Emre Umucu

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Emre Umucu is a Turkish-American psychologist, public health researcher, and data scientist whose research concerns the health and well-being of veterans, people with disabilities, and people with chronic health conditions. His work connects mental and physical health with employment, rehabilitation, housing stability, and community participation, and applies data science and artificial intelligence to health research. He is a professor of public health sciences and associate dean for research in the College of Health Sciences at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP).

Umucu is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and received the association's Roger G. Barker Distinguished Research Contribution Award in 2025. He also contributed technical support and literature-review work to the World Health Organization's 2022 Global Report on Health Equity for Persons with Disabilities.  

Early Life and Education

Umucu was born and raised in Turkey. He attended Ondokuz Mayis University, where he received scholarships and an honor certificate for academic achievement.

In 2011, Umucu was selected through a nationally competitive process for the Turkish Ministry of National Education's YLSY Fellowship Programme, an overseas graduate-education scholarship administered under Law No. 1416. The program was established in 1929 during the presidency of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

The scholarship supported Umucu's graduate education in the United States. He earned a Master of Science in rehabilitation psychology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2014 and a Doctor of Philosophy in rehabilitation psychology, with a minor in counseling psychology, in 2017.

During his graduate education, Umucu completed clinical and research experiences at the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital and affiliated clinics in Madison, Wisconsin. These experiences contributed to his subsequent research on veterans' psychological health, employment, education, resilience, and community participation.

Following his doctoral education, Umucu completed additional graduate study in public health, health administration, computer science, and artificial intelligence. He earned a Master of Public Health from Michigan State University, a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in healthcare organization management from Texas Tech University, and a Master of Science in computer science with an artificial intelligence concentration from the University of Colorado Boulder.

Academic and Research Career

University of Texas at El Paso: Early Career

Umucu joined UTEP's College of Health Sciences in 2017 as an assistant professor of rehabilitation sciences. His early research at UTEP examined health, employment, psychological well-being, rehabilitation outcomes, and quality of life among veterans, people with disabilities, and people living with chronic health conditions.   His academic work included graduate education, student research mentorship, interdisciplinary research development, and collaboration with health and community organizations. He also participated in externally supported projects concerning rehabilitation, employment, community participation, and the well-being of populations experiencing disability or chronic health conditions.

Michigan State University

From 2021 to 2023, Umucu served as an assistant professor at Michigan State University, where he directed the Veteran Well-Being Lab. His research there examined health, employment, resilience, community participation, and quality-of-life outcomes among veterans with and without disabilities.

At Michigan State, Umucu participated in interdisciplinary research and outreach initiatives related to veterans' health and access to services. His work considered how geographic isolation, transportation limitations, internet access, availability of specialty care, and coordination between Department of Veterans Affairs facilities and community healthcare providers affect veterans living in rural communities.

He also contributed to research and program development involving veteran well-being, rural health, disability, rehabilitation, employment, and access to behavioral health services.

UTEP: Associate Dean for Research and Expanded Leadership

Umucu returned to UTEP in 2023 as a tenured associate professor of public health sciences and associate dean for research in the College of Health Sciences. He was subsequently promoted to professor of public health sciences.

As associate dean for research, Umucu supports faculty research development, interdisciplinary collaboration, competitive proposal development, research mentoring, and partnerships involving public health, behavioral science, rehabilitation, health sciences, data science, and health technology.

Umucu also serves as deputy director of UTEP's Institute for Health and Lifespan Research. The institute supports interdisciplinary research concerning health, lifespan development, aging, disease prevention, health disparities, and the translation of research findings into practice.

His work through the institute includes interdisciplinary research planning and collaboration across fields concerned with precision health, population health, environmental influences on health, aging, and health across the lifespan.

CHS REACHED and Global Health

Umucu serves as executive director of the College of Health Sciences Research, Evaluation, and Academic Center on Health Disparities, known as CHS REACHED. The center supports interdisciplinary research concerning disability, veterans and service members, trauma and resilience, aging, employment, education, community participation, and disparities in health and access to services.

Through CHS REACHED, Umucu has supported collaboration among researchers working in public health, psychology, rehabilitation, health sciences, data science, and community-engaged research.

In 2022, Umucu provided technical support and feedback for the World Health Organization's Global Report on Health Equity for Persons with Disabilities. His contribution included conducting literature reviews concerning health disparities experienced by people with disabilities. The report synthesized international evidence concerning healthcare access, preventable health differences, premature mortality, quality of care, and the inclusion of people with disabilities in health systems.

