The Abstract: January 10, 2022
January 10, 2022
Whether you’re local or global, student or alumni, the Abstract’s weekly news digest will help you stay in the loop with our amazing Gillings School community.
Aliaga assumes new leadership roles at School of Medicine
Dr. Sofia Aliaga
The UNC School of Medicine (SOM) has named Sofia Aliaga, MD, MPH, FAAP, director of simulation, experiential learning, and training. In this role, she will be responsible for design, management, integration and evaluation of the center, which was previously known as the Clinical Skills and Patient Simulation Center. Her strategic oversight will guide budget, operations and continuous quality improvement.
In addition, she has been named the Director of Interprofessional Education and Practice for the SOM, which works to transform the way students are trained for the workforce and care for communities. She will work with the Center for Interprofessional Education and Practice to coordinate IPEP efforts across campus and connect students with expanded training opportunities.
After receiving a Doctor of Medicine degree from the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru, Aliaga came to UNC for a fellowship and earned a Master of Public Health degree from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health in public health leadership in 2010. She is an associate professor of neonatal-perinatal medicine at the SOM.
Baxter wins fellowship
Dr. Samuel Baxter
The South Carolina Public Health Association (SCPHA) and the South Carolina Center for Rural and Primary Healthcare (CRPH) have selected Samuel Baxter, PhD, MPH as the recipient of their joint All of US Research Fellowship.
Baxter, who earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the Gillings School’s Department of Health Policy and Management in 2020, conducts research and engages in work that centers neighborhood and social factors that influence cardiovascular health. He is also a co-investigator for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s High Obesity Program, which uses policy, systems and environmental change approaches to reduce obesity in three rural South Carolina counties.
During this fellowship, Baxter will be exploring the effects of stress on physical activity and looking at differences by geography and race/ethnicity. His work, based in South Carolina, will seek to determine whether the impact of stress on physical activity is consistent across urban/rural areas and whether this relationship differs by race/ethnicity. He is an alumnus of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Health Policy Research Scholars Program.
Rimer publishes tribute to Dr. Robert Croyle
Dean Barbara K. Rimer
Barbara K. Rimer, DrPH, dean of the Gillings School of Global Public Health, has a new publication in Translational Behavioral Medicine titled “A tribute to Robert Croyle, PhD, Director, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences.”
“At the beginning of Dr. Robert Croyle’s 18th and final year as director of the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS), before his retirement in December 2021, it is fitting to review some of his and the division’s many accomplishments and pay tribute to him as one of the government’s most effective leaders. The focus of this article is on Dr. Croyle’s contributions in the behavioral and related domains and his and the division’s impact on the landscape of cancer control and population sciences.”
Riva named co-winner of James J. Morgan ES&T Early Career Award
Congratulations to Matthieu Riva, PhD, who was recently named a co-winner of the James J. Morgan Early Career Award by Environmental Science & Technology (ES&T).
Riva worked with Professor Jason Surratt, PhD, in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering as a Camille and Henry Dreyfus Environmental Chemistry Postdoctoral Scholar from 2014-2016
