Meet the Team

Denise A. Kent PhD, APRN

Dr. Kent is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biobehavioral Nursing Science at the University of Illinois Chicago. Dr. Kent is a nurse scientist who is focused on increasing recruitment, retention, and engagement in clinical research, especially among minority populations. Dr. Kent is active in two large cohort studies where she is engaging with participants related to their individual research results.  The RECEIVE study, funded by the American Lung Association Airways Clinical Research Center (ALA-ACRC) explores the return of individual research results from the perspective of three stakeholders- research participants, research teams, and health care providers.

Principal Investigator

Lynn B. Gerald, PhD, MSPH

Dr. Gerald is an Assistant Vice Chancellor for Population Health Sciences at the University of Illinois Chicago and a Research Professor of Medicine.  She has extensive experience in the areas of clinical, behavioral, and epidemiological research in respiratory medicine.  She has been continuously funded by NHLBI since the year 2000. Dr. Gerald currently serves as the PI of the Lung Health Cohort Study at the University of Illinois Chicago and has been involved in the American Lung Association Airways Clinical Research Center (ALA-ACRC) since its inception in 1999.

Co-Investigator/Primary Mentor

Jerry Krishnan MD, PhD

Dr. Krishnan is a Professor in the Department of Medicine and the School of Public Health at UIC. He is also the Associate Vice Chancellor for Population Health Science. Dr. Krishnan, is a physician-scientist (pulmonologist), has expertise in the care of patients with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), COVID-19 and other complex obstructive lung disorders. Dr. Krishnan is a funded investigator in Patient Centered Outcomes Research, American Lung Association, and National Institutes of Health (NIH)-sponsored research networks and is conducting studies to identify new treatment strategies for patients with asthma, COPD, and COVID-19.

Co-Investigator/Mentor

Michelle Villegas-Downs, PhD, RN

Dr. Villegas-Downs is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Development Nursing Science at the University of Illinois Chicago.  Dr. Villegas-Downs collaborated on Dr. Kent’s previous study, MIRROR,.  Dr. Villegas-Downs brings many valuable experiences from her clinical and research work to the RECEIVE study.

Co-Investigator

Martha Menchaca, MD, PhD

Dr. Menchaca is an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago. Dr. Menchaca practices in the Department of Radiology at UI Health and specializes in diagnostic radiology. She is the Director of the Lung Cancer Registry for low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) and is passionate about cancer health among people with health disparities. She is certified by the American Board of Radiology.

Co-Investigator

Nathan Tintle, PhD

Dr. Tintle is a Research Professor in the Department of Population Health Nursing Science at the University of Illinois Chicago. As a leading Biostatistics/Statistical Genetics researcher and educator, he has developed novel methods for the analysis of genetics data, served as a biostatistician and as a statistical geneticist. In 2018 he was selected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association. He has co-authored over 125 peer-reviewed publications and served as PI on over 20 major federal grants.

Biostatisican