Dr. Zachary R. Dunbar, PhD
About Zachary R. Dunbar, PhD
Assistant Professor of Basic Sciences
Dr. Zachary Dunbar earned his Ph.D. in Cancer Sciences from the University at Buffalo in 2020 and has extensive experience in infectious disease and environmental health surveillance. He previously held a joint position with University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Wisconsin State Department of Health Services as a State Response Team Lead during the COVID-19 State of Emergency, organized the Chemung County COVID-19 Outbreak Tracking Dashboard in 2021, served as an Environmental Health Specialist with Chemung County, and investigated scholastic performance indicators for Corning Community College prior to joining the LECOM-Elmira faculty in 2024.
Dr. Dunbar’s research interests have encapsulated the broad field of environmental health from addictions to infectious disease. Since joining the faculty, he has led several student research teams and currently has manuscripts under editorial review.
His current research efforts emphasize:
- Tracking the ebb and flow of the Opioid epidemic, both across New York State and nationally, and gaining understanding of novel opioid use and prescriptive interventions for overdose prevention.
- Modeling novel changes in tobacco epidemiology; understanding new products and new pharmaceutical and behavioral interventions in tobacco cessation.
- Evaluating systemic spread of infectious processes in the local and national community, with a specific focus on STD/STIs (in partnership with Chemung County Health Department and Arnot Health) and new investigations into Long COVID.