November 2014 — April 2015 awards and recognitions

May 4, 2015

Selected awards and recognitions

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Faculty and staff members

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Dr. Eugenia Eng

Eugenia Eng, DrPH, HB professor, was inducted as an inaugural member of the Academy of Community Engagement Scholarship on Oct. 7, 2014, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Eng’s work in community-based participatory research is recognized internationally.

Dr. Gary Rozier

A video highlighting early childhood oral health research won first place in the 2014 Power of Oral Health Research Video Contest, sponsored by Friends of the National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research. Work described in the video was part of the multi-year Zero Out Early Childhood Tooth Decay (ZOE) Initiative, led by Gary Rozier, DDS, MPH, HPM research professor.

Dr. Jason West

Jason West, PhD, ESE associate professor, was one of 20 researchers in the U.S. and Canada chosen as 2015 Leopold Leadership Fellows at the Stanford University Woods Institute for the Environment. West also was recognized by the organization Clean Air Carolina at an Airkeeper Awards reception in March. His research employs computer models to understand the exposure of the global population to outdoor air pollution.

Dr. William Miller

William Miller, MD, PhD, MPH, EPI professor, is the new editor- in-chief of the journal Sexually Transmitted Diseases.

Dr. Gerardo Heiss

Dr. Christy Avery

EPI faculty members Gerardo Heiss, MD, PhD, Kenan Distinguished Professor, and Christy Avery, PhD, assistant professor, were honored by the American Heart Association (AHA) at an annual conference in Baltimore in March. Heiss was presented with the AHA’s Epidemiology and Prevention Mentoring Award. Avery won the Sandra A. Daugherty Award for Excellence in Cardiovascular Disease or Hypertension Epidemiology.

Dr. Jo Anne Earp

Dr. Mike Cohen

Two of three UNC General Alumni Association Faculty Service Awards were presented to Gillings School faculty members. Awardees were Jo Anne Earp, ScD, HB professor and former chair, and Myron Cohen, MD, EPI professor and Yeargan-Bate Eminent Distinguished Professor of medicine, microbiology and immunology in the medical school.

Dr. Susan Ennett

Dr. Karl Umble

Susan Ennett, PhD, professor and vice chair for academic affairs in HB, and Karl Umble, PhD, clinical assistant professor of HPM and adjunct assistant professor of HB, were honored in spring 2015 for distinguished teaching. Ennett was one of four to receive UNC’s Distinguished Teaching Award for Post-Baccalaureate Instruction. Umble was one of five to receive the Tanner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.

Dr. Carmen Samuel- Hodge

Carmen Samuel-Hodge, PhD, research assistant professor of NUTR, won a University Award for the Advancement of Women. Presented by Carolina Women’s Center on behalf of UNC’s chancellor and provost, the award recognized Samuel-Hodge’s continued commitment to the academic mentoring of women, specifically women of color pursuing doctoral degrees.

Eight faculty members — one from each academic unit at the School — were honored at a ‘Celebrate Teaching!’ event in February. Winners of the School’s annual Teaching Innovation Awards are Lori Evarts, MPH, clinical assistant professor (PHLP); Jane Monaco, DrPH, clinical associate professor (BIOS); John Paul, PhD, clinical professor (HPM); Brian Pence, PhD, assistant professor (EPI); Kurt Ribisl, PhD, professor (HB); June Stevens, PhD, AICR/ WCRF Distinguished Professor (NUTR); Jill Stewart, PhD, associate professor (ESE); and Christine Tucker, PhD, lecturer (MCH). Evarts, Paul, Ribisl and Stewart also won in previous years.

Winners of the School’s 2015 Teaching Awards are (l-r) Dr. Brian Pence, Dr. Christine Tucker, Dr. June Stevens, Lori Evarts, Dr. John Paul, Dr. Jane Monaco and Dr. Jill Stewart. (Not picture is Dr. Kurt Ribisl.) The awards are presented annually in February, the School’s designated “Celebrate Teaching!” Month.

Joanne Lee

Joanne Lee, NUTR student services manager, was selected as winner of the School’s 2014 Staff Excellence Award.

Students, postdoctoral fellows and alumni

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Gillings School students earned more than one-third of the UNC Graduate School’s 2015 Impact Awards. The awards recognize graduate students for outstanding research that benefits the people of North Carolina. Impact awardees are Maiko Arashiro (ESE), Melissa Crane (HB), Kim Gaetz (EPI), Pooja Jani (PHLP), Jayne Jeffries (HB), Mona Kilany (HPM), Kyle Messier (ESE), Justin Milner (NUTR) and Marie Patane Curtis (ESE). Messier also won the award in 2013.

Maiko Arashiro

Melissa Crane

Kim Gaetz

Pooja Jani

Jayne Jeffries

Mona Kilany

Kyle Messier

Justin Milner

Marie Patane Curtis

Master’s students Emilia Ndely, Daniel Douthit and Camille Grant were members of a HPM team that claimed first prize in the 19th annual Everett V. Fox Student Case Competition, hosted in October 2014 by the National Association of Healthcare Services Executives. Keenan Jones, Mary Winters and Christopher DelGrosso, also HPM master’s students, took first place in February at the ninth annual Health Administration Case Competition, hosted by the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Read more about case competitions in “Winning the case race — again!”

Four BIOS students were among 20 selected for the Distinguished Student Paper Award, presented
by the Eastern North American Region (ENAR) of the International Biometric Society. They are Guanhua Chen, PhD (now assistant professor at Vanderbilt), Eunjee Lee, Lu Mao and Thomas Stewart. The winners were recognized at the annual ENAR spring meeting in March.

Winners of ENAR’s Distinguished Student Paper Award posed in February with their advisers. On the front row (l-r) are Tom Stewart, Eunjee Lee and Lu Mao. (Not pictured is Dr. Guanhua Chen.) On the back row (l-r) are Drs. Joseph Ibrahaim, Hongtu Zhu and Danya Lin, biostatistics professors.

Heather Altman

Heather Altman, MPH, 1999 HB alumna and current student in the School’s Executive Doctoral Program in Health Leadership, received the UNC Institute on Aging’s Gordon H. DeFriese Career Development in Aging Research Award in February.

William Chapman

Seal the Seasons, a for-profit social enterprise co-founded by NUTR master’s student William Chapman, won the 2015 SECU Emerging Issues Prize for Innovation Feb. 10. Chapman and fellow founders Daniella Uslan, program manager at the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, and Patrick Mateer, a UNC undergraduate, will use the $50,000 prize to increase the amount of locally produced food in mainstream supply chains and eliminate food deserts by chopping, flash-freezing and distributing produce mainstream groceries choose not to purchase.

Dr. Anne Justice

Dr. Vineet Menachery

Anne Justice, PhD, and Vineet Menachery, PhD, postdoctoral fellows in EPI, received UNC’s 2014 Postdoctoral Awards for Research Excellence.

Dr. Jessica Pepper

Jessica Pepper, PhD, postdoctoral research associate at UNC’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and 2014 Gillings School alumna, received the Society of Behavioral Medicine’s Outstanding Dissertation Award for her research on e-cigarettes.

Annmarie Walton

AnnMarie Walton, MPH, BSN, Gillings School alumna and now doctoral candidate in nursing at University of Utah, was selected in fall 2014 as one of ten nurses nationwide to receive the new Breakthrough Leaders in Nursing award, presented by the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, a joint initiative of AARP and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

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