Blair, Ennett receive School of Public Health alumni awards

Barr Award

Dr. Aaron E. Blair has served as Chief of the Occupational and Environmental Branch at the National Cancer Institute for over 25 years. Under his leadership, the branch expanded from four investigators more than thirty. Additionally, he was one of the first in his field to incorporate quantitative exposure assessments and molecular epidemiology components to studies. Much of his work has been with underserved populations, particularly those vulnerable to environmental pollutants, such as agricultural workers. Blair has worked with collaborators to design a series of agricultural studies from initial hypothesis-generating studies using death certificates, to population-based case-control studies of selected cancer in agricultural areas, to prospective studies such as the Agricultural Health Study of farmers and their spouses in Iowa and North Carolina. The results of these studies have had lasting implications for researchers worldwide. 

Blair earned a BA from Kansas Wesleyan University, an MS (in Botany) and PhD (in Genetics) from North Carolina State University, and an MPH (in Epidemiology) from the UNC School of Public Health. 

Established in 1975, the Barr Award recognizes the achievements of alumni and their contributions to public health. For many years, the award has carried the name of its 1980 recipient — Harriet Hylton Barr — to honor her contributions to the field. Barr, who earned her MPH from UNC in 1948, is a clinical associate professor emeritus in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education. She was the School’s first director of alumni affairs, a position she held for 25 years. She was responsible for getting alumni more involved with the School, and thus keeping the School in closer touch with public health practitioners. The Barr Award recognizes leadership, experimentation, collaboration and innovation within the profession; impact within the practice arena; and outstanding service beyond the requirements of the recipient’s employment.

Greenberg Award

Dr. Susan T. Ennett is Associate Professor of Health Behavior and Health Education at the UNC School of Public Health. Her areas of interest focus on adolescent health risk prevention, with a particular emphasis on the role that cliques and social networks play in explaining adolescent risk behaviors. Ennett’s research addresses some of the most significant public health problems facing our youth today, including HIV risk behaviors, cigarette, alcohol, marijuana, and injection drug use, and aggression and violence. 

Ennett’s work on peer social networks has altered thinking on the role of peers in adolescent health-risk behaviors. She has conducted numerous studies using state-of-the-art social network methods to measure innovative peer network characteristics. Since 2004, she has served as Director of the Doctoral Program in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education. Her exceptional teaching and mentoring clearly demonstrate her devotion and commitment to the training mission of the School.

She earned a BA from Mount Holyoke College and an MSPH and PhD (in Health Behavior and Health Education) from the UNC School of Public Health. 

The Greenberg Award was established by the Alumni Association to honor Dr. Bernard G. Greenberg, founder and chair of the Department of Biostatistics from 1949 to 1972 and dean of the School from 1972 to 1982. The Award is given annually to an outstanding full-time faculty member for excellence in the areas of teaching, research and service. Special consideration is given to candidates who have seamlessly integrated these areas of focus. A major criterion is continuous demonstrated excellence over a number of years in service to the broader public health community. The award carries a cash prize of $12,000 a year for three years.