As 2013 begins, some highlights of 2012 and‌
Thanks to members of the SPH Advisory Council for all you do to help this School remain the top public school of public health.
2012 Highlights Gillings School of Global Public Health: we’re broad and deep
In 2012, we worked in and with every county in North Carolina‌
…and in more than 50 countries in the world.
Public health and medical student Naman Shah volunteered in Guyana.
Joseph F. Coughlin, PhD, director of MIT’s AgeLab, gave an inspiring Foard Lecture. Cashing in the Longevity Dividend: Old Age, New Technology and Innovating Life Tomorrow
Students were recognized Our students for their many accomplishments. They’re smart, talented, creative, amazingly energetic – and making the world a better place. They’re innovators and entrepreneurs who realize that changing the world means taking innovations to scale. Students’ public health week flash mob!
Student entrepreneurs hit their stride. Alice Wang, ESE doctoral student and KM Water Solutions team member, won 1st prize in UNC’s first Social Innovation Incubator.
Liz Morris,
Wang fills jugs with filtered water in Cambodia (left) and accepts award with Dr. Mark Sobsey.
ESE master’s alumna, founder and CEO of Sanitation Creations
Undergraduate entrepreneur won $100K scholarship to launch company. Tara Seshan, recent ESE BSPH graduate, won a prestigious Thiel Fellowship to develop Chek.Up, a venture focused on creating value in high quality, powerful data. She and her colleagues are building a mobilebased app for chronic disease patients.
Student-led Minority Health Conference was bigger, better than ever.
Master’s students Chassidy Hanley (Health Behavior) and LeVelton Thomas (Health Policy and Management)
MHC is the oldest and largest student-run health conference in the U.S.
Doctoral student published high-impact findings.
Poison center data play vital role in predicting methadone-related deaths. --PLoS One, 07/19/12
Nabarun Dasgupta, epidemiology doctoral student, not only developed an exciting health app but also has helped to reduce drug-related deaths in communities around N.C. by partnering with key people in communities.
Generous donors and organizations supported SPH students. Gillings Dissertation Awards
Allison Groves Health Behavior
Heather Paich Nutrition
World Vision Internships
Ryan Cronk ESE
Lauren Snyder Maternal and Child Health
2012 Graduate School Impact Awards— students whose research made a difference in N.C.
Peter Balvanz HB alumnus
Brooke Hoots EPID alumna
Mehul Patel EPID doctoral student
Meagan Vaughn EPID doctoral student
Catherine Vladutiu EPID doctoral student
Stephanie Watkins EPID doctoral student
Health Behavior capstone team recognized Marvin Collins Planning Award for Graduate Student Project Planning awarded to a Health Behavior capstone team with the Orange County (N.C.) Department on Aging
Phoebe Goldberg, Laura Major, Hannah Prentice-Dunn, Rebecca Woodruff and Marcia Perritt
There are so many more great students!
Research 2012— strong, with impact UNC-Chapel Hill entered research funding top 10. School faculty members’ excellent research track records continued. We launched pilot research projects with Cambridge University.
Faculty members’ research findings brought new insights African-American men who believe that they should respond to stress with stoicism and emotional control report more depressive symptoms. -- American Journal of Public Health, 3/12 Wizdom Powell Hammond, PhD Health Behavior
1 in 88 children in the United States has autism spectrum disorder. N.C. rates are slightly higher than average U.S. rate. -- Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 3/12
Julie Daniels, PhD Epidemiology and MCH
Faculty members’ research made a difference globally. Text messaging and other mobile phone apps may be effective/costefficient in improving health outcomes, especially in developing countries. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 2012 Harsha Thirumurthy, PhD Health Policy and Management
HPV vaccine, which targets the most common strains of the virus, likely would not cause other cancer-causing HPV strains to develop in vaccinated people. Journal of Infectious Diseases, 06/18/12
Jennifer Smith, PhD Epidemiology
SPH faculty traveled the world to improve health. School plays key role in launch of Lancet series on family planning, led by Herbert Peterson, MD.
Herbert B. Peterson, MD Maternal and Child Health
Increasing access to family planning: the key to achieving United Nations targets for maternal health, eradication of poverty, education, and gender equality. Lancet, 7/10/12.
More than three-quarters of Chinese adults have at least one risk factor for Type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular disease. -- Obesity 7/19/12 Penny Gordon-Larsen, PhD Nutrition
SPH obesity experts reported on heart disease and diet beverages—another piece of diet puzzle.
Kiyah Duffey, PhD Nutrition
► Healthiest people eat a prudent diet and no diet beverages. ► 2nd healthiest eat a prudent diet + diet beverages. ► Western diet increases risk of heart disease with or without diet beverages. "Dietary patterns matter: … (CARDIA) Study”
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2/12 Barry M. Popkin, PhD Nutrition
Faculty members showed that preventive oral care pays for itself. Investing in preventive oral health care for young children at risk of dental disease…..
Sally C. Stearns, PhD HPM
improves oral health, overall quality of life; probably pays for itself; may save $ in fewer hospitalizations, lower future dental costs. -- Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, 8/27/12
Gary Rozier, DDS, MPH HPM
A few of many competitive grant awards faculty members received Three-year, $1.2 million U.S. EPA grant for research by the Carolina Center for Computational Toxicology
Ivan Rusyn, MD, PhD, Environmental Sciences and Engineering
.
