Karishma Chhabria
- Position: Assistant Professor
- Department: Public Health
- Office Location: Building 38, Room 135
- kchhabria@uwf.edu
- Campus: 850.474.2172
Biography
Dr. Karishma Chhabria is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health at the University of West Florida. She received her M.P.H. in Biostatistics and Ph.D. in Public Health– Social and Behavioral Sciences from the University of Florida. She completed her post-doctoral training at Baylor College of Medicine, Department of Epidemiology; Population Sciences after which she worked as a Behavioral Research Analyst at University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, School of Public Health, Center for Healthcare Data.
Dr. Chhabria is a dedicated researcher and has led studies, both quantitative and qualitative in nature, and developed expertise in mental health research along with strong statistical knowledge including psychometric validation of tools. Her efforts thus far include working with large datasets and conducting prospective and retrospective studies while having multidisciplinary collaborations.
As an expert in mental health and social behavioral sciences, her research focus lies in predictive analytics to understand the risk of mental illness in clinically vulnerable populations such as cancer patients and perinatal women. Dr. Chhabria has 13 peer-reviewed publications with another 5 manuscripts currently submitted for peer review, 4 white reports to the legislature, and 26 conference presentations. She and her team have written 13 grants to various extramural funding organizations. She has led a value-based initiative through a 5-million-dollar state-funded project investigating suicidal behaviors in the state of Texas. She has taught/assisted 14 graduate/undergraduate courses and was an invited guest speaker in 2 graduate-level courses. Her long-term research goal is to identify patients with high risk for mental illness through early assessment, working towards mitigating the negative physical and psychological consequences to promote a better quality of life, improved health outcomes, and successful longevity.
