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By: Olesea Svet, April 2026

Think about the last major breakthrough in medicine you read about. A new treatment. A better screening tool. A more effective intervention. Now ask a harder question: Did it reach the people who needed it most?

That gap — between what medicine knows and what actually happens in communities — is where Lea Sacca, PhD, MPH does her work. And she would tell you, without hesitation, that closing it is as important as any discovery made in a laboratory.

“The most recent advances in technology and medicine are useless if they do not reach the people who are most in need of them,” she says. “My research aims to bridge that gap.”

It is a deceptively simple way to describe a complex and urgently important field. And it is the reason ������Դ�� has named Dr. Sacca its 2026 Researcher of the Year at the Assistant Professor level — an honor presented at the university’s annual Honors Convocation on April 15.

"Dr. Sacca represents exactly the kind of scholar we set out to build this college around — someone whose research advances the field and whose mentorship shapes the next generation of physicians and scientists at the same time. To be recognized at the university level for both is a distinction that speaks for itself, and it reflects our research goal for the Schmidt College of Medicine.” — Lewis S. Nelson, MD, Dean, Schmidt College of Medicine

“The most recent advances in technology and medicine are useless if they do not reach the people who are most in need of them.”

From Beirut to Boca Raton

Dr. Sacca grew up in Lebanon with two passions that, on the surface, did not seem to go together: writing and helping people. She became the health editor for her university’s newspaper and interned at the Ministry of Health in Beirut, where she discovered something she could not ignore.

“I became really intrigued to learn how impactful health promotion messages are, particularly when it comes to addressing misconceptions and raising awareness,” she says. “I was always intrigued to learn how to improve the health of women, mothers, and children.”

That interest did not emerge from a textbook. It came from years of volunteering alongside her parents - — visiting orphanages, supporting community health initiatives, and working with nonprofit organizations throughout Lebanon. Her mother, she says without hesitation, is the reason she pursued this path.

“My mom definitely played an influential role in me seeking a career in public health since she believed that my talents and passion can flourish in this field. She was right, and I would never have accomplished anything in my life without her support, encouragement, and sacrifice. I owe everything to her.”

In 2017, a Fulbright Scholarship from the U.S. Department of State brought her to the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, where she earned her MPH in Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences along with a Certificate in Global Health. She went on to earn her PhD from the same institution, adding minors in epidemiology and statistics, while receiving more than ten academic achievement scholarships from the UTHealth School of Public Health. During that time, she also served on the board of the Houston Global Health Collaborative.

It was in Houston, under the mentorship of Christine Markham, PhD, that Dr. Sacca found the framework that would define her career: dissemination and implementation science — the discipline that studies how to take what works in research and get it working in the real world. She worked on evidence-based public health interventions, including youth health education and sexual and reproductive health programs, and developed expertise in translating research findings into sustainable, community-based practice.

Before joining Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine at Florida International University, where she worked with the Green Family Foundation’s NeighborhoodHELP program.

“I consider Dr. Markham my lifetime mentor,” Dr. Sacca says. “I surely owe my expertise in my field to her.”

The Work, Right Here

Today, as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Population Health at Schmidt College of Medicine, Dr. Sacca’s research reaches into some of the most pressing health challenges facing families in South Florida and beyond. Her focus areas span maternal and child health, mental health, food insecurity, substance use prevention, cancer screening, and access to care — with a single consistent question running through every project: what is standing between people and the care they need, and how do we remove it?

She currently serves as a program evaluator on a SAMHSA-funded initiative working to prevent substance use among youth in Palm Beach and Broward counties, including those in foster care. The work is local, concrete, and — she is clear about this — far from finished.

“It is a privilege to contribute to a project that plays an important role in addressing substance use prevention among youth,” she says. “I am hoping over the next five to ten years to expand our partnerships with community stakeholders to work on tackling emerging health issues: child and adolescent mental health, maternal morbidity, infant morbidity and mortality, substance use, and food insecurity.”

She is also building for scale. Dr. Sacca is exploring how digital tools and artificial intelligence can expand the reach of health education and prevention efforts — not as a technological end in itself, but as a means of getting proven interventions to more families, faster and more sustainably.

Mentorship as Mission

There is another dimension to Dr. Sacca’s work that the Researcher of the Year award does not fully capture on its own — which is why it is worth noting that she has also received the Schmidt College of Medicine’s Outstanding Research Mentor of the Year award two years in a row, an honor selected by the medical students.

She does not treat these two recognitions as separate achievements. To her, they describe the same thing.

“Mentorship is not separate from my research — it is an essential part of it,” she says. “It allows the work to grow, evolve, and ultimately reach far beyond what I could accomplish alone.”

That is not a rhetorical point. Dr. Sacca has built a research model that places medical students at the center of her research program. Her teams have produced a substantial body of peer-reviewed work on population health, mental health, substance use, women’s health, and cancer prevention — work that advances science while giving the next generation of physicians hands-on experience bridging research and clinical practice.

“By involving students directly in meaningful, applied research, they are not only contributing to the work, but also developing the skills and commitment needed to continue it,” she says. “Mentorship is about creating opportunities for others to grow as thinkers, researchers, and future leaders.”

“I am forever grateful to my students for selecting me. I hope to continue contributing to their research growth, and I am so proud of everything they have achieved throughout their path as medical students.”

Built Here

Asked what it means to do this work at a medical school that is still, in many ways, writing its own story, Dr. Sacca does not hesitate.

“For an early-career scientist, Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic means you can be creative, build meaningful interdisciplinary networks, and help define the direction of the institution while advancing your own work.”

“Conducting research at a young, growing medical school is exciting because it offers the chance to shape both scientific inquiry and the institution’s emerging research identity,” she says. “The environment encourages innovation, collaboration, and bold ideas. Being here has taught me to balance creativity with rigor, and to think about how our work can meaningfully contribute not just to my field, but to the school’s long-term trajectory.”

She credits Dean Lewis Nelson and her colleague Maria Mejia, MD — whose collaboration has been essential to grant development and funding — as key to creating the conditions for this work to thrive. And she returns, as she always does, to her students. 
“I am so proud of everything they have achieved throughout their path as medical students,” she says. “I am grateful and honored to have such an amazing group of students in my lab.”

For anyone considering whether to build a career here, Dr. Sacca has a direct answer: “For me, it is my second home.”