Reese, MCH doctoral student, wins SAHM development award

Bianka Reese

Bianka Reese, doctoral student in maternal and child health at Gillings School of Global Public Health, has won the 2013 Career Development Award in Adolescent Health from the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. She will be honored March 14 during the Society’s annual meeting in Atlanta.

The award was established to promote interest in an adolescent health career. An honorarium will support Reese’s research project, which examines the health implications of rapid-repeat pregnancies (RRP).

Reese will work with her mentor, maternal and child health professor Carolyn Halpern, PhD, and a research team to become more proficient in the design, analysis and presentation of population-based health research related to teen pregnancy. Specifically, she seeks to better understand distal determinants and consequences of RRP for health outcomes among adolescent mothers.

“My ultimate career goal is not only to diversify the academic workforce, but through applied research, to contribute to evidence-based policies and programs,” Reese said. She noted that such programs and policies are informed by the variety of ways in which sexual and reproductive health development occurs and the many implications of reproductive behavior on the physical, social, economic and emotional well-being of youth.