Julie is the Administrative Coordinator of the Center for Lifestyle Medicine and Executive Assistant to its Chairman, James M. Rippe, MD. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from California Polytechnic University and brings over 10 years of financial and communication experience in the non-profit and higher education sectors. Back To Top

Dr. Rico-Sanz received his B.S. degree in Exercise Physiology in 1988, and a M.S. degree in Exercise Science with special emphasis in Exercise Metabolism in 1991; both degrees from the University of California at Davis. From 1992-1996, Dr. Rico-Sanz was at the August Krogh Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, where he obtained his Ph.D. in Human Physiology with emphasis in human exercise metabolism utilizing biochemical and 31P-Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) techniques. Immediately after completion of his Ph.D., Dr. Rico-Sanz went to the Magnetic Resonance Unit of the Royal Postgraduate Medical School of the Imperial College in London, UK. He assisted in the development and utilized 1H-MRS to determine intramyocellular lipid concentrations in human muscles at rest and after exercise protocols. Between 1997-2001, Dr. Rico-Sanz received a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology to work as a scientist at the University Autonoma of Barcelona, Spain, where he investigated human muscle energy metabolism and responses to dietary interventions using 1H-MRS and 31P-MRS. He established collaboration with the Paul Scherrer Institute and University of Zurich, Switzerland to quantify muscle energy metabolites using 31P-MRS and 13C-MRS. Since 2001 and until 2006, Dr. Rico-Sanz was a visiting scientist and performed extensive postdoctoral research in human genomics of cardiorespitory fitness and energy metabolism phenotypes, and their adaptations to exercise training, and later in genetic and lifestyle epidemiology of chronic diseases at several centers around the world including the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana, USA; the National Public Health Institute in Finland; and the University of Kuopio, Finland. In the summer of 2006, Dr. Rico-Sanz was hired as Associate Professor at the School of Human Performance and Recreation, College of Health, University of Southern Mississippi. In August of 2007, Dr. Rico-Sanz was appointed as Associate Professor at the Center for Lifestyle Medicine of the University of Central Florida. Dr. Rico-Sanz major research areas include gene-lifestyle interactions in chronic metabolic diseases; namely type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and the metabolic syndrome. He has also additional interest in developing his research in gene-lifestyle interactions in cancer, osteoporosis, and neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, and major depression. Another area of interest is on disparities in genetic and lifestyle epidemiology of chronic diseases. Dr. Rico-Sanz teaches Epidemiology of Chronic Diseases, Human and Applied Metabolism, and Lifestyle Medicine in the Master of Science degree in Health Sciences, Clinical and Lifestyle Sciences track in the Department of Health Professions. Dr. Rico-Sanz also serves in the International Affairs Committee of the College of Health and Public Affairs, of the University of Central Florida. Download Rico-Sanz's Curriculum Vitae - In PDF Format.

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Joshua Lowndes received his M.A. degree in Physical Education - Exercise Physiology from the University of Central Florida in 2003. He has worked in various roles at the University of Central Florida and is presently a Research Associate for the the Center For Lifestyle Medicine and the Department of Health Professions. He attended Truman State University between 1996 and 2000 where he played varsity soccer and earned his B.S. in Exercise Science.   Back To Top