Our Team

Joe Strong, Ph.D., is a Scientist in the CRoME Lab, led by Dr. Olufunmilola (Funmi) Abraham, housed within Department of Pharmacy Practice & Science in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Kentucky. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology & Microbiology from the University of Central Florida, a Master of Science in Social Work from the University of Tennessee, and a Ph.D. in Social Work from the University of Tennessee. His graduate and doctoral studies mentor, the late Dr. Terri Combs-Orme, was a tireless advocate and supporter of Dr. Strong’s creative nature and helped him make the most of that energy during his work as a Ph.D. student. His doctoral dissertation, entitled “360º Videos of Natural Scenery Delivered Via Virtual Reality Devices and its Effect on Mood,” leveraged emerging technologies to pilot a novel intervention for older adults that was delivered remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Strong completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of North Carolina – Greensboro, in the Department of Social Work’s African American Families & Kinship Care Lab, led by Dr. Tyreasa Washington. His work there concerned the assessment of risk and protective factors for the development of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias in a sample of Black/African American kinship caregivers. Variables of interest in this work included perceived stress and discrimination, physical activity and social support, and stress biomarkers (cortisol). Dr. Strong followed this with additional post-doctoral work at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s School of Social Work, in the lab of Dr. Rosalba Hernandez, where he was involved in the development, testing, and deployment of a novel virtual reality-based health education and mood intervention tool for older Latino participants undergoing dialysis.

Following his post-doctoral work, Dr. Strong joined the University of Wisconsin – Madison’s Department of Medicine, Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology as a Scientist in the lab of Dr. Ozioma Okonkwo. There, he was the lead scientist for the newly formed Engagement Core of the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), a long-running longitudinal study of Alzheimer’s disease led by Dr. Michael Weiner. Dr. Strong’s work focused on the aims of the Engagement Core, specifically examining health disparities in Alzheimer’s disease development from a social, cultural, and biomedical perspective. In addition to this work, Dr. Strong has 6 years of post-MSSW direct practice experience with older adults as a Medical Social Worker at Parkwest Medical Center in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Dr. Strong’s research interests broadly relate to health and well-being in older adulthood. His primary interest is in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, but also extends to other conditions that affect cognition and the senses. Dr. Strong’s work seeks to leverage emerging technologies to create novel interventions and tools that help address issues of equity and quality of life, promote emotional well-being, and increase our understanding of living with aging-related conditions. Technologies of interest include virtual and augmented reality, smart devices, and artificial intelligence, among others.

Shikhar Shukla is a Biomedical Data Scientist in the CRoME Lab, led by Dr. Olufunmilola Abraham, within the Department of Pharmacy Practice & Science at the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy. His background combines clinical training, health informatics, and applied data science, with a focus on using complex healthcare data to support clinical and translational research. He holds a Bachelor of Dental Surgery and a Master of Science in Health Informatics from Indiana University Indianapolis. His work spans data engineering, statistical modeling, causal inference, machine learning, and deep learning across electronic health records, administrative claims, medication data, physiologic time series, imaging, voice data, and public health surveillance systems. He primarily works with Python, R, SQL, and related data science tools to build reproducible workflows from data preparation through modeling, validation, and interpretation.

During his graduate training at Indiana University, Shikhar worked on several biomedical data science and artificial intelligence projects. His work included developing an AI-enabled radiology information system that integrated model outputs into clinical imaging workflows, applying machine learning and time-series methods to forecast chronic wound healing trajectories, and analyzing intraoperative physiologic data to identify features associated with postoperative outcomes. More recently, he led research using the NIH Bridge2AI Voice Dataset to examine demographic confounding in deep-learning models for Parkinson disease and dementia screening. He has also developed domain-structured machine learning frameworks using large-scale perioperative EHR data, with an emphasis on interpretability, calibration, temporal validation, and clinically meaningful model evaluation.

Before joining the University of Kentucky, Shikhar served as a Public Health Informatics Fellow with the Mycotic Diseases Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. His work focused on strengthening national fungal disease surveillance through data engineering, informatics, and automation. He developed and improved Python, PySpark, and SQL-based pipelines for standardizing, validating, linking, and transforming multi-jurisdictional surveillance data and supported surveillance efforts for Candida auris, histoplasmosis, coccidioidomycosis, blastomycosis, and antifungal resistance. His work also included entity resolution, healthcare facility standardization, database profiling, surveillance application development, and data quality monitoring. He also contributed to CDC initiatives exploring responsible uses of generative AI for public health research and data standardization. His contributions to AI adoption at CDC were recognized through the CDC Chatbot Champion distinction and a Certificate of Excellence in GenAI Adoption.

At the University of Kentucky, Shikhar collaborates with faculty and research teams on studies involving medication use, cardiovascular outcomes, critical-care data, and other large clinical datasets. His current work includes longitudinal medication adherence and treatment-pattern analyses using administrative claims, survival analysis, marginal structural models, causal inference, machine learning, and development of reproducible research datasets and analytic infrastructure.

His broader interests include biomedical data science, clinical machine learning, causal inference, health-data engineering, and responsible AI in healthcare and public health. He takes a practical, collaborative approach to research, with particular interest in solving complex data and methodological problems that arise in real-world clinical studies.

Originally from Venezuela, South America, Guipsy Lopez-Ramirez earned her Pharmacy degree and a specialty in Toxicology from the University of the Andes, Venezuela, in October 1999. In 2000 she began her professional career as a toxicologist at the Scientific Laboratory of the National Guard–Oriente, a position she held for 10 years, performing toxicological analyses of illegal drugs and controlled substances along with other toxicological procedures involved in criminal cases. During that time she also worked in community pharmacy and volunteered with organizations such as Hogares Crea, supporting the reintegration of individuals with substance use disorders, and the EJE program (“Encuentro de Jóvenes Estudiantes”), focused on fostering leadership and civic responsibility in youth. She served as Instructor of Toxicology at the IUPOLC (Instituto Universitario de Policía Científica) from 2003 to 2012.

