Dr. Carolyn M. Tucker is a licensed clinical psychologist, a University of Florida Distinguished Alumni Professor, a Research Foundation Professor, a Professor of Psychology, a Professor of Community Health and Family Medicine, and she holds an affiliate appointment in the Department of Pediatrics. In September 2008, she was named the Richard and Thelma O. C. Barney Term Professor of Health Disparities in the College of Medicine and charged with establishing a comprehensive, interdisciplinary Health Disparities Program at the University of Florida.

Having been awarded numerous research and training grants totaling nearly $5 million, Dr. Tucker has conducted foundational research in the areas of (a) patient-centered culturally sensitive health care assessment and intervention; (b) health promotion and obesity/overweight modification interventions for racial/ethnic minority and low-income children, adolescents, adults, families, and communities; and (c) children’s problem behaviors and academic performance. She currently is the Principal Investigator for two research projects: the Health-Smart Church Program (funded by the Blue Foundation for a Healthy Florida) and the Clinic Staff Health-Smart Behavior Program (funded by the University of Florida’s College of Medicine), and she recently completed the Family Health Self-Empowerment Project (funded by the PepsiCo Foundation) and the Patient-Defined Culturally Sensitive Health Care and Health Promotion Project (funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation).

Dr. Tucker has authored or co-authored over 80 refereed journal articles, as well as numerous papers, training manuals, and assessment inventories. Four of her articles on providing culturally sensitive health care (published in The Counseling Psychologist in 2007) were recently nominated for this top-tier journal’s 2007 Outstanding Contribution Award. Dr. Tucker also has authored a book titled African American Children: A Self-Empowerment Approach to Modifying Behavior Problems and Preventing Academic Failure, which is being used nationally in teacher training programs and in psychology and education courses at several universities.

For more information, please refer to Dr. Tucker's vitae.