News
BCHS Student Selected to Represent Pitt in Delegration to Indonesia
Sarah Krier, MPH BCHS/PhD Anthro has been selected to represent Pitt in the EducationUSA Reconnect-Plus delegation to Indonesia. She will depart for Indonesia at the end of November.
The main goals of this delegation program are to "provide information and guidance to students and families through admissions workshops about higher education opportunities at U.S. accredited institutions and to develop or enhance linkages with local institutions capable of hosting study abroad programs for U.S. students or building joint degree or twinning programs."
Click here for this week’s update. Don’t forget to stop by the Office of Student Affairs and get your free ticket to the SGA’s Spooky Social. Tickets are available until Wednesday! Read more about the spooky social in the Student Organizations section of this week’s update.
This week you will also find new scholarship/fellowship opportunities; spring 2010 course information; upcoming career services workshops; the ASPH Friday Letter; and more!
BCHS Student Awarded Ferguson Fellowship
Brittany Littlejohn (BCHS: MPH/MSW), has been chosen to participate in the Dr. James A. Ferguson Emerging Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program in Atlanta, Georgia this summer. The Ferguson Fellowship (formerly known as the National Center for Infectious Diseases Summer Research Program) is an eight week program designed to provide educational and experimental opportunities for racial and ethnic graduate students in a broad array of public health activities. She will be researching the facilitators and barriers to HIV testing in Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Through collaboration with the Association of Minority Health Professions Schools, Inc. and the National Center for Preparedness, Detection and Control of Infectious Diseases (NCID)/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), fellows will be exposed to public health and prevention activities through practical research experiences. They will receive training and guidance from public health professionals at the CDC on various projects throughout the NCID.
Student Global Travel Grants
Student Global Travel Grants - These grants are intended to partially support international travel expenses for masters or doctoral students enrolled in one of the six health science schools, the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, or the School of Law at the University of Pittsburgh who wish to conduct research in an international setting.
Meghan Byrne (BCHS) for her work on, “Medical Oppression and Cervical Cancer Rates in the Women of Patzcuaro, Michoacan” with Mujeres Enlazadas, Michoacan, Mexico.
Andrea Dunlavy (BCHS) for her work on, “Social Determinants of Child Injuries in Tanzania: Risk and Protective Factors” with The Peercorps Trust Fund, Dar es Saalam, Tanzania.
Owens Fellowship
A bequest of Samuel T. Owens, Jr. makes a limited number of fellowships available at the University of Pittsburgh for full-time students who show promise of high academic achievement and who enroll in both the fall and spring terms. These fellowships consist of $2000 per year, to be used for tuition, books, and living expenses for the fall and spring terms.
Meghan Byrne (BCHS MPH Student) was awarded a $6000 Owens Fellowship for academic year 2009-2010.
Luis Duran a current BCHS DrPH student along with one other GSPH student, were selected for the Short-Term Access to Research Training program (START UP) through the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at the University of Pittsburgh. The awards provide a stipend for 12 weeks during the summer of 2009.
GSPH Student Wins Summer Research Award
The summer research program is for students enrolled in doctoral programs in the six schools of the health sciences at the University of Pittsburgh.
The program combines an individualized mentored research experience with group sessions focused on multidisciplinary translational research. Before the start of the summer program, each student works with a mentor to develop an initial research plan. At the end of the program, the student will present the final project at a capstone event attended by all students and mentors.
Duran’s project is titled “Embodiment in Public Health: Potential Applications of Existing Evidence." His primary mentor is Christopher Keane, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences. Pugh’s project is, “Analysis of SNP Data Collected in the Genetic and Inflammatory Markers of Sepsis Study,” and his primary mentor is Lisa Weissfeld, PhD, professor in the Department of Biostatistics.
BCHS Student Renee Walker is Named 2009 Kellogg Scholar
Click here to read full article.
