James E. Rivers,
Ph.D. University of Kentucky, 1979

Dr. Rivers has 30 years of applied sociological research experience with emphases in behavioral health systems studies. His publications have appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, American Behavioral Scientists, Social Science Quarterly, Journal of Social Indicators, Population Research and Policy Review, Advances in Medical Sociology, Substance Use and Misuse, Drugs and Society, Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, and others. He has taught survey research, program evaluation and applied research methods, the sociology of education, drug abuse epidemiology and as a social problem, the politics of health policy, and introduction to regional and urban planning.

Ida Tafari, Visiting Assistant Professor
Ph.D., State University of New York - Buffalo, 1993

Dr. Tafari’s area focus is the African world. Her work broadly covers issues of urban environmental health, culture and advocacy. She has conducted intervention research on HIV/AIDS, culturally competent treatment for substance addiction, the political economy of health, and the intersection of ethnomedicine and biomedicine. Dr. Tafari held a postdoctoral fellowship for three years at the Center for Comprehensive Drug Research and completed the MPH course work at the University of Miami, School of Medicine, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health. Since residing in Florida, she has studied the health needs of homeless populations in five metropolitan areas in the State, community environmental and cultural relationships in Miami and implemented several social demographic research projects. Her interests extend to ethnographic film production. Her special topics seminars included Health Issues in the African World, Youth, Violence and Globalization, and Environmental Issues in the Caribbean. She teaches on the Biscayne Bay Campus.