Author and activist Edgar Villanueva to speak at Gillings School’s 2022 Commencement
February 18, 2022 Edgar Villanueva, MHA, is an award-winning author, activist and expert on issues of race, wealth and philanthropy. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Gillings School and is an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe.
NIH funds $2.8M Gillings research on personalized messaging for weight management app
February 17, 2022 A new grant from the National Institutes of Health will help researchers at the Gillings School develop personalized messaging strategies that nutrition apps can use to nudge users toward modifying behavior to meet their goals.
UNC researchers develop mapping tool to protect populations from environmental chemicals
February 15, 2022 A new tool developed by UNC environmental health researchers allows users to visualize trends in environmental contaminants, demographic information and environmental justice indicators across North Carolina.
Produce prescriptions can save money. New project asks how much?
December 13, 2021 Food prescription programs provide monthly benefits to help people buy fresh fruits and vegetables, and these programs have already been shown to improve health outcomes. A $765,000 grant from The Duke Endowment will fund research by Dr. Shu Wen Ng, Distinguished Scholar in Public Health Nutrition, to produce evidence related to a new facet of these programs: return on investment in the form of improved health and lower health care costs for individuals and communities.
Checking in with COVID-19 Gillings Innovation Labs
November 24, 2021 Five of the COVID-19 research projects funded through a special round of Gillings Innovation Laboratory awards (GILs) have now been completed, and the two remaining are expected to wrap in early 2022. Their work has been critical in influencing local and global pandemic response efforts through policy, practice and community engagement.
Building a better bassinet
November 9, 2021 Carolina faculty helped develop an innovative hospital bassinet that enables breastfeeding and chestfeeding, skin-to-skin contact, and mother-infant bonding while improving newborn safety.
New resource offers guidance to optimize digital health assessments
November 8, 2021 A team led by Dr. Manish Kumar, an alum of and adjunct assistant professor at UNC Gillings, developed a new resource that brings much-needed clarity to the process of improving digital health capability for public health systems.
Community partnership provides harm reduction for vulnerable populations in Durban
October 22, 2021 UNC Gillings alum Michael Wilson cofounded Bellhaven Harm Reduction Centre, the first low-threshold harm-reduction center in South Africa which provides community-based health and harm reduction services for low-income and homeless individuals in Durban, South Africa. A recent mini documentary chronicles the unique relationship between the city, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and the local university that made this center possible.
New study gives insight into how often COVID-19 spreads through households
August 30, 2021 The study reports on how frequently COVID-19 spreads to other people living in the same household as someone diagnosed with the illness. The researchers emphasize that having many people living in one household is a major factor in infection risk, which disproportionately affects communities of color.
Two Gillings leaders advance research on innovative solutions to public health challenges
August 24, 2021 Drs. Mark Sobsey and Steven Meshnick were two early recipients of Gillings Innovation Lab awards that proposed public health improvements to global communities and provided instrumental mentorship to students and faculty at UNC and the Gillings School today.