BCHS Faculty Member Presents at Dean's Junior Faculty Seminar
Dr. Jessica Burke, Assistant Professor in BCHS, will be presenting her current research “Urban Health Disparities: Uncovering Contextual Influences” at the Dean’s Junior Faculty Seminar on Thursday, November 13 from 2:00-3:30 p.m. in 109 Parran Hall.
BCHS Highlighted in Pitt Chronicle
BCHS Faculty Member's Grant Funded by NIDA
Dr. Jessica Burke’s grant “Patterns of substance use among aging HIV positive and negative MSM” was recently funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Drs. Ron Stall (GSPH-BCHS), Anthony Silvestre (GSPH-IDM), Steve Albert (GSPH-BCHS) and Michael Marshal (WPIC) are study co-investigators. Howie Lim, a doctoral student in IDM, is the study’s Project Director. The total amount is $203,000 and the grant is for 2 years (9/15/08-8/31/2010).
The overarching goal of this R03 research study is to examine the patterns of substance use over time among an aging cohort of HIV positive and negative men who have sex with men (MSM) participating in the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS). The Pitt Men's Study (PMS) is one of the four MACS sites. The other MACS sites are located in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Baltimore.
This exploratory research focuses on the extent to which middle-aged MSM carry substance use habits from earlier into later life. It is a mixed method study that includes 1) an innovative approach to secondary quantitative data analysis of existing MACS data and 2) qualitative in-depth interviews with selected MACS participants. The analysis will be limited to MACS participants currently over the age of 50 years and will compare trajectories of declining substance use with increasing or consistently high levels of use. These pattern comparisons will allow for the identification of resiliency characteristics associated with decreased substance use and related health and social problems. Results will be used to develop a model intervention to prevent substance abuse and related health and social problems among both older HIV positive and negative MSM. The analysis will also specifically seek to develop hypotheses from the qualitative and quantitative data that can be tested with other aging populations of substance users.
BCHS Student and Faculty Member Have Editorial Published
LaShawn M. Curtis, MPH and John H. Marx, PhD have published the lead editorial in the September 2008 issue of the American Journal of Public Health. The editorial is titled Untapped Resources: Exploring the Need to Invest in Doctor of Public Health-Degree Training and Leadership Development. The editorial proposes that that DrPH graduates must play a major leadership role in the direction and advancement of the public health agenda in the United States and beyond. Ms. Curtis is a doctoral candidate in BCHS and Dr. Marx is Professor, Department of Behavioral & Community Health Sciences, and Professor, Department of Sociology.
Megan Kavanaugh Receives Fellowship
Megan Kavanaugh, MPH, a doctoral candidate in the department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, has received a Charlotte Ellertson Social Science Postdoctoral Fellowship in Abortion and Reproductive Health. As an Ellertson Fellow, Megan will participate in a two-year postdoctoral research and leadership training fellowship. The objectives of the fellowship are to support a multidisciplinary cohort of promising new social science researchers who study abortion and reproductive health, and to produce and share research that informs policy and program design. Fellows are committed to research on abortion and careers that include a focus on scholarship and advocacy.
Megan's fellowship will be located at the Guttmacher Institute in New York City and will begin in September 2008. She intends to draw on her quantitative and qualitative training to identify and investigate causal pathways through which social disadvantage leads to higher risks for unintended pregnancy, focusing in particular on women who have elective abortions.
Keon Gilbert Named Kellogg Scholar
Keon Gilbert has been named a Kellogg Health Scholar for the 2008-2010 academic years. The two-year fellowships seek to develop new leadership in the effort to reduce and eliminate health disparities and to secure equal access to the conditions and services essential for achieving healthy communities. The fellowships are funded by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and managed by the Center for the Advancement of Health in partnership with the University of Michigan School of Public Health.
Gilbert’s research interests are social capital, community capacity, community development, health disparities, and evaluation. He will pursue his research at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is a DrPH candidate in the Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences.