Department of Veterans Affairs

From 2022 to 2024, Umucu held a without-compensation research appointment at the Battle Creek Veterans Affairs Medical Center. His research collaborations during this period concerned veterans' mental health, well-being, employment, community participation, and access to health and rehabilitation services.

In July 2024, Umucu began serving as a program analyst under a without-compensation appointment associated with the Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans Hospital and the South Texas Veterans Health Care System. His work has included collaboration on veteran-health research, grant development, administrative-data analysis, employment, rehabilitation services, socioeconomic vulnerability, and community reintegration.

Additional Academic Appointments

Umucu served as a research advisor to the VIA Institute on Character from 2023 to 2024. His work there included collaboration on research concerning character strengths, psychological well-being, employment, and adaptation among people with disabilities and veterans.

He also served as an AI and Health Lead at UTEP's Institute for Applied AI Innovation. This role involved interdisciplinary work connecting artificial intelligence, public health, disability inclusion, health communication, and human-centered technology.

Research

Psychology, Resilience, and Well-Being

Umucu's psychological research has examined factors associated with adjustment and well-being among veterans and people living with disabilities or chronic health conditions. His work draws on positive psychology, strengths-based frameworks, and the PERMA model of well-being, which encompasses positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment.

Umucu and colleagues have applied the PERMA framework across several populations. A 2020 study published in the Journal of American College Health examined the psychometric properties of the PERMA-Profiler among student veterans. Subsequent studies considered the structure and application of PERMA among veterans with mental health conditions, rural veterans, and young adults who had experienced serious health conditions.

This line of research considers well-being as a multidimensional concept involving emotional experiences, engagement in meaningful activities, supportive relationships, purpose, accomplishment, and participation in education, employment, and community life.

Umucu has also examined the relationship between character strengths and well-being. In a 2022 study published in Frontiers in Psychiatry, Umucu and colleagues examined character strengths across groups of people with disabilities. The study considered how strengths such as hope, perseverance, gratitude, social intelligence, and perspective may relate to adjustment, participation, and quality of life.

Related research has examined how positive psychological characteristics may function as resources in the context of disability, chronic illness, trauma, unemployment, and housing instability. This work has also considered how psychological strengths interact with social relationships, service systems, and environmental conditions.

His research treats employment as a social determinant of health rather than solely as an economic outcome. Within this framework, employment may contribute to personal identity, social connection, daily structure, financial security, purpose, and community participation.

A 2024 study published in Stress and Health examined employment and emotional well-being among veterans with mental health conditions. The study found that employment was associated with lower levels of stress and depression, stronger social relationships, more positive emotion, and a greater sense of meaning in life.

Because the study was associational, the findings did not establish that employment by itself caused better mental-health outcomes. Instead, the study demonstrated relationships among employment status, emotional health, social relationships, stress, depression, positive emotion, and meaning in life.

In a 2020 article in Rehabilitation Psychology, Umucu and Lee examined stress and coping among people with disabilities and chronic health conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study analyzed psychological stress and the use of coping strategies during an early phase of the pandemic.

Veterans' Health, Employment, and Community Reintegration

Veterans and service members constitute a major population of interest across Umucu's research. His work has examined student veterans, rural veterans, veterans with disabilities, veterans with chronic health conditions, and veterans experiencing psychological, social, or economic barriers to employment and community participation.

His studies have addressed adjustment to civilian education and employment, psychological well-being, post-traumatic stress symptoms, resilience, access to treatment, vocational identity, career development, housing instability, and relationships between employment and broader quality of life.

This research approaches community reintegration as a multidimensional process involving mental and physical health, employment, education, housing, social relationships, access to services, identity, purpose, and participation in civilian community life.

Umucu's work has also considered veterans' experiences within multiple systems of care, including Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare, community healthcare, vocational-rehabilitation programs, educational institutions, and community-based veteran services.

Public Health and Disability Health

Umucu's public health research examines healthcare access, mental health, morbidity and mortality, employment, socioeconomic vulnerability, service utilization, and the social determinants of health among veterans, people with disabilities, and people with chronic health conditions.

His disability-health research emphasizes that differences in health outcomes may result from interactions among health conditions, inaccessible environments, inadequate transportation, limited healthcare availability, insufficient provider training, economic insecurity, unemployment, fragmented services, and exclusion from health-system design.

In 2025, Umucu and colleagues published a global scoping review in Frontiers in Public Health concerning health disparities experienced by people with disabilities. The researchers screened 363 scholarly works and included 51 studies in the final review. The findings were organized into three broad domains: access to healthcare and resources; morbidity, mortality, and health-risk factors; and social determinants of health.

