Journal of Community Medicine & Health Education
Open Access

W. Jay Christian

W. Jay Christian
Assistant Professor
School of Public Health
University of Kentucky
USA

Biography

Dr. W. Jay Christian is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health.  Before his appointment to the faculty he was a staff epidemiologist at the Markey Cancer Control Program, College of Medicine from 2003 to 2013, and before that worked for several years at the Kentucky Injury Prevention & Research Center.  Dr. Christian’s research experience includes topics such as injury prevention, smoking-related cancers, health disparities in Appalachia, environmental epidemiology, and the built environment and obesity.  He primarily contributes to research studies through spatial analysis of health-related data, using geographic information systems (GIS), Global Positioning System (GPS), and spatial statistics.

Dr. Christian completed the MPH degree with a focus on epidemiology in 2003 at the University of Kentucky.  He subsequently attained a Ph.D. in Geography from the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Kentucky in 2013.  His research in that department was funded by the National Science Foundation, and investigated innovative techniques for describing the accessibility of food stores and restaurants based on GPS tracking of individuals.

Dr. Christian teaches CPH 310: Disease Detectives, an introduction to the discipline of epidemiology for undergraduate students; and soon another undergraduate course, CPH 202: Public Health through Popular Film.  His future interests include development of a graduate-level course in spatial analysis and GIS, and further research into the use of these techniques for assessment of environmental exposures.

Research Interest

Epidemiology, Public Health, Community Medicine & Health Education

Publications