HB student wins American Heart Association fellowship
| July 23, 2012 | |
Stephanie Baker
Stephanie Baker, doctoral student in health behavior at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, has received a two-year predoctoral fellowship from the American Heart Association, effective this month. The award is intended to help students initiate careers in cardiovascular and stroke research by providing research assistance and training.
Baker, who studies ways that environmental and contextual factors contribute to racial disparities in sedentary behavior and physical activity, hopes the fellowship will be the beginning of a long relationship with the American Heart Association.
“I’m very excited and grateful to receive the award,” she said. “This support from AHA allows me to dedicate myself to dissertation research and the preparation of related manuscripts.”
Susan Ennett, PhD, professor and doctoral program director in the health behavior department and Baker’s dissertation chair, praised Baker for her many contributions to the department, school and university. She noted Baker’s service as outreach coordinator for the UNC Office of Student Affairs, where she engages middle-school, high-school and college student groups in activities to learn about public health academic programs and career opportunities. Baker was elected to UNC’s Frank Porter Graham Graduate and Professional Student Honor Society in 2011 for her efforts with a number of programs related to undergraduate education.
“Stephanie is such a deserving recipient of this award,” Ennett said. “She is an outstanding young scholar who is committed to researching racial disparities in cardiovascular health. Her research takes an innovative and theoretically rich approach to examining how racial segregation within schools differentially influences sedentary behavior of white and black youth.”
UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: Linda Kastleman, communications editor, (919) 966-8317 or linda_kastleman@unc.edu.
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