The review identified differences in healthcare access, preventive care, service utilization, chronic disease, psychological distress, premature mortality, health-risk exposure, and socioeconomic conditions between people with and without disabilities. The authors called for accessible healthcare environments, disability-related training for healthcare professionals, improved data collection, and interventions addressing healthcare services and broader social and economic conditions.

The review also emphasized that people with disabilities do not constitute a single homogeneous population. Health experiences may vary according to disability type, severity, age, geographic location, socioeconomic circumstances, healthcare system, and the availability of accessible services.

I-REACH Rural Veterans Program

Umucu is the principal investigator of Improving Rural Enrollment, Access, and Healthcare in Rural Veterans, known as I-REACH Rural Veterans. The program was developed in partnership with Michigan State University's Michigan Center for Rural Health and was supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration.

The program focuses on improving healthcare access and coordination for veterans and caregivers living in rural areas of Michigan, including counties in the Upper Peninsula and Thumb region. Rural veterans may experience barriers related to transportation, internet connectivity, availability of specialty healthcare, and coordination between VA and community healthcare systems.

I-REACH works with rural hospitals, healthcare providers, veteran service officers, and community organizations. Program activities include encouraging healthcare providers to ask patients about military-service histories, helping eligible providers participate in the VA Community Care Network, assisting veterans with healthcare enrollment and benefits navigation, and strengthening coordination among healthcare and veteran-serving organizations.

The military-service screening component encourages healthcare professionals to ask patients whether the patient or a member of the patient's household has served in the military. Identifying military-service histories can help community providers recognize veteran-specific health needs and connect eligible patients with services and benefits.

I-REACH also supports coordination between community healthcare organizations and the VA Community Care Network, through which eligible veterans may receive services from approved community providers. Other activities include collaboration with veteran service officers and community action teams, healthcare and benefits navigation, assistance with service-related documentation, and referrals to community resources.

The program developed educational resources for healthcare providers, veterans, and caregivers. These resources address subjects including mental health, chronic pain, substance use, military sexual trauma, justice involvement, and navigation of VA healthcare and community services.

The program's educational activities also address health conditions and exposures associated with military service, access to services under the PACT Act, coordination of VA and non-VA care, and the needs of veterans requiring long-distance travel for medical and behavioral-health services.

I-REACH conducted a statewide survey examining healthcare needs, service utilization, barriers to care, and community resources among rural veterans and caregivers. The survey considered unmet healthcare and rehabilitation needs, structural barriers, help-seeking, service navigation, and community resources.

Research associated with the program has examined willingness to seek psychological help among rural veterans with physical and mental health conditions. A graduate study completed at UTEP analyzed data from 400 rural veterans and reported a positive association between willingness to seek psychological help and psychological well-being.

A 2025 national study published in Healthcare examined access to healthcare and services among rural veterans with and without disabilities. The study identified differences in access and service utilization associated with disability status, demographic characteristics, and rural context.

Research emerging from the program has connected rural health with veterans' employment, disability, rehabilitation-service access, mental health, substance-use treatment, housing, transportation, and willingness to seek professional support.

Data Science and Machine Learning

Umucu's data-science research uses administrative and population-level datasets to examine patterns in health, employment, service delivery, and socioeconomic vulnerability. This work has incorporated predictive modeling, dimension-reduction methods, risk stratification, and the development of composite indicators.

In 2026, Umucu and colleagues developed a Socioeconomic Vulnerability Index for people with disabilities using national Rehabilitation Services Administration data from 182,266 vocational-rehabilitation service recipients. The researchers used machine-learning methods, including principal component analysis, to combine indicators of socioeconomic disadvantage into a composite index.

The study reported that greater socioeconomic vulnerability was associated with increased receipt of certain basic support services but lower odds of receiving career-oriented services. Higher vulnerability scores were also associated with greater service expenditures and lower hourly wages at program exit. The authors proposed that intake-level vulnerability screening could assist with risk stratification and more targeted service planning.

The index was designed to represent cumulative disadvantage rather than a single socioeconomic characteristic. The model incorporated multiple dimensions of vulnerability to examine how overlapping social and economic conditions may influence service allocation and employment outcomes.

Related research examined socioeconomic and structural vulnerability among individuals with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders participating in vocational-rehabilitation programs. In a 2025 study involving 13,098 individuals, the total number of rehabilitation services received was positively associated with wages at program exit, whereas socioeconomic and structural vulnerability was associated with lower wages.

