Rural Health Institute for Clinical and Translational Science
Faculty and Staff

John C. Higginbotham, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Associate Dean for Research and Health Policy
The University of Alabama School of Medicine, Tuscaloosa Campus
 
Professor and Chair
Department of Community & Rural Medicine
College of Community Health Sciences
The University of Alabama
 
Director
Rural Health Institute for Clinical and Translational Science
The University of Alabama
 
 Phone: (205) 348-0025
 E-mail: jhiggin@cchs.ua.edu

Dr. John C. Higginbotham is Associate Dean for Research and Health Policy and Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of Community and Rural Medicine at the University of Alabama School of Medicine, Tuscaloosa Campus (College of Community Health Sciences.) He is also Director of the University of Alabama Rural Health Institute for Clinical and Translational Science.

Prior to coming to UA, Dr. Higginbotham, an Epidemiologist, was a faculty member with the Department of Preventive Medicine at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine and at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. He continues to hold an adjunct faculty appointment in the UTMB Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, as well as adjunct appointments in University of Alabama's Capstone College of Nursing and the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Center for Health Promotion. For the past thirteen years, he has taught epidemiology, statistics, evaluation, and research design to both medical and non-medical graduate students.

Dr. Higginbotham's most recent presentations and publications have focused on racial and ethnic disparities in rates of cancer and in other health issues that have particular impact in rural areas. In addition to being the Principal Investigator of The University of Alabama’s portion of Project EXPORT “Reducing Health Disparities in Alabama’s Black Belt,” some of his selected accomplishments include the following:

• Principal investigator 'Prediction of Vaccination Among Older African-Americans,' funded by CDC.
  
• Co-Investigator for “Deep South Network for Cancer Control,” “Psychosocial Impact of Cancer in Rural/Urban Women,” and “Cancer Disparity in the Deep South: A GIS Analysis” funded by NCI.
  
• Investigator for "Investigating STD Services for HIV Prevention in Rural Alabama” and "Psychosocial Barriers to Prostate Cancer," both funded by the American Academy of Family Physicians.
  
• Principal Investigator for 'Investigating the Ethnic Disparity in Prostate Cancer Morbidity and Mortality in the Rural Deep South,' funded by DOD.
  
• Principal investigator of  'Barriers to Diabetes Care,' funded by the Mississippi Department of Health.
  Compiled and published first epidemiological report of the Cancer Registry in Mississippi.
  
• Guest editor for Family & Community Health, including a special issue devoted to rural health.
  
• Member of several editorial review boards.