Brooks Gump

Brooks Gump is the Falk Family Endowed Professor of Public Health in the Falk College at Syracuse University. A large gift to the University from alumni David B. and Rhonda S. Falk allowed for the created of a series of endowed professorships, of which Gump was awarded. These professorships allow the Falk College to support internationally recognized faculty to enhance the research, academic and experiential components of its programs to advance its mission rich in teaching, research, scholarship, practice and service.

Professor Gump’s specialties include psychosocial factors and their overall effect on health, and more recently, the effects of socioeconomic disadvantage, race, and environmental toxicants (e.g.,lead and mercury) on children and adolescents’ health. His teaching areas include introduction to epidemiology, introduction to psychology, health psychology, research methods/experimental psychology, health promotion, introductory and advanced statistics, behavioral medicine and psychophysiology.

Recognized internationally for his research on cardiovascular disease risk in children, Gump was awarded an R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences earlier this year for the project, “Environmental Toxicants, Race and Cardiovascular Disease Risk in Children.” The study investigates the relationship between race, socioeconomic status, blood lead levels, cardiovascular responses to acute stress and cardiovascular disease risk.

In addition to his ongoing NIH-supported research with children, Gump is currently principal investigator for a grant from the National Science Foundation Research Education for Undergraduate (REU) program, entitled, “Training Veterans to Conduct Trauma Research with Fellow Veterans.”

He serves on the editorial board of two prominent journals in his field, Psychosomatic Medicine, and Health Psychology, and serves as an ad hoc reviewer for numerous other journals, including the American Journal of Epidemiology, Pediatrics, Stroke, and American Journal of Psychiatry. He is currently serving a four-year term as a member of the National Institute of Child Health and Development’s (NICHD’s) Health, Behavior, and Context Subcommittee.