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The School of Public Health
is accredited through 2017 by:
Council on Education
for Public Health (CEPH)
Alumni return to teach
Dr. Sinclair
Food and water—the two things most essential to life—are the respective public health interests of Eddy Jara, DrPH, and Ryan Sinclair, PhD. They each joined the School of Public Health as new faculty members in fall 2009. Both men also earned their MPH degrees from the school.
An expert on water and sanitation, Dr. Sinclair is an assistant professor in the departments of environmental health and global health.
"I really enjoy out-of-classroom participatory learning experiences, and I can't wait to take my first batch of students out into the community," he said before school started. "Let's put it this way: anyone who works with me will have a detailed understanding of their home tap water quality."
Dr. Sinclair earned a PhD in water quality from New Orleans' Tulane University. For his doctoral dissertation, he investigated solar disinfection of drinking water among households in rural Cambodia. For two years he lived in Cambodia and organized a six-month epidemiological field study evaluating the health effects and disinfection efficiency of this technology.
"After returning to New Orleans shortly after Hurricane Katrina and personally witnessing poor disaster and environmental planning, I decided on a life commitment to global water and wastewater management with a focus on environmental microbiology," Dr. Sinclair says.
In his new position, Dr. Sinclair plans to apply for grants and continue publishing in peer-reviewed journals.
"I believe that the most important component of a university research process is to immediately extend public health and science findings outside the doors of the university," he says.
Dr. Sinclair's previous work experience includes research conducted for both the University of Arizona and the National Research Council.
Dr. Jara comes to both the global health and nutrition departments after earning his DrPH from the University of California at Berkeley. His dissertation looked at how to disseminate promising school food practices in working class communities of color.
Dr. Jara
In his role as assistant professor, Dr. Jara primarily facilitates public health practice and research experiences that give students training outside the classroom. For example, he plans to invite SPH students to collaborate on research projects in local public schools to advance healthful school food practices.
"I see that practical experience in the science and art of community health intervention research is an important piece of public health training," he says. "My hope is that the SPH students that I can mentor will carry on and expand efforts to improve youth and family access to healthful foods."
Dr. Jara's early professional career was defined by his work promoting improved school nutrition and physical activity options in predominantly Latino middle and high schools in the Inland Empire. In Ecuador, he worked as a technical health trainer with Peace Corps volunteers and on several community projects advancing child malnutrition prevention, identification, and treatment. His professional interests include training lay public health workers in health education and promotion.
Beginning with his middle school years in Fontana, Dr. Jara grew up in the Inland Empire.
"My connections with LLU and the surrounding communities make me feel that I have been preparing myself in many way to contribute to the exciting work the SPH community is engaged in and will engage in," he says.