In June 2012 she and her family relocated to Lexington, Kentucky. She began her studies at Midway University in 2013 and earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology in May 2017, taking part in Tri-Beta, biology research projects, and the Path Mentoring Program for minorities, which supports middle and high school girls in pursuing higher education.

In 2017 she joined the board of FLACA (Foundation for Latin American and Latin@ Culture and Art), which promotes artistic and cultural events such as Festival Latino, Friday Latino Lives, and health fairs. She also began working as a bilingual para-educator at Northern Elementary School (May 2017 to 2018) and as an instructor of Spanish for Kids at the Carnegie Center (May 2017 to March 2020), applying both traditional and non-traditional teaching methods in each — dynamic activities, games, songs, dances, and arts and crafts.

Since June 2017 she has been a childcare provider with “A Friendly Embrace” at the University of Kentucky, a support group for parents of children with special needs, where she leads small art and recreational projects through games, crafts, and other activities in a friendly and welcoming environment.

From August 2018 to January 2026 she was Research Assistant Senior and Community Health Worker at the University of Kentucky College of Nursing, working on the research studies “Corazón de la Familia” and “Heart of the Family.” She established and maintained strategies to promote health care, collaborating with community leaders and other stakeholders in rural counties to create outreach and educational activities based on their communities’ priorities. Her work included providing community education, tracking and collecting event data, conducting biometric measures and surveys, recruiting participants, and providing study information and follow-up to those interested. She also supported research efforts with the Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS), facilitating connections between CCTS and Kentucky communities by promoting access to appropriate resources.

Guipsy brings multicultural and interdisciplinary experience, with a background spanning toxicology, biology, education, health care, and community outreach. She approaches research with sensitivity to diverse community needs and an emphasis on practical health applications. She is motivated to contribute to projects that promote community well-being and support underserved populations, and is committed to advancing community health through research and education.

Rasaq Kayode Oladapo, BPharm, MSc is a Ph.D. student in Pharmaceutical Sciences (Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy Track) at the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy in the Community-Engaged Research on Medication Use and Equity (CRoME) Lab. Rasaq holds a Master’s in Epidemiology from the University of Bristol (United Kingdom) and a Bachelor of Pharmacy from Obafemi Awolowo University (Nigeria), his research uses pharmacoepidemiology strategies to address public health challenges, particularly in opioid misuse and overdose prevention and treatment.

Rasaq has experience in analyzing longitudinal data and large medical claims databases, including Truven MarketScan, and Medicaid. His expertise also includes the use of advanced epidemiological approaches and programming software (such as SQL, SAS and R), to evaluate medication safety and effectiveness. His academic excellence and dedication to public health have earned him several prestigious awards, including the Commonwealth Shared Scholarship, Layman T. Johnson Fellowship, and Graduate Teaching Assistantship Award. Through interdisciplinary research, Rasaq aims to inform evidence-based policy changes and enhance medication-related health outcomes in diverse populations. Rasaq is a member of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists and the Royal Society for Public Health.

Beyond research, Rasaq is actively involved in mentorship and professional development, guiding students and scholars through the University of Kentucky Start-To-Finish Mentorship Program and the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission Mentorship Program, respectively. Outside academia, he is a competitive soccer player and an avid traveler.

Dr. Olumuyiwa Moses Desmennu holds a unique blend of interdisciplinary training spanning biochemistry, research management, and evaluation. He is a postdoctoral research scholar in the Collaborative Research on MEdication use & family health (CRoME) Lab at the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy. His work centers on advancing health through medication use and safety, implementation science, and program evaluation within pharmacy and public health contexts. He is particularly passionate about designing and evaluating patient- and community-centered interventions that improve access, literacy, and outcomes for underserved populations.

Dr. Desmennu earned his PhD in Science Education (Research Methods, Evaluation, and Policy) from the University of Kentucky, where his research focused on psychometric validation of assessment tools using the Rasch model and mixed method analysis. He has worked on evaluation of large-scale public health interventions such as the USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education (SNAP-Ed) and Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP). His background work integrated social cognitive theory, ecological models, and advanced statistical methods (including Rasch measurement and canonical correlation analysis) to understand and strengthen health-related self-efficacy and literacy among at-risk groups.

Dr. Desmennu possesses extensive professional experience in the fields of public health nutrition, program evaluation, and data analytics. He has contributed significantly to numerous federally and foundation-funded initiatives aimed at addressing health disparities and fostering sustainable, systems-level change. His scholarly work includes leading and co-authoring peer-reviewed publications on topics such as nutrition education for individuals in substance use recovery and evaluation frameworks for collective impact programs targeting mental health and substance use disorders.

At the CRoME Lab, Dr. Desmennu will leverage his expertise in data-driven decision-making, outcomes measurement, and community-engaged research to promote safe medication use practices and enhance health outcomes in real-world settings. His contributions support the laboratory’s mission to produce actionable evidence that informs healthcare systems, pharmacists, and policymakers in reducing disparities and advancing patient-centered care.

In addition to his research endeavors, Dr. Desmennu is dedicated to mentorship and capacity building. He actively supports early-career professionals, international scholars, and first-generation students in navigating academic and professional pathways. His interdisciplinary background and collaborative approach align with the CRoME Lab’s vision of developing practical, behavior fostering solutions at the nexus of pharmacy practice, public health, and implementation science.