October 2012 — April 2013 awards and recognitions
May 6, 2013
Dr. Greg Allgood
Greg Allgood, PhD, alumnus and director of Procter and Gamble’s Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program, was one of 17 celebrities and clean water advocates who climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in January to draw attention to the nearly one billion people in the world without access to clean drinking water.
Dr. Greg Characklis
Gregory Characklis, PhD, professor of environmental sciences and engineering and director of the UNC Institute for the Environment’s Center for Watershed Science and Management, was elected to the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP) board of directors.
Dr. Myron C. Cohen
Myron S. Cohen, MD, J. Herbert Bate Distinguished Professor of medicine, microbiology and immunology in the School of Medicine and professor of epidemiology at the Gillings School, was elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine. Cohen also was named “Tar Heel of the Year” by the Raleigh (N.C.) News and Observer, for his extensive research in AIDS prevention and treatment.
Dr. Leah Devlin
Leah Devlin, DDS, MPH, was elected to the board of directors of the National Foundation for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Devlin is Professor of the Practice of health policy and management and former N.C. State Health Director.
The Environmental Sciences and Engineering Student Organization (ENVRSO) and A Drink for Tomorrow are the 2013 winners of the Gillings Student Organization Service Project Award. Each group received $1,500 to help its members reach program goals. ENVRSO aims to improve N.C. middle school education in science and technology; Drink for Tomorrow works internationally to promote sustainable clean drinking water projects.
Dr. Rebecca Fry
Rebecca Fry, PhD, assistant professor of environmental sciences and engineering, will serve a three-year term on the National Research Council’s committee on inorganic arsenic, providing expert guidance to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Dr. Shelley Golden
Dr. Jo Anne Earp
Shelley Golden, MPH, and Jo Anne Earp, ScD, lecturer and professor, respectively, in health behavior, co-wrote an article that received the Lawrence W. Green Paper of the Year award at the annual meeting of the Society for Public Health Education, held Oct. 25-27, 2012, in San Francisco. The article was published in the June 2012 issue of Health Education and Behavior.
Dr. Sandra B. Greene
Sandra B. Greene, DrPH, Professor of the Practice in health policy and management (HPM) was reappointed in December 2012 for a two-year term on the N.C. State Health Coordinating Council in Raleigh. Greene also was appointed interim chair of HPM in April.
Denise Hallfors, PhD, adjunct professor of maternal and child health (MCH) and senior research scientist at Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, and Carolyn Halpern, PhD, MCH professor, co-authored a paper that won the American Journal of Public Health’s (AJPH) 2012 “Paper of the Year” award. The study, published in the June 2011 AJPH, examined the support of adolescent orphan girls in Zimbabwe to stay in school as a way to decrease HIV risk.
Health policy and management students took first prize at three national case competitions this academic year. Health-care strategists include Jordan McInerney and Marissa Noles (Humana Case Competition), and Jessica Johnson, LeVelton Thomas and Christina Lomax (National Association of Health Services Executives’ Everett V. Fox competition), who won events last October, and Kelley Lamb, Cayla Wigfall and Eric Ransom, who won University of Alabama at Birmingham’s annual case competition on Feb. 28.
Dr. Amy Herring
Amy Herring, ScD, professor of biostatistics, received the prestigious Mortimer Spiegelman Award from the American Public Health Association’s (APHA) statistics section. Herring was recognized Oct. 30 at APHA’s 140th annual meeting and exposition in San Francisco.
Dr. Mark Holmes
Mark Holmes, PhD, assistant professor of health policy and management, was elected chair of the editorial board of The Journal of Rural Health. He began his one-year term on Jan. 1.
Dr. Dio Kavalieratos
Dio Kavalieratos, PhD, December 2012 health policy and management graduate, was selected by The American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) to receive the organization’s Young Investigator Award. He presented his paper at AAHPM’s annual assembly on March 16 in New Orleans.
Dr. Richard A. Luettich Jr.
Richard A. Luettich Jr., ScD, professor of environmental sciences and engineering, received the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Impact Award for his work in predicting water heights and flooding in coastal areas during Hurricane Irene in 2011.
