes and lifestyle behaviors, including BMI in underserved and at-risk populations.  Her research also focuses on gene by diet interactions, specifically DNA repair genes and MTHFR polymorphic variants in relation to survival after breast cancer diagnosis.  Furthermore, Dr. McEligot has extensive experience in curriculum development, guiding students, and helping diverse students succeed.  She has taught nutrition-related topics to undergraduate, graduate, and medical students and has mentored nearly 30 students in research projects since 2006; two of her students have been recognized for outstanding theses, and several have co-published and/or presented at scientific meetings.  She has also been recognized by CSUF’s honor society as an outstanding faculty member for involving students in research. 

Erualdo González, Ph.D.

Co-Project Director
Assistant Professor, Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies
E-mail: egonzalez@fullerton.edu

Erulado González is the project co-director.  Dr. González’s research examines policy and practice in Mexican and working-class immigrant urban centers, grassroots coalition social change models, the role of “healthy communities” projects on local urban planning policy change, and Latino immigrant participation in local planning decision-making. He has approximately 15 years of evaluation, strategic planning, and participatory action research experience with healthy communities initiatives and related projects, including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Communities Creating Healthy Environments Initiative, the California Endowment’s Building Healthy Communities Initiative, and the California Wellness Foundation’s Children and Youth Community Health Initiative in California.

Laura Chandler, Dr. PH., MPH

Co-investigators
Full-time Lecturer, Department of Health Science
E-mail: lchandler@fullerton.edu

Dr. Chandler’s expertise is in intrinsic and extrinsic motivation related to lifestyle behaviors, specifically diet and physical activity.  Dr. Chandler completed her doctorate degree at Loma Linda University with an emphasis in health education and promotion.  Dr. Chandler has served as advisor for all undergraduate HESC majors and minors, helping them identify appropriate courses and select a track and guiding them to graduate. During her tenure, the HESC department has experienced a five-fold increase in student enrollment and interest.  Dr. Laura Chandler is responsible for student advisement and outreach, and will oversee the new course on Childhood Obesity, Nutrition and Social Context. 

Natalie Tran, Ph.D.

Evaluator
Research Design and Analysis Faculty Coordinator
E-mail: natran@fullerton.edu

Dr. Natalie Tran has expertise in program design and analysis and is lead evaluator. Her research focuses on instructional practices and social contexts affecting student achievement in science, and she has conducted studies examining teacher practice and instructional strategies affecting student learning in the classroom. Her methodological interests include hierarchical linear modeling, experimental 25 design, quasi-experimental design, and case studies. She was the co-PI for the California State University Bakersfield Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program—Phase I, 2009–2014 and senior personnel on the Central California Partnership for Teacher Quality Programs (CCPTQP), 2010–2015, to improve the quality of science, mathematics, and special education. She also serves as the program evaluator for the public/private partnership Research Experience Vitalizing Science—University Program (REVS-UP), aimed at promoting the interest of high school students in STEM disciplines and improving the quality of K-12 science and math teachers. She holds a Ph.D. in education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.