Through this program, scholars develop as leaders with research expertise to add to knowledge about the nature of social disparities in health and interventions to reduce those disparities, the capacity to partner with communities in carrying out research and building policy advocacy and the skills to inform and support policy makers who seek to reduce and eliminate health disparities. The fellowship, with a $61,000 stipend in 2008-2009 and $62,000 in 2009-2010, is designed for scholars with terminal degrees in fields related to the study of health disparities.
The program consists of two tracks and offers two-year postdoctoral fellowships at eight training sites. The community track highlights community-based participatory research and relationships between academe, community and public health practice. The multidisciplinary track highlights a multidisciplinary approach to studying the social determinants of health disparities.
The program, begun in 2005, will run through 2012 with an initial grant of $3.5 million in 2005 and a supplemental grant of $10 million in 2007 from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. Information for applications for the
2009 cohort will be posted on the Kellogg Health Scholars Program Website at www.kellogghealthscholars.org program in September 2008.
Two Kellogg Scholars will complete their fellowships at GSPH. They are Jamie Chatman of Rice University in Houston, whose research interest is maternal, child, and adolescent health; and Besangie Sellars of the University of Michigan whose research interests are developmental psychology, minority aging, sex role endorsements, and healthy lifespan development.
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation was established in 1930 “to help people help themselves through the practical application of knowledge and resources to improve their quality of life and that of future generations.” Its programming activities center around the common vision of a world in which each person has a sense of worth; accepts responsibility for self, family, community and societal well-being; and has the capacity to be productive and to help create nurturing families, responsive institutions and healthy communities.
Sharon McCarthy Selected for Cancer Control Research Traineeship
Sharon McCarthy, a student in our MPH-MSW joint degree program, was selected for a Cancer Control Research Traineeship and will be attending the 5 day workshop this summer at UCLA.
The Minority Training Program in Cancer Control Research (MTPCCR) is designed to encourage minority students to pursue doctoral programs that focus on cancer research.
Southern California is one of the most ethnically diverse regions in the world, and this diversity is evidenced in the master’s level student populations training in health at Los Angeles Area academic institutions. However, as is true elsewhere, only a small proportion of minority students go on to pursue doctoral degrees, resulting in a national shortage of experienced minority investigators in cancer prevention and control. to increase ethnic diversity in the field of research and cancer control by encouraging minority students in master's level health programs as well as master’s trained professionals to pursue a doctoral degree and a career in research. The program has been designed to enhance students’: 1) understanding of the power of research to affect change; 2) awareness of the strengths and limitations of research methods,
theory and interventions in eliminating health disparities; 3) interest in cancer control research, from surveillance to
epidemiology, individual behavior change, health services, and
policy research; and 4) research, networking, information seeking skills, motivation, and
ability to successfully apply to a doctoral program.
BCHS Students Receive ReSet Center Award Funding
Two BCHS students, Chieremma Nnadi and Christy Lawson, were awarded $4,000 for their project "Knowledge, Attitudes and Expectations of Young Adult Smokers Towards Smoking Cessation Services in Pittsburgh" by the ReSet Center. In this study, researchers will assess young adult smokers' knowledge of smoking cessation services and why they do not use the help available through these programs. They will also seek to understand young adult smokers' perceptions of smoking cessation services as currently organized and what their expectations of these services are and will seek input about a potential smoking cessation program aimed at young adults.
MPH Student Manages Research Study
Allison Pilsner, an MPH student and a University of Pittsburgh (LEND) Fellow, is investigating maternal distress and problem-solving skills of newly diagnosed cancer cases among Latino and non-Latino mothers. She will also look at implications for culturally-competent care.
To see a full description of her research proposal please click here
http://www.aucd.org/template/news.cfm?news_id=2352&id=17
BCHS Faculty Member Received Certificate of Achievement
On Friday, February 29th, Martha Ann Terry received from GSPIA a Certificate of Achievement in recognition of the highest student evaluation of teaching in an International Development course in 2007.