Dr. Elizabeth Mayer-Davis
Elizabeth Mayer-Davis, PhD, nutrition professor, was appointed interim department chair, effective June 1. She succeeds June Stevens, PhD, distinguished professor and chair since 2006.
Yang Chen, Camille McGirt and Reena Gupta (l-r) laimed second prize at Carolina Challenge. (Photo by Patrick Vernon)
Camille McGirt, senior health policy and management major, was one of 17 college students across the state to receive the N.C. Campus Compact’s Community Impact Award last fall. The award recognizes college students who make significant, innovative efforts to address local community needs. McGirt, founder of Healthy Girls Save the World, a program that educates girls about nutrition and physical activity, also received the 2013 University Award for the Advancement of Women and placed second at the 2013 Carolina Challenge.
Sherry Rhodes, director of student services, received the School’s 2012 Staff Excellence Award, which recognizes an employee whose work demonstrates impact and a focus on the core values of the School. Rhodes has worked at the School since 1993.
Sanitation Creations, an entrepreneurial venture founded and led by Gillings School alumna Liz Morris, MS, was second runner-up in the inaugural UNC Social Business Conference, held Sept. 27, 2012, at N.C. A&T State University in Greensboro, N.C., and alumni-track winner of UNC’s Carolina Challenge in April. Sanitation Creations developed the Dungaroo, an environmentally friendly portable toilet.
Dr. Pranab Kumar Sen
Pranab Kumar Sen, PhD, Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor of biostatistics, was the featured speaker at the 23rd annual Pfizer Colloquium Series at the University of Connecticut -Storrs Nov. 1-2, 2012.
Dr. Anna Maria Siega-Riz
Anna Maria Siega-Riz, PhD, professor of epidemiology and nutrition and associate dean for academic affairs, was named for a three-year term as member of the advisory council for the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
Dr. Jason Surratt
Jason Surratt, PhD, ESE assistant professor, received the Walter A. Rosenblith New Investigator Award from the Health Effects Institute. (Learn more about Surratt.)
School leaders presented Teaching Innovation Awards last fall to develop or improve classes in 2013 and 2014. Awardees included Alice Ammerman, Daniel Pomp, Timothy Jay Carney, Shelley Golden, Sue Hobbs, Deborah Tate, Kurt Ribisl, Anita Farel, Rohit Ramaswamy, James Porto Jr., Jay S. Levy, and Kathy Roggenkamp.
David Richardson, Anthony Viera, Orlando Coronell, John Paul, Kurt Ribisl, Amy Herring, Marcia Roth and Amanda Holliday received Teaching Innovation Awards on Jan. 29. Their students voted for faculty members who “improve the learning environment by integrating new technologies, engaging students in interactive activities, and introducing and incorporating progressive curriculum ideas into the classroom.”
Carmina Valle, PhD, a December 2012 nutrition alumna, received the Society of Behavioral Medicine Outstanding Dissertation Award for 2013. Valle is now a postdoctoral fellow in the cancer health disparities training program at the Gillings School.
Dr. Anthony Viera
Anthony Viera, MD, MPH, 2006 School alumnus, has received the inaugural Charles Baynes Wilkerson Distinguished Professorship in Family Medicine in UNC’s School of Medicine. Viera directs the Health Care and Prevention Master of Public Health degree program in the Public Health Leadership Program and is associate professor of family medicine in UNC’s medical school.
Dr. John Wiesman
John Wiesman, DrPH, health policy and management alumnus, was appointed to serve as Washington State’s Secretary of Health, effective March 12.
Dr. Steven Zeisel
Steven Zeisel, MD, PhD, and Wilbur Milhous, PhD, respectively, received the Bernard G. Greenberg Alumni Endowment Award and Harriet Hylton Barr Distinguished Alumni Award. Zeisel, Kenan Distinguished Professor of nutrition and director of the Nutrition Research Institute in Kannapolis, N.C., and Milhous, professor and associate dean for research at the University of South Florida’s College of Public Health, accepted their awards at the 45th annual Fred T. Foard Jr. Memorial Lecture on April 11.
Carolina Public Health is a publication of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health. To view previous issues, please visit sph.unc.edu/cph.
