In addition to serving as program director, Dr. Pezza teaches the program's required course on the Epidemiology of Health and Disease. He also offers courses in Health Education and Field Experience and participates in the program's team-taught senior seminar.  His dissertation explored how patients seek information about personal health risks, and he continues to explore the origins of "healthy behaviors" and the effectiveness of health promotion campaigns in his research. His research on AIDS etiology, cancer prevention, campus violence, and comparative health policy has been published in the American Journal of Public Health, Educational Psychology Review, Health Promotion International, Health Values, the International Journal of Health Services, the International Quarterly of Community Health Education, the Journal of Health Education, and the Journal of the Royal Society for Health, among others. Dr. Pezza has also published several book chapters and numerous book reviews.

Dr. Pezza routinely applies his training in public health to community service activities. He is a member of the board of directors for the Mental Health Association of Rhode Island, the Rhode Island Employee Assistance Program, and the advisory board of the Clinical Child Care Program at Bristol Community College.

Before joining the HPM program faculty in 1978, Dr. Pezza served as an Assistant Professor of Community Health at Bristol Community College from 1972-78. He is a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) who has received a number of professional awards, including a citation for outstanding service from the Rhode Island Cancer Society in 1993. In 1993, he received a World Health Organization fellowship to study in Costa Rica. 

Dr. Pezza is a native Rhode Islander who lives in Exeter, RI. He earned his Ph.D. in public health from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1988. He completed his Master of Public Health degree at the University of California, and earned both a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) and a bachelor of science degree from the University of Notre Dame.

Outside of PC, Dr. Pezza is an avid surfer and fly fisherman.