The award was made at GSPIA's annual dinner honoring adjunct teaching faculty. In addition, Martha has been notified that she is one of the recipients of GSPIA's Annual Teaching Awards, given for outstanding instruction in two or more courses in GSPIA, as indicated by overall ratings students gave her on the Evaluation of Teaching. This is a wonderful recognition of Dr. Terry's commitment to teaching, and honors that are well deserved!
BCHS Faculty Member's Report Published in American Journal of Epidemiology
Professor Jessie Burke and her research colleagues have authored a report in the January 2008 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology. The study examined the relationship between neighborhood deprivation and pre-term birth by race in eight geographic regions in four different states. Results showed a moderate association between neighborhood deprivation and risk of pre-term birth among both non-Hispanic White women and non-Hispanic Black women. A key component of this research was the creation of a neighborhood deprivation index that is a useful tool for use in future research studies.
O’Campo P, Burke JG, Culhane J, et al. 2008. Neighborhood deprivation and preterm birth among non-Hispanic black and white women in eight geographic areas in the United States. American Journal of Epidemiology 167(2):155-163. Abstract available at http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/167/2/155?etoc.
BCHS Faculty Member's Article Published in Public Health Reports
Dr. James Butler, along with Beth Quill (University of Texas) and Maggie Potter (Pitt Center for Public Health Practice) have an article in the January/February 2008 issue of Public Health Reports. The article summarizes the 2005 Center for Public Health Practice 10th Anniversary Symposium, "Perspectives on Transforming the Field of Academic Public Health Practice". The symposium included presentations by an array of nationally known scholar-practitioners in public health.
Ronald Stall Selected as New BCHS Department Chair
On May 28 GSPH Dean Donald Burke announced that Professor Ronald Stall, presently a Professor in BCHS and the Director of the GSPH Multi-disciplinary Masters Degree in Public Health Program has been selected as the new Chair of the Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences. Dr. Stall is replacing Dr. Robert Goodman who has accepted the position of Dean of the Indiana University School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation. Dr. Stall will assume his new responsibilities as of July 1, 2007.
(The following information is excerpted from the 2006 GSPH Annual Report)
Dr. Stall graduated with a Ph.D. in Medical Anthropology and an M.P.H. in Epidemiology from the Universities of California at San Francisco and Berkeley in 1984. Although employed upon graduation on a R01-funded expansion of his dissertation, Stall also started volunteering on the first longitudinal research project in the world to follow behavioral adaptations to the AIDS epidemic, the AIDS Behavioral Research Project. This project provided a primary scientific basis for what became the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS) at UCSF, and with the receipt of a successful center grant to CAPS Dr. Stall started work full time on AIDS. Stall used this opportunity to collaborate on a series of projects involving behavioral epidemiology, intervention, qualitative and international research. Stall began work as Chief of the Prevention Research Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta in 2000. While there, he directed a Branch that grew to include 80 FTE positions with a budget exceeding $30,000,000 annually. Dr. Stall left the CDC to join the Graduate School of Public Health during the summer of 2005.
Dr. Stall’s central research interest is the study of how social and cultural forces shape the behaviors that place individuals at higher risk for disease outcomes, and in particular, substance abuse and HIV infection. He has published a wide variety of papers on many different aspects of the AIDS epidemic, including methodological research, research on determinants of risk-taking behaviors and HIV sero-conversion itself, life course issues important to AIDS risk-taking behavior, behavioral intervention research, research on care-seeking behavior for HIV infection and a portfolio of international research on AIDS. Dr. Stall is currently working on a set of projects concerning an intervention trial in Zimbabwe, a trial to measure the effects of the immediate provision of housing to homeless people with HIV infection, identifying the determinants of HIV infection within a group of individuals who were identified as recent HIV sero-converters, and a series of descriptive cross-sectional studies on HIV risk-taking. Ron is particularly proud of his record of collaborative research conducted with AIDS community-based organizations, which include a broad range of organizations within the United States and abroad.