Grand Challenges Explorations award, initiative funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Steven H. Zeisel, MD, PhD, Nutrition
Five-year Eunice Kennedy Shriver NICHD award, nearly $3M for nutrition interventions Fred Wright, PhD Biostatistics
Margaret (Peggy) Bentley, PhD Nutrition
Grant awards U.S. Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP) multi-year grants, totaling $4 million, to conduct research and inform federal policy about health Mark Holmes, PhD Health Policy and Management
George Pink, PhD Health Policy and Management
W.K. Kellogg foundation awards ~$250,000 for Philadelphia Roadmap to Health Equity in MCH. A First Food project
Vijaya Hogan, DrPH Maternal and Child Health
Diane Rowley, MD Maternal and Child Health
Grant awards $21.4M from NIAID to lead five-year Accountability for Cancer Care through study on life-threatening viral infections Undoing Racism and Equity -NCI funding
Ralph S. Baric, PhD Epidemiology
$6.7M from NCI to lead study on using policy to restrict tobacco marketing
Kurt Ribisl, PhD Health Behavior
Geni Eng, DrPH Health Behavior
$250,000 U.S. EPA grant to examine innovative ways to improve air quality
Jason West, PhD Environmental Sciences and Engineering
Grant awards $2.6M NIH support for A Multilevel Intervention to Reduce HIV Risk among networks of men in Tanzania.
Suzanne Maman, PhD, Health Behavior
University Cancer Research Fund supports Health-E-NC project to improve cancer survivorship Stephanie Wheeler, PhD, Health Policy and Management
PCORI grant to fund program on comparative effectiveness research
Til St端rmer, MD, MPH, PhD, Epidemiology
Faculty members were recognized for excellence in many areas. Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) 2012 Alumni Award for leadership and contribution in public health
2012 Gertrude M. Cox Award for significant contributions in statistics
Amy H. Herring, ScD Biostatistics
UNC’s Hettleman Prize for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement by Young Faculty
Leah M. Devlin, DDS Health Policy and Management
Evan S. Dellon, MD, MPH Medicine and Epidemiology
Faculty members recognized Health and Law Bioethics Award at conference in Kiev
Dean M. Harris, JD Health Policy and Management
Carolina Women's Leadership Council Faculty-to-Faculty Mentoring Award
Peggye Dilworth-Anderson, PhD Health Policy and Management
Awards to our faculty members Bernard G. Greenberg Alumni Endowment Award
Gary Koch, PhD Biostatistics Continuous excellence in service to the broad public health community
Harriet Hylton Barr Distinguished Alumni Award
John E. Larsh Jr. Award for Mentorship
Pranab Kumar Sen, PhD Biostatistics, Statistics and Operations Research Exemplifies qualities of mentoring and commitment to students
Edward G. McGavran Award for Excellence in Teaching
William A. Rutala, PhD, MPH
Suzanne Maman, PhD
Medicine
Health Behavior
Achievements of alumni and contributions to public health
Career-long excellence in teaching, broadly defined and including activities inside and outside the classroom
We celebrated teaching! February was Celebrate Teaching! Month. First student-selected, Innovations in Teaching awards Teaching Innovation Award recipients (l-r): Drs. John Paul, Rebecca Fry, Amy Herring, Linda Adair, Charles Poole, Kurt Ribisl and Sherri Green. Dr. Diane Kelly not pictured.
Spring Commencement Dr. Howard Koh spoke at SPH 2012
Faculty members Drs. Suzanne Maman, Geni Eng, Anna Maria Siega-Riz and Amy Herring attending commencement ceremonies.
Howard Koh, MD, MPH, U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health, delivered an inspiring keynote address.
Spring Commencement 2012
Spring 2012 SpringCommencement Commencement 2012
They did it !!!
University Commencement Spring 2012 Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York City and a public health hero, gave the commencement talk and was given an honorary doctorate. Bloomberg is known for courageous public health actions that have improved the health of New Yorkers. I had the honor of reading his name.
2012 UNC Distinguished Alumni Awards went to two SPH alumni
Deborah Parham Hopson, PhD, associate administrator for HIV/AIDS, U.S. DHHS
Greg Allgood, MSPH, PhD, director of the P&G Children's Safe Drinking Water Program
2013 Commencement speaker – Josh Nesbit Josh Nesbit, CEO, Medic Mobile will deliver the Gillings School of Global Public Health commencement keynote address.
Josh Nesbit, CEO, Medic Mobile
Founded by students at Stanford, Medic Mobile uses mobile phones to gather health data efficiently and assists medical workers with patient follow-up, vaccine adherence, and appointment reminders.
Alumnus and adjunct faculty member: champion of change
The White House selected alumnus Adam Searing as “a Champion of Change" for achievements as a health care advocate in North Carolina. Adam Searing, MPH, JD, SPH alum and adjunct faculty member, receives a U.S. flag from U.S. Rep. David E. Price (N.C.).
Water in our World is UNC’s first two-year pan-campus theme. Jamie Bartram, PhD, gave the 2012 University Day talk—a great honor. Our excellence in water has never been clearer or its need greater.
Cohen spoke at 2012 December Commencement Myron S. Cohen, MD, spoke at fall commencement, December 16, 2012 Myron S. Cohen, MD J. Herbert Bate Distinguished Professor of Medicine Professor of Epidemiology Associate Vice Chancellor for Global Health
"Through his internationally-recognized scholarship, Mike Cohen epitomizes the vast power of a research university and its people to help tackle the world's greatest problems." -- Chancellor Holden Thorp
There are no wrong doors‌Whatever doors you choose, there will always be great dots to connect as you look backwards. Tenacity is just as important as brains‌If you are committed to an idea, you must go forward. Take chances, be tenacious, and your talents will triumph. -- Myron Cohen, 12/16/12
A year ends and another begins
Photo by Michael Hobbs
A year ended; 2013 begins.The urgency of public health is now, today.
Best wishes for 2013! Photo by Arindam Pal