Collaborators

Benjamín Bolaños-Rosero, PhD

University of Puerto Rico – Medical Sciences Campus

Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Medical Zoology (Ph.D. in Microbiology/Immunology, Duke University). His laboratory studies the environmental triggers of asthma in Puerto Rico through aerobiology: it runs the only National Allergy Bureau-certified pollen and fungal-spore monitoring station in the tropics, and has linked high outdoor spore levels to asthma emergency visits and hospitalizations. He also develops diagnostics for allergy to the basidiospores and ascospores that dominate the island’s air, for which no commercial extracts exist, using the halogen (haloantigen) assay and purified Ganoderma applanatum extracts. Learn more →

Filipa Godoy-Vitorino, PhD

University of Puerto Rico – Medical Sciences Campus

Microbial ecologist, tenured professor, and chair of the Department of Microbiology and Medical Zoology. Principal Investigator of the UPR Microbiome Lab and instrumental in establishing the Caribbean Microbiome Center, a regional node for collaboration, capacity building, and mentorship in microbiome science.

Trained in biology at the University of Porto (Portugal), she earned her Ph.D. in Microbial Ecology at UPR Río Piedras (2009) and was an NSF postdoctoral fellow in metagenomics at the U.S. DOE Joint Genome Institute (2009–2012). Her lab pioneered metagenomic and bioinformatic approaches to the human microbiome in Puerto Rico, integrating multi-omics to understand host–microbe coevolution, dysbiosis, and microbiome-driven disease, including the vaginal and cervical microbiome in Hispanic women. Learn more →

Humberto Cavallín-Calanche, PhD

University of Puerto Rico – School of Architecture

Architect and design theorist bridging architecture, environmental psychology, and microbiome science. Tenured professor and Director of the Center for Design Research, he studies how human activity and catastrophic events such as Hurricane Maria shape indoor environments and their microbial landscapes.

He holds a Ph.D. in Architecture (Design Theory and Methods) from UC Berkeley, a master’s in Social Psychology from the Central University of Venezuela, and a professional degree in Architecture from the Experimental University of Táchira; he has taught at UPR Río Piedras since 2004. His research on the microbiome of the built environment includes studies of home microbial biogeography across urbanization (Science Advances, Nature Microbiology), the microbes of operating rooms (Microbiome, PLOS ONE), and the project “Taking a Breath after the Disaster: Homes, Mold and Health in Puerto Rico after Hurricane María.” Learn more →

Kimberly Rowland, PhD

Lynn University

Associate Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences specializing in developmental neurobiology, using Drosophila for genetic and behavioral studies. Her doctoral work elucidated the roles of growth genes in central nervous system development; her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Miami investigated neurodegeneration.

She earned her B.S. and Ph.D. (2012) at Florida Atlantic University, where an NSF predoctoral teaching fellowship sparked her interest in teaching alongside research. At Lynn she brings the fruit fly into the classroom as a platform for teaching genetics and behavior, promotes question-based research that connects science with non-scientific disciplines, and leads STEM outreach such as workshops for Florida middle-school girls, while continuing research with colleagues at FAU. Learn more →

Jon Sperry, PhD, EdS, LMHC, LCSW, NCC

Lynn University

Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences and licensed, board-certified mental health counselor with extensive expertise in Adlerian psychology. A Diplomate and past president (2017–2018) of the North American Society of Adlerian Psychology, he has been Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Individual Psychology since 2017.

Core faculty of Lynn’s Clinical Mental Health Counseling program since 2014, he has co-authored eight books on counseling and psychotherapy, including Case Conceptualization: Mastering this Competency with Ease and Confidence and the 4th edition of Psychopathology and Psychotherapy, several translated into more than five languages. His expertise spans competency-based instruction, case conceptualization, Motivational Interviewing, and therapeutic group drumming, which he has led and studied since 2007 and which grounds the RIPLRT drumming-intervention research. A practicing clinician since 2007, he spent 15 years as a staff therapist at FAU Counseling & Psychological Services and has given workshops in more than 25 countries. Learn more → · Lynn profile →