The study found that disability severity, secondary disability status, and socioeconomic vulnerability were negatively associated with wages, while greater engagement with vocational-rehabilitation services was positively associated with wage outcomes. The authors recommended service planning responsive to housing instability, language access, transportation, childcare, education, and other structural conditions.

Umucu also proposed an Interpretive Exposome Framework for artificial-intelligence training data and health research. The framework considers how cumulative biological, social, psychological, and environmental exposures may be incorporated into the conceptualization and design of health-related AI systems.

The framework links exposome science with data science and artificial intelligence. It proposes that health-related models should account for cumulative and interacting exposures rather than relying only on diagnosis, demographic characteristics, or isolated clinical measurements.

Artificial Intelligence and Disability-Inclusive Design

In a 2025 article in INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing, Umucu proposed a framework for disability-inclusive artificial-intelligence design grounded in self-determination theory and self-efficacy theory.

The framework argues that people with disabilities should be included in the design, development, evaluation, and implementation of AI systems intended for healthcare and human services. It considers accessibility, autonomy, competence, user confidence, workforce preparation, and the risk that new technologies may reproduce existing disparities.

The article presents disability inclusion as relevant to technical design, public health, education, workforce development, healthcare administration, and policy. It also emphasizes participatory development and evaluation of AI systems in the environments in which people with disabilities will use them.

Umucu has also co-authored research concerning large language models in healthcare communication. The paper Empathy by Design: Aligning Large Language Models for Healthcare Dialogue described a preference-optimization framework intended to improve factual accuracy, coherence, empathy, politeness, and simplicity in AI-generated healthcare conversations.

Another paper proposed a retrieval-augmented generation framework for large-language-model-based clinical decision support. The framework combined structured and unstructured clinical information with retrieval of comparable historical cases, with the intended purpose of supporting rather than replacing clinical judgment.

The proposed framework emphasized grounding model outputs in relevant clinical information, transparency about retrieved evidence, validation before implementation, and the use of artificial intelligence as a decision-support tool rather than an autonomous replacement for healthcare professionals.

TRC4 Veterans Artificial-Intelligence Initiative

Umucu is the principal investigator of a project supported by the Trauma Research and Combat Casualty Care Collaborative, known as TRC4, within the University of Texas System. The project is developing an artificial-intelligence-based employment-readiness prototype for veterans with physical and emotional war-related trauma.

The project uses national Rehabilitation Services Administration data to identify factors associated with employment and community reintegration among veterans. Its planned prototype incorporates predictive analytics and a large language model. The project also includes usability testing with veterans and development of recommendations for subsequent implementation and evaluation.

The initiative connects trauma-informed care, mental health, employment, community participation, and human-centered AI. It approaches employment readiness as related to recovery, purpose, identity, social connection, functional capacity, and adaptation to civilian community life.

The design also considers psychological and functional factors that may influence employment and community participation, including emotional regulation, cognitive fatigue, physical functioning, mental-health needs, environmental triggers, education, previous employment, transportation, and access to rehabilitation services.

Rather than treating prediction as the sole objective, the project is intended to use computational analysis to inform employment-readiness support, identify service needs, facilitate communication, and support decisions made by veterans and service professionals.

Alzheimer's Disease and Aging Research

Umucu has contributed to research concerning Alzheimer's disease, related dementias, cognitive aging, psychological well-being, and racial and ethnic representation in aging research.

This work has included research associated with the African Americans Fighting Alzheimer's in Midlife study, a component of the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer's Prevention. The project examines factors associated with Alzheimer's disease risk and participation of African American communities in aging and biomarker research.

A 2019 study co-authored by Umucu examined the psychometric properties of the Apathy Evaluation Scale in preclinical Alzheimer's disease. The study evaluated the measure's potential use in research involving individuals at risk for cognitive decline.

Other studies examined racial differences in associations between cognitive health and psychological well-being, including happiness, helplessness, and hopelessness among older adults. This work considered the importance of psychological and social characteristics in research on cognitive aging.

Umucu also contributed to research examining differences in the measurement of depressive symptoms among older adults from different racial and ethnic groups. This research evaluated whether commonly used brief measures function similarly across populations.

