Awards and recognitions (Fall, 2011)

December 27, 2011

FACULTY

Dr. Wizdom Powell Hammond

Powell Hammond selected as White House Fellow

Wizdom Powell Hammond, PhD, assistant professor of health behavior and health education, was named to the 2011- 2012 class of White House Fellows, serving in the U.S. Department of Defense. Read more at http://tinyurl.com/powell-hammond.

Dr. Eugenia Eng

Eng receives ASPH/Pfizer award

Eugenia (Geni) Eng, DrPH, professor of health behavior and health education, received the 2011 Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH)/Pfizer Faculty Award for Excellence in Academic Public Health Practice. The award recognizes those whose careers have advanced and integrated scholarly public health practice through research, teaching and service.

Dr. Bahjat Qaqish

Qaqish wins author award

Bahjat Qaqish, MD, PhD, associate professor of biostatistics, received the American Society of Radiologic Technologists’ Jean I. Widger Distinguished Author Award. He co-authored “Survey of R.T.s with doctorates: Barriers to conducting research,” which appeared in the May/June 2010 issue of the journal Radiologic Technology.

Dr. Noel Brewer

Brewer wins Hettleman Prize

Noel Brewer, PhD, associate professor of health behavior and health education, received the 2011 Hettleman Prize for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement by Young Faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill. Brewer conducts research that is “demanding, meticulous, creative” and that influences disciplines far beyond the field of public health, says department chair Jo Anne Earp, ScD.

Dr. Barry Popkin

Popkin named Kenan Professor, wins lifetime achievement award

Barry Popkin, PhD, was named a W.R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of nutrition, effective July 1. The Kenan Professorship is an endowed faculty position awarded to outstanding scholars and teachers. Popkin has been a nutrition faculty member at UNC since 1977.

Popkin also received the Obesity Society’s 2011 Mickey Stunkard Lifetime Achievement Award, presented to those who have made outstanding contributions to the field of obesity through scholarship, mentorship and education. He presented the Stunkard Lecture at the Society’s 2011 meeting, held Oct. 1-5 in Orlando, Fla.

Dr. Bonnie Rogers

Rogers to lead NIOSH board

Bonnie Rogers, DrPH, associate professor of public health leadership and nursing, was appointed in June as chair of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s Board of Scientific Counselors. NIOSH is part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Amanda Holliday

Dr. Jon Hussey

Dr. Gerardo Heiss

Heiss, Hussey and Holliday honored for
teaching and mentorship

Three faculty members were honored at the School’s May 7 commencement for their roles in developing the next generation of public health leaders. Gerardo Heiss, MD, PhD, was presented with the John E. Larsh Jr. Award for Mentorship, and Jon Hussey, PhD, and Amanda Holliday, MS, received the Edward G. McGavran Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Dr. Michael Aitken

Dr. Andrew Olshan

Aitken and Olshan reappointed as chairs

Michael Aitken, PhD, professor of environmental sciences and engineering, and Andrew Olshan, PhD, professor of epidemiology, have been reappointed for five years as chairs of their respective departments. Dean Barbara K. Rimer praised them as ‘outstanding’ leaders. Both began their terms as chairs in 2006.

Dr. Anthony Viera

Viera honored with faculty award

Anthony Viera, MD, MPH, received the UNC School of Medicine’s Dr. James W. Woods Junior Faculty Award. Viera is co-associate director of the Health Care and Prevention Master of Public Health concentration in the School’s Public Health Leadership Program. His current research examines better ways to measure blood pressure and assess people’s overall cardiovascular disease risk

STUDENTS

Bonnie Lyon

Dori Steinberg

Claire Lin, MHS

Fifteen students received 2011-2012 Gillings Merit Scholarships.

They are Valerie Smith (biostatistics); Wendy Marth (environmental sciences and engineering); Alexandre Lockhart (epidemiology); Marissa Hall and Lauren Mary Hill (health behavior and health education); Autumn Locklear, Makenzie McIntosh, LeVelton Thomas and Kerone Walker (health policy and management); Molly Ruben and Melissa Sanchez (maternal and child health); Stephanie Mazzucca and Emma Tzioumis (nutrition); and Jennifer Neumann and Scott Owens (Public Health Leadership Program).

Representatives from UNC’s Department of Biostatistics were in top form at the 2011
Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM), held July 30 – Aug. 4 in Miami. Graduate students won
a video competition, a statistics team bowl competition and individual bowl awards. Participants in the video, “A Statistical New World,” included director Diana Lam and fellow students Eric Jay Daza, Christian Douglas, Alison Wise, Jennifer Clark, Suprateek Kundu and Annie Green Howard. The JSM is the largest gathering of statisticians held in North America, attracting more than 6,000 people. The video is available at http://tinyurl.com/StatisticalNewWorld.