Selected Publications

• Umucu, E. (2026). “Artificial intelligence training data and holistic health conceptualization: An Interpretive Exposome Framework.” Information, 17(5). doi:10.3390/info17050425.
• Umucu, E., Rojas Alvarez, A. J., Granger, T., Zencir, A. C., Swan, A., Park, S., and Lee, B. (2026). “A Socioeconomic Vulnerability Index for Persons with Disabilities via Machine Learning Approach.” Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation. doi:10.1007/s10926-026-10423-6.
• Umucu, E. (2025). “Artificial Intelligence and Health Equity for People with Disabilities: An Integrated Framework for Disability-Inclusive AI Design.” INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing, 62. doi:10.1177/00469580251365472.
• Umucu, E., Solis, G., Garza, L., Rivas, E., Lee, B., Kotal, A., and Piplai, A. (2025). “Empathy by Design: Aligning Large Language Models for Healthcare Dialogue.” arXiv:2512.06097.
• Garza, L., Kotal, A., Grasso, M. A., and Umucu, E. (2025). “Retrieval-Augmented Framework for LLM-Based Clinical Decision Support.” arXiv:2510.01363.
• Umucu, E., Vernon, A. A., Pan, D., Qin, S., Solis, G., Campa, R., and Lee, B. (2025). “Health inequities among persons with disabilities: A global scoping review.” Frontiers in Public Health, 13. doi:10.3389/fpubh.2025.1538519.
• Umucu, E., Granger, T. A., et al. (2025). “Access to care and services among U.S. rural veterans with and without disabilities: A national study.” Healthcare. doi:10.3390/healthcare13030275.
• Zencir, T., Zencir, A. C., Tekinarslan, G., Koc, M., Tsai, J., Lee, B., and Umucu, E. (2025). “The role of socioeconomic and structural vulnerability risk factors in employment outcomes for individuals with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.” Psychiatry Research, 354, 116782. doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2025.116782.
• Umucu, E., and Lee, B. (2024). “Employment and emotional well-being in Veterans with mental illness.” Stress and Health, 40(3). doi:10.1002/smi.3339.
• Umucu, E., Lee, B., Genova, E., Chopik, W., Sung, C., Yasuoka, M., and Niemiec, R. (2022). “Character strengths across disabilities: An international exploratory study.” Frontiers in Psychiatry. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2022.863977.
• Umucu, E. (2021). “Examining the structure of the PERMA theory of well-being in veterans with mental illnesses.” Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, 64(4), 244–247.
• Umucu, E., and Lee, B. (2020). “Examining the impact of COVID-19 on stress and coping strategies in individuals with disabilities and chronic conditions.” Rehabilitation Psychology, 65(3), 193–198. doi:10.1037/rep0000328.

Selected Awards and Honors

Government Honors and Recognitions

• Mary E. Switzer Research Fellowship, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2022.
• Congressional Commendation Award, 2025.
• Recognition from a member of the United States Senate for achievements in research, teaching, and public service, 2021.
• Recognition from members of the United States House of Representatives for research, education, and service.

American Psychological Association

• Fellow of the American Psychological Association, 2024.
• Roger G. Barker Distinguished Research Contribution Award, American Psychological Association, 2025.
• Harold Yuker Award for Research Excellence, American Psychological Association Division 22, Rehabilitation Psychology.

Citation and Research Impact

• Included in a UTEP report identifying faculty listed among highly cited researchers using citation data associated with Elsevier and Stanford University.
• Recognized by ScholarGPS for research concerning chronic health conditions.
• Recognized by Stress and Health and Wiley for a highly cited article concerning veterans' employment and well-being.

Selected Research Awards

• Early Career Poster Award, Neurodegenerative Diseases Networking Group, American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine, 2024.
• Research Award, American Rehabilitation Counseling Association, 2019 and 2024.
• Best Research Poster and Outstanding Research Award recognitions, American Physical Therapy Association, 2023.
• President's Award, National Council on Rehabilitation Education, 2022.
• Bill Downey Poster Award, National Council on Rehabilitation Education.
• New Career in Rehabilitation Education Award, National Council on Rehabilitation Education, 2021.
• Research-presentation awards from the Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center.
• Graduate Academic Achievement Awards, University of Wisconsin–Madison.

External Links

• UTEP profile
• UTEP faculty profile
• I-REACH Rural Veterans project profile
• I-REACH program at the Michigan Center for Rural Health
• I-REACH profile at the Rural Health Information Hub
• I-REACH educational video series
• TRC4 veterans artificial-intelligence project
• WHO Global Report on Health Equity for Persons with Disabilities

Category:Living people Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Category:University of Texas at El Paso faculty Category:Fellows of the American Psychological Association Category:American psychologists Category:Turkish emigrants to the United States Category:Public health researchers Category:Artificial intelligence researchers

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