Pearl Kaplan

Pearl Kaplan, master’s degree candidate in environmental sciences and engineering, received a Fulbright grant to conduct research in Montréal, Canada, on the toxicity of ozonated wastewater containing pharmaceuticals.

Elaine Lo, second-year Master of Public Health student in health behavior and health education, was selected for the Graduate Education Diversity Internship Program, sponsored by the American Evaluation Association.

Bonnie Lyon and Dori Steinberg received 2011-2012 Gillings Dissertation Awards to advance their dissertation research. Lyon, in environmental sciences and engineering, is evaluating public health impact of ultraviolet treatment of water. Steinberg, in nutrition, studies whether daily self-weighing by adults affects weight loss.

Shoshana Goldberg

Shoshana Goldberg, master’s student in maternal and child health, was selected as an American Public Health Association (APHA) student fellow for 2011-2012.

Diana Chirovsky, MS

Diana Chirovsky, MS, and Ching-Ching (Claire) Lin, MHS, health policy and management doctoral students, received fellowships in global health economics and outcomes research sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS).
Dio Kavalieratos, doctoral candidate in health policy and management, was selected for a one-year term as the student member on the American Journal of Public Health editorial board.

Anand Kurup, a health policy and management student in the School’s executive doctoral program in health leadership, was first prize winner in the public health section of the 2011 British Medical Book Awards. A resident of Geneva, Kurup was recognized by the British Medical Association for Equity, Social Determinants and Public Health Programmes, co-authored with Erik Blas (World Health Organization, 2010).

ALUMNI

A 1999 alumnus of UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health was named Haiti’s prime minister on Oct. 4. Garry Conille, MD, MPH, senior U.N. development specialist and former aide to president Bill Clinton, received a Master of Public Health degree in health policy and administration (now HPM). He most recently served with the U.N. in Niger and as an adjunct research scientist on community health care at Columbia University Earth Institute.

Denise Jean Jamieson, MD, MPH, 1991 maternal and child health alumna, received one of UNC’s five 2011 Distinguished Alumni Awards. She accepted the award on Oct. 12, during University Day, an annual event commemorating the University’s founding.

Emma Din, a May 2011 health policy and management graduate, received a Fulbright fellowship to teach English in Colombia from July 2011 to May 2012.

Three recent alumnae received fellowships from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Undergraduate alumnae Rachele Bowman (2010) and Katie Byerly (2011) are part of the CDC’s Public Health Associate Program. Elise Lockamy, MSPH (2011), was awarded a three-year CDC Public Health Prevention Service Fellowship.

Alyzza Dill, health policy and management alumna, was selected as a 2011 Barbara Jordan Health Scholar. She served during the summer in the office of U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., of Illinois, learning about health policy issues that affect racial and ethnic minorities and underserved communities.

Mahyar Mofidi, PhD, DMD, received the Junior Officer of the Year Award from the United States Public Health Services Commissioned Corps. Mofidi received master’s (2000) and doctoral (2005) degrees from the School. He serves as chief dental officer for the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration’s HIV/AIDS Bureau.

Curt Rhodes, PhD, founder and international director of Questscope, a nonprofit social development organization, was named a Social Entrepreneur of the Year in October 2011 by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. Rhodes received a master’s degree in parasitology and laboratory practice from the School in 1976.

STAFF

Brittan Wood

Lisa Perry

Brittan Williams Wood, MPH, received the Charles G. Jordan Memorial Award at the N.C. Public Health Association/Southern Health Association joint conference in Charlotte, N.C., on Sept. 22. Wood, accreditation administrator with the School’s N.C. Institute for Public Health, also won the N.C. Public Health Association’s Special Award and “Public Health All Star” citation.

Lisa Perry, maternal and child health business manager, received the School’s 2011 Staff Excellence Award. The annual award recognizes excellent attitude, leadership and outstanding initiative.

Charletta Sims Evans

Charletta Sims Evans, MEd, was named the School’s new assistant dean for student affairs, effective Oct. 3. Evans leads the Office of Student Affairs, providing student outreach and recruitment, advising and counseling on academic and career choices, managing orientations and commencement, and conducting other duties. She succeeds Felicia Mebane, PhD, who had served in the position since 2005.

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 www.sph.unc.edu/cph.